Season's End: Closing Out the Biathlon Season While Looking Ahead
Chasing the final podiums, racing in the toughest conditions, and toasting unforgettable teammates to finish off this challenging Biathlon season.
Getting back on the podium in my last bithlon race was such an amazing feeling, after a whole month of racing off this was one of the best achievements so far during this season. Sadly, though, after having heard the news from the French ski federation that no one would be rejoining the international IBU Cup circuits following that event, it meant that I would be stuck in France for the remainder of the year. It’s a shame because I have proved to them that my form was rising, but the French calendar was still very interesting, with some great races still up for grabs.
Quick stop by the medical centre
After my troubles with my compartment syndrome, I thought that my winter at the medical centre would be over, but no. After a 15km run back in February during the French Cup that I skipped in La Féclaz, I started feeling an enormous pain deep in my right hip. So painful, in fact, that the evening after my run, I was unable to press down and walk on that leg. It wasn’t the first time I had felt this; during my two final races at the IBU Cup in Osrblie, I also had a weird pain in my hip. It’s an extremely weird pain because the morning after my run, it had already left my body. But on random occasions since then, it comes back, and when it does, it’s painful.
So I was off to the medical centre in Albertville to get it looked at a little closer. We were looking for the start of a fracture de fatigue in my hip bone/insertions, but didn’t find anything at all on the X-ray. It’s frustrating because when you feel such pain, you would quite like to figure out where it is coming from. This meant the next step was an IRM scan, trying to find a pubalgia on the left hip and a conflict crural on the right one. These scans will come later on in the month, though, so you’ll have to read further down to see if results or conclusions were made ;).
Who said cross-country skiing races?!
I said that March was going to be an amazing month of racing, didn’t I! First up was going to be switching sides for one weekend and racing in the SAMSE National Tour Ski de Fond. It had been two years since I was last on a cross-country skiing race weekend, and I was so excited. When I race in biathlon, even though I don’t particularly feel it, there is always some kind of pressure, especially on race selection weekends when you know your every move is being scrutinised by the coaches. Cross country, however, is a completely different story, no pressure, no particular result objectives, just fun and full-on high-intensity racing from start to finish. This weekend was going to be pretty particular because on the Saturday, I would be racing in Prémanon in the French cup and then on the Sunday, I would be back at home in Les Contamines, racing in the local cup. Lots of driving at not much rest, but these races are for me to have fun in, so I didn’t really mind.
Prémanon was first, though, and I’d like to start off by saying a massive thank you to the Comité de Ski du Mont Blanc for hosting me on the Friday evening, but also for preparing and waxing my skis on race day. Extremely grateful for their help. It was a strange feeling being around all the cross-country skiers because, compared to us, this was a pretty important selection weekend for them, so they were all feeling quite a lot of pressure. After having looked at the start list the night before the race, I also had added a little bit of pressure on myself. I’d calculated that Quentin Fillon Maillet would be finishing his first of 4 laps as I would be starting the race. This meant that if my timing was correct, I would try and stick behind him for the first three laps of my race.
I was 80% correct. Sitting in the start gate watching the timer count down until my start time, I could see Quentin quickly coming over the hill and starting his second lap. He passed me, continued on about 150m and then I was off. Now, 150m might not seem like much, and when I left the start gate a full speed to catch him up, I didn’t think it was that much either, but little did I know that that small 45sec effort to close the gap would cost me big seconds on the last laps. I stuck behind him for as long as I could. It was an amazing feeling, on the biathlon world cup circuit, he’s one of the top 5 skiers, so I knew that the longer I stayed with him, the better my finishing time would be. One lap went by, I was still feeling alright, and then as we started our second lap together, he accelerated, and I was no longer able to follow. I was happy with my effort, though, and didn’t regret trying to stay with him for as long as I did.
It was an amazing race, and even though I didn’t get the result I wanted, some of my biathlon teammates did. Judicaël, who raced in the U20, beat every cross-country skier there that day to win the race, an amazing achievement that had quite a lot of his competitors grinning. France Pignot, who's also part of my team but on the cross-country skiing part, achieved her best result all winter in the women's senior event, promising her a selection for the next international events. All round a great day for the team. I and the other biathletes had to quickly hop into a car and head home, though, because I was racing the next day and wanted some rest.
Local cups are the best
In the end, not much rest was achieved that afternoon and even worse generally at these local events the oldest leave right at the end of the event so near luch time which would mean I could wake up late to get to my race but for some reason they had switched the start list and I would be leaving at 8h30, my earliest start of the year. The race was two hours away, so when my alarm rang at 5h30 that morning, I was not in any mood to race. This didn’t get any better when I turned up to the race, and the course was sheet ice. Sheet ice is amazing for alpine skiers, but a cross-country skier’s nightmare. I’m happy I have quite some good skills due to my age, but these local races are aimed and kids and teenagers, and I feel sorry for them because it is not going to be easy.
