Cross-country skiing: Les Bleus fine-tune their final preparations in Corrençon-en-Vercors
Since 14 October, theFrench men’s cross-country skiing team has been on its final training camp of the preparation period on ski-wheels at Corrençon-en-Vercors (Isère). Before hitting the snow again in ten days’ time on the snowfarm at Bessans (Savoie), the Tricolores were able to fine-tune their equipment in this final stretch before winter.
“We’re really at the end of a very long preparation cycle that began in May. We were constantly trying to push the limits, Thibaut Chêne, Les Bleus coach, told Nordic Magazine. The result is that we’ve gone a long way in terms of intensity and we’ve tried a lot of things in training. Now it’s time to develop what we’re doing. We’re going to enter the competition season slowly but surely.”
“We had an excellent course, staying at ZeCamp and having all the facilities we needed”Richard Jouve at Nordic Magazine
This latest event in Isère is now a regular feature on the French calendar, right in the middle of autumn. “The results are pretty good. We had an excellent course, staying at ZeCamp and having all the facilities we needed to make as few bus journeys as possible. We’ve also got into the habit of doing our last course before the snow here,”explains Richard Jouve. As far as I’m concerned, the course went well, even though I fell during an intense session at the end of the fortnight. So my ribs are a bit sore, but that shouldn’t last long.”
Small injuries are not uncommon at a time when the athletes have to digest all the fatigue they have generated over the summer: “In October, and this is often the case with all the groups, there is a little more pressure. We can feel that this happens with athletes who are a little more in tune with their sensations,” confirms the coach from Haute-Alpes.
Present with his team-mates in the Vercors, Hugo Lapalus also enjoyed this final block of road work. “We’re in a place that’s conducive to good work. The ski-wheel track is next door, we’ve also got the weight room and we can go running without taking the bus, he says. We’re also going to be putting on skis in about ten days’ time, so it’s cool. The motivation is there and we should only get fitter between now and then.”
Mathis Desloges at home
“We’ve worked really well over the last few days, added his compatriot Jules Chappaz. We’ve been able to make the most of the track and do some intense laps where we’re banging into each other [Laughs]! We’re not so much in control as we are ‘all in’.”
Mathis Desloges, on the other hand, took advantage of this training camp to “show his mates around” the roads where he spends many hours during his preparation: “It was an intensive fortnight. The aim was to get used to the race pace that we’ll be using again this winter. It was at home, so I certainly know the terrain,” he explains.
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