Discovery | The TransVésubienne as a duo: a trip to hell, it’s something to share! – Vojo Magazine

Today, Gaby has moved away from competition and finds her pleasure in moving from one sport to another to explore the mountains by combining skiing, mountaineering, climbing, trail running, bikepacking and much more. obviously mountain biking.

For my part, I have kept in touch with racing and I train mainly on my bike. I had already taken part in the TransV 4 times before this 2022 edition, and what I consider to be one of my best performances in competition happened in this race in 2019, when I took the 6th place overall.

It was above all the notion of sharing that seduced us both, more than pure performance.

Gabriel, for his part, had never taken the start of this mythical event before and, when he shared with me his idea of ​​registering for the TransV in the duo category, I immediately seized the opportunity to share my experience and an unforgettable weekend by his side. If this team participation brought something new that motivated me a lot, it was above all the notion of sharing that seduced us both, more than pure performance.

The idea was not simply to take the start in pairs, but rather to take advantage of this opportunity to discuss physical preparation, material choices, race strategy and share preparation weekends together.

The preparation

In this early preparation for the TransV, one certainty remained: running in duo would not be an easy task, and was more like an additional difficulty than an asset. If it is true that being two allows mutual support, it is also the best way to accumulate failures such as mechanical damage or less good blows. We have therefore worked to target our differences and tame them to be as homogeneous as possible in the effort.

At first, we set up a personal training plan remotely and adapted to our profiles. From my previous participations, I guided Gabriel on a “specific TransV” preparation, mainly focused on endurance, work on strength and efforts at the threshold. Where this experience was particularly enriching was in terms of sharing our points of view on training as well as its concrete application.

Our profiles being significantly different, there was still some uncertainty about our ability to ride together effectively. We quickly planned joint training weekends that would allow us to test and validate (or not) our material choices and our race strategy.

The first of them took place in Bouleternère, near Perpignan, at Gabriel’s. On the program: 3 days of riding including a long and beautiful outing with a descending profile on Saturday as well as a simulation race on Sunday with a course approaching the characteristics of the Transvésubienne.