Maps of the french team training camp in Sisteron

Let's begin with the long distance. The race was a test for the junior and senior team. We ran it on Saturday afternoon with a nice and sunny weather. Camelback and energy gels were required to dominate the 14km and the 650m of climbing for the M21. To give you an idea, Thierry Gueorgiou ran it in a very strong 93min... The others could just see him catch and pass them. 2 butterflys allowed to dispatch the runners.
One note : on the 19th controls, the best route choice was straight by a mere 1 min compared to the route choice using the road.

After such a race, it was difficult to take part to the night training on the evening, but it is also pleasant to run by night on an open area with a starry sky.
On Sunday morning was organised 2 sprints and one other training(long choices mixed with closed controls).
Here are my route on the sprints.Splits showed that for the 1st control it was faster to take by the south of the field. Attack was easier and there was a good runnability until the slope below the control. I did a mistake of 20" on the 4th. It was certainly better to take directly the field by leaving the 6th but I was attracted by the deep stream.

Legs were very heavy after the first sprint and the hard saturday. I had a big lack of power on the muddy(yes even if the sun shined, the earth was wet in some place) and sandy ground.
I lost time(around 20") on the 6th control because I choosed a bad route and I had to climb to much. It was in fact better to go almost straight. On the 7th I took on the right not to have to cross deep and unrunnable reentrant. Attack was safer and on the end of the race it could have been a smart decision to avoid big mistake.

To finish for this week-end, the coach planned a training on a new map. There were just a few runners who completed this whole course.
note : I drew one choice in blue wich Thierry took and seems to be the fastest even if the attack is not easy at all.

Vinc'