Mathieu Blanchard wins the Diagonale des fous for his first participation in the legendary ultra-trail event

He who professes “live adventure”in his eponymous book (Flammarion, 2023) has perhaps just experienced the best time of his career. At 36, ultra-trailer Mathieu Blanchard won the Grand Raid de la Réunion on Friday October 18, one of the most legendary events in the discipline. The French athlete was the first to cross the finish line in Saint-Denis-la-Réunion, after 23 hours and 25 minutes of effort on the “Diagonale des fous”, another name for this ultra-trail which pierces the island in the Indian Ocean and its mountain ranges from South to North.

Less than two months earlier, it is difficult to imagine that the trail runner established in Deux-Alpes (Isère) would raise his arms on Friday wearing the “official” jersey of the Reunion event – ​​the regulations require it – at the end of 175.3 km and more than 10,000 meters of elevation gain. At the end of August, Mathieu Blanchard had to throw in the towel during the Ultra-trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB), the premier race of his sport in which he twice occupied the podium (3^e in 2021 and 2^e the following year), victims of severe pain in an Achilles tendon. “I have an injury that has been dragging on for about three years, it goes up and down: sometimes I don’t have any pain, sometimes I have peaks of pain, that’s what happened to me this year on the ‘UTMB’explained the runner at a press conference before the Grand Raid. It spared him for his discovery of the Diagonale des fous, which he completed almost half an hour ahead of his first pursuer, the Swiss Jean-Philippe Tschumi, who accompanied him for a long time.

“Already being able to take part in the race and finish it was a huge dream, but to win it is unexpected, rejoiced Mathieu Blanchard, at the microphone of Réunion La 1ère, his legs still coated in the mud of Réunion after his victory. It’s difficult to succeed in performing on your first participation in a race of this magnitude. »

After sometimes being scattered over numerous events in the same season, the man who lived for almost ten years in Canada had marked the Grand Raid de la Réunion on his calendar, with the firm intention of discovering this ultra-trail among the most demanding of the circuit. Run at the end of the season, the event crisscrosses the island’s massifs – like the Mafate cirque – and their endless staircases, and shears the organisms. “ This year I’m putting more heart into the Diagonal. I want to have a great race and have a great time with the Reunion community”he exhibited at the end of August in The Teamassuming not to have made the UTMB his main objective of the year.

Cheeks crossed by the earth of Reunion

“As it’s my first participation, I want at all costs to finish this race by getting my bearings, that doesn’t mean that I’m going to wander around. I will remain ultra-competitive…”had warned Mathieu Blanchard on the eve of the race. Because although he knows the trails of Reunion Island well, the Salomon team athlete had never started his most famous race until now. Registered in 2019, when he had not yet burst onto the top of the discipline, he returned his bib a few days before the event to go and participate in the Koh-Lanta game show, in the Fiji archipelago. Another type of event, which earned it a certain popularity and – at the beginning – the sidelong glances of certain ultra-trailers, hardly delighted to see a TV figure, a fan of social networks, tumbling into their mountains.

But the repeated performances of the native of Cavaillon (Vaucluse) quickly earned him his stripes among the ultra-trail elite. Second in the UTMB 2022 (in less than 20 hours), behind the Catalan phenomenon Kilian Jornet, the Frenchman – professional since 2021 – chose last year to drastically change his approach to his sport. Now established in the Deux-Alpes station (previously against Montreal), he has reduced his long-distance travel and his responses to numerous requests. A paid adaptation, given its performance on the Diagonale des fous 2024.

“This year, the performance side will not be my priority”however, warned the French runner on the eve of the race. Vaccinated by his failure at the UTMB and his somewhat choppy preparation, he thus intended ” not [se] put too much pressure”. But the very competitive Mathieu Blanchard also confessed “that today, on the eve of the Diagonale des Fous, I have never had so little pain in my body. » Winner on Friday of one of the four ultra-trail monuments (with the UTMB and the American races of the Hardrock 100 and the Western State), even in the absence of some of the major international competitors, Mathieu Blanchard celebrated, barely crossing the line, by marking his cheeks with the land of Reunion which he had surveyed for more than twenty hours. “Just look at my legs and my shoeshe smiled. I had a huge adventure. »