Minimum altitude: 1,303 meters
Distance: 40.5 km
Slope Aspect: Various
Vertical Climbed: 833 meters (2,733 feet)
Vertical Descended: 832 meters
This was going to be my first nordic ski marathon. I'd skied the distance or more for fun but this was in competition and I'd always skied when the conditions were good. Not so much for this Sunday. There had been no overnight refreeze and the snow was soft. I'd waxed a layer of red with a layer of cold blue wax on top, a tip from the club coach Anais. The idea was the snow is always a bit cold first thing so the blue wax wears first leaving the red (water repellent) for when things get soggy.
The Savoyarde is fairly competitive; there are not really many Sunday skiers so you have to get around fairly fast, around 3 hours is the maximum in good conditions whereas something like the Foulee Blanche you may get people taking 4 or 5 hours. Unlike the Foulee, where I only did 21km, I decided to set off cool, near the back of the field rather than fight for position. The first few hundred meters were a mess of fallen skiers and snapped polls where wannabee Martin Fourcades fought for the middle positions. I sailed serenely between the carnage. On the first downhill a guy even managed to do a somersault as the front of his skis dug into the soft snow !
On the first climb I gained a few positions then there was the long traverse across to St Francois and I was pretty much on my own, doing my own thing, unlike the Foulee which was always total madness of crazy skiers. On the climb to St Francois I had a couple of skiers catch me up, again they seems overly competitive and I was getting skis and polls running over mine so I shouted at the front guy to either overtake or tuck in behind. The snow was getting cut up and I was using the classic trails and pushing for a lot of the way. Food stop at St Francois (yes really after just 10km). I actually set a PR averaging 3m42 on this 7k segment. The climb out of St Francois was slow with poor snow until we broke out of the trees and colder snow on the 5km climb to le Revard where there was another food stop, more tee and fruit. Then a 6km traverse and descend back to the starting point. The whole loop covered in about 1h25; which was quite a fast pace. On the return we were caught by the front runners doing the 21km mens race (we had the 21km women's race in front) and they were pretty motivated not giving much room to us marathoners.
There was now the question of another loop with some 800 or so skiers who'd already skied the trails in front of us. The ski over to St Francois was too bad, just some of the climbs were so cut up and deep in slush it was no longer possible to skate properly and I had to resort to herringbone. A lot of use of the classic tracks, where they were still visible, too. Back to le Revard was not too bad to ski as the climb is only around 3%. That left the final 5km to the finish and some very bad snow in places, most places to be honest. 3h14m50 for the 42km and 1h45 for the second loop, some 20 minutes slower. As a comparison the first decent to the finish took 1m27 the first time around, 1m41 the second.
I felt I was skiing better at the end of the race than on the 21km Foulee Blanche and I never felt that I wouldn't make it. Still it was hard work with an average HR of 151bpm.
No overnight refreeze. Snow was large loose crystals and very cut up on the climbs especially on the second loop. Warm temperatures.