My main competitor was the same as last time on the local cup, Mr Benoit Chauvet. He would leave right behind me, 15 secs, which for me is the worst possible scenario, he can see me the whole time and has something to catch up to. That’s exactly what he did. I managed to keep him away for the first three laps of our 10km race, but by the start of the 4th lap, I could hear him right behind me in my skis. I knew I wouldn’t win, but that didn’t mean I gave up; we raced together for most of the final lap and then on the last hill, I put in a big sprint to try to distance him before the line, and I did. Not enough to beat him, however, enough for me to say I won the sprint haha. P2 on the line and another really fun race to add to the list.
Small rest before the final races
We had a week off after two great weeks of racing in the biathlon cup, and then the amazing cross-country weekend. It was time to rest up and focus on the last two big objectives of the year, the final of the French Cup and the French championships, to finish the year. This late in the season, you no longer need to put in quite as much training as you usually do. Just keeping a small base and a couple of high-intensity sessions is enough for your body to stay focused and ready to race. I was doing a lot of running throughout this week at home, getting ready for an objective I’ve been preparing for since mid-February, but you’ll have to find out more by reading my next newsletter on this at the end of this week ;)
I also managed to get my MRI scan in during my time at home, a quick trip to annecy meant I was able to go running by the lake as well which at this time of the year is really enjoyable because there aren’t to many cyclist in the way yet and the temperature is generally quite pleasnent. I went for a scan on my hips and came out with the doctor saying my back was f*cked. After two hip scans, the doctor told me to stay lying down for one last scan on my back because, in the first images, he could see something was off. Something was indeed off, but nothing new; I have Scheuermann’s disease, which means my vertebrae and disk aren’t in the best of shape, but this isn’t anything new. He didn’t find anything conclusive that would be causing me pain in the hips, so in the end told me just to be a little more careful with my training until the end of the year.
Chaos in Peisey Vallandry
For the last 2 years, the French Cup has had a stop in the high-altitude cross-country resort of Peisey Vallandry. It’s a great place to train, right at the end of a generally very snowy valley. The previous two years we’ve been here, the average temperature over the race weekends was -15°C, which is extremely cold for us, borderline with the limit, which is -20°C when we are no longer allowed to race. Racing in these temperatures can cause permanent lung damage and also isn’t good for our rifles. However, this year the gods have decided otherwise, and the average announced temperature is 10°C. This isn’t great for completely different reasons. Unstable course conditions, wet snow and overheating (this comes quickly when you are used to racing in winter conditions).
I was coming into this weekend with some good feelings, my previous biathlon race ended in a podium in Prémanon, training had gone well, and the shooting was flowing great throughout the previous week of training. The conditions on the track were horrendous, very deep and wet snow, it was shaping up to be one of the hardest races of the year. I was happy because I had bib number 6, which meant that I would, in theory, have one of the better course conditions leaving early on, but this wasn’t really the case. The U17 and the women had races before us, and the course was already in a state that couldn’t really get any worse. It’s the same for everyone, though, and you just have to get on with it.
As soon as I left the start gate, though, I felt a problem; my skis were slow, very slow. I didn’t make a wrong ski choice all year, but today I did and a big one. I had chosen wet skis but not full wet, and Rossignol grinds are very specific, and you don’t really want to mess your choice up. It started raining during the race, and my pace was just getting slower and slower. It’s frustrating because I felt good and shot at 9/10, one of my best scores all winter. The race was hard the everyone, and as predicted, ended up being one of the slowest 10km sprint races we’ve ever done.
Pursuit was up next, and following the sprint times, they had shortened the track by about 150m each lap, and it had also snowed overnight, so the race was much easier. I was in full catch-up mode after my disappointing sprint and was chasing after my competitors quickly on each lap. I ended a great race with one of the best isolated pursuit times of the day. This pursuit was a little emotional because Ambroise Meunier, an old teammate of mine last year in the French national squad, was retiring, and this was going to be his final race. Everyone waited for him to finish in the end zone, and we popped lots of champagne to celebrate his amazing career.
Quick business stop at the GEM Altigliss Challenge
Earlier on in the season, I was approached by my school, Grenoble Ecole de Management, to see if I wanted to attend and represent the professional athletes from the school at a pretty major event, which is run by one of the student associations at GEM. This event was in La Plagne, and as it turned out, it fitted in perfectly with my calendar because La Plagne was only a 35-minute drive from Peisey Vallandry, so it meant I'd be able to do both events one after the other without too much hassle. The event I was attending was the GEM Altigliss Challenge, also known as the Student Ski World Cup. It's one of the oldest student sports events, run in France, and also the only winter sports event for students. So I was very excited to attend. I wouldn't be competing because it's only open to people who attend schools full-time, which I do not, but I was there to talk to the media and just see what was going on and make some content around the event.
