A FOREST TRAIL TO THE COL DE PORTE

A trail through the woods, but heavy snow for the mushers of La Grande Odyssée VVF on this 10th stage and for those of the 2nd stage of the Trophée Crédit Mutuel which took place on Wednesday, in the heart of the Chartreuse massif, at the Col de Porte. This charming resort in the Grenoble metropolitan area was packed to the rafters at the weekend for this sled dog race. Elsa Borgey covered the 16km race in 36 minutes and 28 seconds, 37 seconds slower than her rival at the top of the overall classification, Spain’s Iker Ozkoidi Garcia, who has been wearing the Suzuki-sponsored leader’s jersey for the last five stages. The Savoie-based musher demonstrated her perfect driving technique in this very wet snow, particularly in the bends. Cindy Duport rounded off the day’s podium, with Clément Raux hot on her heels.
In the Nordic category, Jean Combazard’s dogs were in increasingly good form, taking their long strides to outstrip the competitors a little more each day, covering the distance in 44 minutes and 15 seconds, while Italy’s Matteo Fossati took 51 minutes and 24 seconds.
He retains 2nd place overall, but young Polish rider Daria Findzinska set a better time today of 47 minutes and 33 seconds.

In the Trophée Crédit Mutuel, Norway’s Sissel Wolf Molmen won again without forcing her dogs, covering the distance in 39 minutes and 3 seconds, while her runner-up in the overall classification Julien Chatelain clocked up 43 minutes and 19 seconds, 11 seconds more than Boris Hannoteaux, 3rd overall. A short and fast race indeed, but the mushers found this forest trail interesting and rather technical.
Rendezvous this Thursday 23 January for the 11th and final stage of La Grande Odyssée VVF at Villard de Lans on the Bois Barbu Nordic site. Due to the heavy rain forecast for tomorrow, the start time has been changed to 2pm.

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