Cross-country skiing: final training sessions before the snow for Les Bleus
This October, the various training groups are getting together one last time before putting on their cross-country skis again in a few weeks’ time. The French cross-country ski team is no exception, with Alexandre Pouyé’s girls gathering from Monday at Prémanon (Jura) and Thibaut Chêne’s boys at Corrençon-en-Vercors (Isère).
In both cases, the B teams led by Vincent Vittoz (women) and Mathias Wibault (men) will also be taking part.
Two cross-country skiers are absent from the men’s camp: Clément Parisse from Haut-Savoie and Lucas Chanavat, whose preparation has been postponed because he will be back on snow in Livigno.
“Clément is concentrating on his career transition after his career as a high mountain guide, explains Alexandre Rousselet, head of the World Cup group, to Nordic Magazine. He’s got a bit of a long course to follow, so we’ve adjusted his programme so that he can do this alongside his training.”
On the women’s side, Léna Quintin, who has an ankle injury, and Juliette Ducordeau, who is recovering from illness, will be following a modified programme.
Snow in Bessans at the beginning of November
Alexandre Rousselet describes the programme in detail: “These are interesting courses with lots of work, he begins. The girls will be doing VO2 on the Prémanon mat. Otherwise, they’ll be doing the usual volume and intensity training on the Tuffes ski-wheel track. In Corrençon for the boys, it will be a similar programme with specific training and sprint and team sprint confrontations.”
After this training camp, scheduled to finish at the end of next week, Les Bleus will meet up again at the Bessans snowfarm (Savoie) from 3 to 12 November. Then it’s off to Scandinavia from 18 November.
“Last year, only the athletes went up to Beitostølen to do the races, but this time we’ll all be there as a team, enthuses the group boss. From there, we’ll transfer directly to Ruka and then Lillehammer for the start of the World Cup.”
- Photo album of the French men’s team at the Font-Romeu training camp
- In video, Lucas Chanavat reveals the day-to-day life of Les Bleus in training at Font-Romeu
- In Oberstdorf, Alexandre Pouyé’s French team will be training with the German cross-country skiers: “It was a preparation objective”.