My first day at the event was just focused on talking to lots of the media representing the school. I wasn't the only professional athlete there, there were two of us. I was accompanied by a top-level bobsleigher whom I hadn't met before, so it was very fun to be able to catch up with him. That evening, we watched one of the famous artists, Joker, who was invited to perform at the event. But the more interesting day for me would be on Tuesday, because that morning I managed to pick up a lift pass and go skiing in La Plagne, which was amazing, because La Plagne is one of the biggest ski resorts in the world, part of the Paradis Ski area. I was very excited to ski around and discover something other than where I'm used to skiing in the Portes du Soleil. Then, after that, they had a biathlon event on, so I switched my alpine skis for some cross-country skis and went to watch and help out at the biathlon event. It was very fun to see all the students trying out my sport, and even more fun to see them failing and realising how hard biathlon actually is, especially because we were sitting at 2000m elevation, which is not easy to do in endurance sports. Lots of these people had been drinking heavily all throughout the week already, and this wasn't easy for them at all.
I was home later that evening, already packing because the day after, I'd be travelling to Oslo for the Biathlon World Cup final as a spectator. You can find out everything that I was up to in Oslo in a special edition of my newsletter, which I published last week. Be sure to check it out after having finished reading this one. It's an amazing read, and you will find out everything I was up to in the beautiful Norwegian capital.
French National Championships
Oslo was amazing, so amazing in fact I came back the tiredest I’ve been all winter, not the best preparation for the French national championships. I flew home on the Wednesday evening, which left me a good couple of days to rest up and get ready for the weekend. The French Champs is a 4-day race weekend with everything from cross country to biathlon races all at the same time in the same place. This year we were in Les Saisies, honestly a perfect venue, loads of snow and the resort had done loads of work on their shooting range last summer. The U17 start the week off on Thursday and Friday before we enter the ring on the weekend. Saturday is a team relay with each relay having a U17, a U19 and a Senior/U22. This makes for some really great racing with each age group being represented.
My local team only had 5 U19, so that meant we wouldn’t be able to sign up that many teams, frustrating because we are 10 Senior/U22 athletes in the team. Following my trip, I was still really tired, so I wouldn’t be racing. Along with the other non-racers, we went up early to get our pre-race session in before our race on Sunday and to watch the relay following our training. The conditions were really grim, lots of mist and fog, and we couldn’t see anything. The session went horribly as well, I didn’t feel this bad all year. I definitely wasn’t able to race today and probably should have stayed back resting instead of doing a shake-out ski. Our teams did good in the relays, claiming two spots on the men’s podium and two on the women's podium, great results for everyone and made for some great team pîctures in the finish area.
No partying just yet because we still have our Mass Start to race. We were the last race of the day. It’s important to note that the French Champs are a massive event for the Nordic world in France; tens of thousands of people turn up every year to race, and it makes for some amazing races with loads of people cheering. There are often more people here than on the IBU Cup circuit. As an athlete, it’s the closest we get to feeling like we are racing on the WC. It’s amazing.
My race went much better than anticipated, especially after the pre-race session I had done the day before. After my four shots, I exited the final standing with my teammate Paul Fontaine. I'm saying this because today would mark Paul Fontaine's last race, because he would be retiring at the end of this last. Paul is an athlete whom I've trained with my whole career. I've been with him ever since my first days as part of our regional team. He then joined me on the French team for three years before being kicked out at the same time as me last spring. So it was very emotional being able to do my last lap around the racetrack with him. He was soaking in all the encouragement from his family and his friends who had come to watch, and I was very happy to ski alongside him and cross the line with him on his last lap. Today was also the last race for Mathieu Perrillat-Bottonet, another one of my very close friends and teammates whom I've raced and trained with over the last few years. Today's race wasn't just the French champs, but it was also celebrating their amazing careers and performances throughout the years of racing. We were waiting for them with lots of champagne and lots of alcohol at the finishing line to spray all over them and wish them farewell and good luck on their next adventures.
Crossing the line would mark the end of my biathlon season. We would then stay in Le Saisies to participate in the traditional end-of-season party, which often happens in the same town as the final race with all the athletes from the cross-country skiing circuit and the biathlon circuit. It's a great time to celebrate everyone's performances and to let go after such a stressful winter. I didn't party too hard, however, because on the 13th of April I would be racing in the Paris Marathon, an objective I've been preparing for a long time and I will be publishing a newsletter on this marathon at the end of this week where you'll be able to find out how I did, how I prepared for it, and everything that went into being ready for this big event.
Thank you very much, as usual, for staying with me throughout the end of this winter, and for reading this beautiful newsletter entry. It's much shorter than my Oslo adventure, but just as impactful, I hope. Be sure to follow me on Instagram, TikTok and Strava, if you want more up-to-date results, and stay around, because there are still three more newsletters to be published before the end of the year, with the Paris Marathon recap, my end of my season recap, and also the big news, which I can't wait to share about next season.