ALPSMAN: The Extreme XXL!
The Alpsman Xtrem took place in and around Annecy lake. One of the toughest XXL triathlons in the world: 3.8k swim, 180k bike and 42k run. Crazy, outsized, gigantic, incredible, inhuman, unimaginable!
Test4outside followed in awe of the Alpsman Xtrem to try and get a glimpse of what makes these monster machines tick…
Text and photos Franck Oddoux
20 years ago if you wanted to be the local star you only had to run a marathon, then triathlon came on the scene and the mythic Ironman and its image of runners sweating their pain, crawling to the finish line and thinking that they had reached their limits of physical performance.
But man is made from steel, they have a cast iron mind and when inventing new Tantalus tortures: these warped minds created the XXL Triathlons. We can safely say that these races live up to their name. The Alpsman is reserved for a certain circle of terrifying triathletes… Those addicted to very specific feats of ultra-endurance.
Far and beyond the imaginable…
Triathletes’ imagination has gone past the common Ironman to dreaming of the Norseman where you are dropped into the icy Norwegian fjord waters in the middle of the night from a boat and then to imagine yourself on the Evergreen route at high altitude near Chamonix to finish with trail running in the wilds of nature in the middle of the night …
All of these challenges have one thing in common, distances that go past the imaginable (or reasonable?) For the Alpsman, it is 3.8k of swimming in Annecy lake, 180k of mountain passes from the Semnoz to the Bauges and 42k running with a facultative ascension to the top of the Semnoz on the trails.
And when the power evaporates…
And nevertheless the Alpsman attracts more and more people every year. For this 2017 edition it has doubled in participation size: 235 men and 12 women. Athletes and extremists? Each of them knows their own personal limits, their weaknesses and interior strengths that enable them to cover these kilometers in the water and on land. But none of these athletes knows when they could hit the “wall”… The moment that they all await when suddenly all powers are lost, where your mind loses its control and the doubts take over. I’m breathing so I advance….if I can. The stakes of the Alpsman is to overcome this unknown entity and to reach for the inner forces, step-by-step, breath-by-breath…
Cédric Jacquot: God of the lake
Cédric Jacquot is Poseidon, the expert, he doesn’t take part in many races but he has an impressive prize list. He won the Alpsman last year, and this time he dominated the race once again. His legs of fire gave him a massive 38minute advance on his pursuer Gabin Mantulet and Thierry Balbec 3rdr. Cédric Jacquot took 12hours and 9minutes to complete the course. 9hours later the last Alpsman crossed the finish line by the skin of his teeth.
The women were dominated by the German Verena Eisenbarth who won with 1hour and 20minutes in front of Lucie Croissant…
Transamericana avec Rickey Gates
