the essential
This weekend nearly 200 athletes of all levels will come to compete in Castres and Lacrouzette for the French mountain bike orienteering championship. The most “impressive” event, that of the sprint, will take place on Sunday April 21, at the Gourjade park, where the mountain bikers will arrive at full speed towards La Borde Basse.
“It’s like a giant treasure hunt!” This weekend nearly 200 athletes of all levels will come to compete in Castres and Lacrouzette for the French mountain bike orienteering championship. This sport is still little known in France and yet its rules are very simple: “The principle is to find markers using a map then choose the best route to get there”, explains Fabrice Hernandez, secretary of the Azimut Orientation Castres association, organizer of the event.
The association benefited from several local partners to host this championship. “We worked with Missegle to create socks that will be distributed to all participants,” says Fabrice. “We were immediately up for a local action which will energize the territory”, adds Olivier Billant, director of the Missegle company before adding: “In addition, we are in the middle of the first race which is taking place in Sidobre, so we had a lot of fun supporting this project.”
Nature, sport and strategy
The championship is divided into two events. On Saturday April 20 at 2 p.m., the long distance will start in Lacrouzette. “There can be up to 7 or 8 km between each marker, so the race time is rather long, between 1h30 and 2h,” explains Fabrice. Apart from the sporting aspect of the event, participants will have the chance to discover the natural heritage of Sidobre, with the local star present on the edition logo: the Peyro Clabado. The association describes the event as “a true paradise for nature and cycling lovers”.
On Sunday April 21 at 10 a.m. the sprint will be held at Gourjade Park. “Naturally, there is less distance between the markers and there is almost no difference in altitude, the difficulty of the event is to succeed in making a decision as quickly as possible to find which path to take, it “There’s not much time to think, the race lasts around 25 minutes”, describes Fabrice. The departure will be held at the Gourjade farm and the cyclists will look for their markers from the archipelago to Chemin des Martinets via La Borde Basse. “The site is open to the public, we will give as much warning as possible but we are already encouraging people to still remain vigilant. This event will surely be very impressive,” summarizes the association.
The prize giving will take place on Sunday at 12:30 p.m., collector flocked jerseys will be offered to the winners of each category. Fabrice and his entire association will be happy to welcome spectators who wish to discover this sport combining physics, strategy and discovery of local nature.
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