by Véronique Feltrin (level B2)
Do you know this
young woman? You don’t? Yet she lives in Grenoble and she set a women‘s record in 2023. Her name is Nathalie
Baillon, and she‘s a long-distance cyclist.
She deserves to be talked about, because ultra-cycling is a very demanding sport, physically and mentally, however little publicized compared to others sports disciplines.
In May 2023 she tried to break a record, biking alone across Europe from the south of Spain to the North Cape in Norway, without any assistance. 6,400 kilometres, across 10 countries, 38,500 metres of cumulative height difference!
A British man, Ian Walter, currently holds the record
time: 16 days, 20 hours and 59 minutes.
Nathalie established the women’s record for this
challenge: 18 days, 15 hours and 27 minutes.
Here is the route, which is not entirely correct. Competition rules do not allow taking a ferry, also she had to cross part of Russia.
She biked on dangerous roads
without sides, with many trucks, in Estonia and Russia. She says she has never
been as afraid as crossing Saint Petersburg, where nothing is planned for
cyclists, and Russians drive fast.
She entered Russia easily but spent a lot of time at the border
between Russia and Finland, with a
lot of questions from customs officials who
wanted to understand who she was and why she was here. And on the Finnish side,
officials stopped her too, and wanted to know what questions were asked by the
Russians!
Variations in climatic conditions were difficult too: heat and storms in Spain and then cold, snow and hail in Norway and Finland. She was hampered by a headwind during a large part of the race.
During this race, rest times are not deducted from the
final time. So, she was biking during between 15
and 18 hours a day, with increasing
pain as the days passed.
She was sleeping
between 4 and 6 hours, sometimes in a hotel, but most of the time outside in
fields so as not to waste time.
She didn‘t have any assistance, so she was having to stop to buy food. These were often sandwiches, hamburgers, cereals or chocolate bars. Junkfood as she says!
The race was full of emotional moments. Human meetings with people who were following her on social networks and were waiting for her, offering her food or accommodation to rest. And magnificent landscapes, wild animals, herds of reindeers, unforgettable moments…
Life should not be
a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and
well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke,
thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!"
Hunter S. Thompson
https://www.nathaliebaillon.com/
Congratulation to this young Grenoble resident, and encouragements for her next challenge, the Atlas Moutain Race which will begin on February 9th.
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