March 10

LA GRANDE COURSE: “READY FOR A WORLD PIERRA MENTA”

Posted by Héctor Rubio on March 10, 2021 in skimo | Leave a comment

Arêches-Beaufort, the home of the celebrated Pierra Menta, is ready to host a “world” edition of this spectacular race. The scheduled date is next friday even though starting from today many teams are already in the area in order to inspect the course. As announced by the local organizing committee this year edition will take place during 1 day and will be reserved only for athletes belonging to national teams. Strictly following anti-Covid regulations, the super classic French race will award, for the first time, the ISMF-LGC Long Distance Team World title. Less than a week after the end of the World Champhionship of Andorra the French mountains will award the last world title of this season. The best international teams will challenge themselves on an extremely spectacular ski moutaineering course with approximately 3.500 m. of positive difference in height.

Photo: Maurizio Torri

WOMEN RACE

France, Italy, Switzerland: three nations for the same goal……The home champion Axelle Mollaret together with the experienced Lorna Bonnel will try to achieve an historic undertaking. It won’t be an easy task because of the other teams challenging for the same goal, the Italian one with Alba De Silvestro and the young Giulia Murada and the Swiss one with Marianne Fatton and Alessandra Schmid. The other teams fighting for a place in the top five are the following: Lena Bonnel – Emily Harrop (France), Ilaria Veronese – Mara Martini (Italy), Giulia Compagnoni – Katia Tomatis (Italy) and Theresa Krober – Stephanie Kroll (Austria).

MEN RACE

Concerning the men race, the heavily favoured team for the final victory is the Italian one with Robert Antonioli and Matteo Eydallin, the world champion of the combined race and the winner of the individual race of last Saturday. It is very difficult to risk predictions considering the high level of the other Italian teams, with the couples Michele Boscacci – Davide Magnini, Nadir Maguet – William Boffelli and Alex Oberbacher – Damiano Lenzi. French athletes won’t stand by and watch: the coaches decided to choose a really experienced team, with Xavier Gachet and William Bon Mardion. The other French team, a younger one, will be composed of Samuel Equy and Alexis Sevennec. Competing for the victory and thus for the World title there are also the two Swiss teams: the A team with the two World champions of Villars 2019 Werner Marti and Rémi Bonnet and the second team with the team captain Martin Anthamatten together with the sprinter Iwan Arnold. Another team to be mentioned is the Austrian one wih Jakob Hermann and Christian Hofer.