Race Report: 1er Trail Blanc de Dévoluy

It’s the depth of winter here in the French Alps and the snow is deep and for most people the race calendar is fairly empty as most people turn to skiing and snowboarding to pass their leisure time. The nearest big ski resort to me however, Super Dévoluy, was hosting a 10km trail race on the local cross country ski trails and so I thought I would take a look to keep some motivation to my training which has fallen by the wayside of late.

Things didn’t get off to a good start as we had several feet of heavy snow overnight, and it continued in the morning meaning the first job was to dig out the car and hope the main roads had been cleared. Luckily the ploughs had been out, and I have winter tyres so even though the usual 45 minute drive took me over an hour, I pretty much got there in one piece.

It was pretty difficult to find the start though, as it was set in a new sports hall that wasn’t signposted yet, so as so often seems to happen to me, I ended up having to run to the start line. Not the best prep but its only 10k – what can go wrong?

 Strava Race Data

Race Photos

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Shivering at the start line
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The first real climb after leaving the XC ski trails
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More climbing in deep snow
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A few stragglers coming in at the finish

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