At the end of August, Germain Grangier embarked on the UTMB Mont-Blanc, with truncated preparation. In June, the Isolien fractured two ribs following a fall in Italy. “I had been preparing for this race since November, so I didn’t want to throw in the towel. I tried my luck, sometimes it works…”he explained from the island of Reunion, which he reached on September 24, to acclimatize as best as possible to tropical conditions.
The 34-year-old ultra-trail runner managed to hold on in Haute-Savoie for a long time, hanging on to second place, before his body sounded the alarm. “The shape was good, but the durability was not,” he explains. “I got injured in a key period. In July I couldn’t really run and my legs felt like it was my first 100 miler.”
The Riviera did not want to take all the risks, precisely so as not to jeopardize his chances on this Diagonale des fous which starts this Thursday evening (8 p.m.).
“Muscularly, it was complicated since Courmayer at 80km. As I was well classified and there were a lot of dropouts, I tried to stay the course. But it got even worse on a descent, where I felt pain in my quadriceps. I wondered if there was any point in ending up injured and perhaps jeopardizing my end of the season. I preferred to turn on the blinker, accept my current potential, to have a chance. chance to repeat a race that I like.”
“There are lots of question marks”
Today, the runner does not regret his choice and can thus take part in the legendary Grand Raid event. A race he finished in second place last year . “It’s complicated to define an objective because there are lots of question marks. It’s a new journey, even longer
(180km and 10,150m ofD +)
we’re going to leave for 25 hours. On the other races, it’s more strategic, it’s the runners who run the race. Here, if you play this, you will quickly get the other side of the coin. I have more confidence and training than before the UTMB, but we will only see after 20 hours of racing what I have left. This uncertainty is also what makes the race so charming.”For his fourth participation (abandonment in 2018, 5 e
in 2022), we can however expect to see him still play leading roles.
* In 24h00’54” behind Aurélien Dunand Pallaz (23h21’23”). The outgoing winner will defend his title and will be one of the favorites with Jean-Philippe Tschumi, 3 e
last year, or Mathieu Blanchard.
France
