4th DYNAFIT MOONtain RACES COURCHEVEL - 31 July 2012

For their birthdays, Mireia Miro Varela and Cyrille Gardet treat themselves to the 4th stage.

A superb starry evening awaited the 92 trail runners this Tuesday 31 July for the 4th stage of the Dynafit Moontain Races Courchevel (DMRC). From 8.30 pm the start was given to the first runners, who set off one after another about twenty seconds apart in a time trial from the Courchevel 1650 tourist office to reach the Grand Plan refuge at 2,280 m altitude, passing through the natural site of La Rosière, the cascade des Poux and the vallon des Avals. On this 9.3 km course (100 m of elevation loss and 800 m of elevation gain), Baptiste Blanc, at just 10 years old, having been exceptionally allowed by the organisers to start, surprised everyone, and particularly his father, the refuge keeper, by finishing 39th with a time of 1h11min12s.

Also worth noting is the fine performance of Laurent Brochard, road cycling world champion (1997), in the middle of preparing for the Courchevel X-Trail and the CCC, who also stood out with a fine 5th place and the win in the V1 category in 52min43s.

A nice way to celebrate a birthday…

Both born on 31 July, the two ski mountaineering specialists Mireia Miro Varela and Cyrille Gardet took advantage of this full-moon night to treat themselves to victory in this 4th DMRC and celebrate the occasion in the mountains.

At 24, the Catalan Mireia Miro Varela of Team Salomon and reigning ski mountaineering world champion logically won in 1h00min01s ahead of Amélie Chataing in 1h04min09s and Claire Blanc-Gayrard of the Club Multi-sports d’Arêches Beaufort in 1h10min06.

Among the men, turning 22 did not stop Cyrille Gardet of Team Salomon espoir from winning in 50min11s, less than a minute off the course record held by Julien Rancon, who had been announced but was finally absent yesterday.

He finished ahead of Arnaud Bonnin of the club Amberieu Marathon in 51min30s and Aurelien Dunand Pallaz in 52min13s.