1,700 runners and 10,000 visitors expected at the Monts de Guéret for two major competitions

Guéret hosts the second round of the Mountain Bike Tour de France and the Junior World Cup. For these competitions organized by the Gueret club “Creuse Oxygène”, the best mountain bikers in the world will compete. This Thursday, the organizers and volunteers were busy with the final preparations.

The events will take place between Friday 21st and Sunday 23rd April in a highly selective course in the Monts de Chabrières. Before the weekend’s big outburst, Chabrières quietly emerged on Thursday.

A few competitors get to know the course, when mechanics set up the equipment and volunteers install the last barriers. The maestro of the event, Alain Minot, President of the Creuse Oxygène Club, on all fronts: “It’s tense… We want to be at the top, because we have riders at the top. Thirteen countries will be represented, so we’re working here on all the details, like electrical, reception, telecom, security, medical, etc. So it’s very hot!” »

more than It is expected that the number of spectators will reach 10,000 during the three days of the competition. The event, of course, depends on the commitment of the 60 or so volunteers.

“When we come to watch the race, we’ll say we’re the ones who went up…but then we’ll have to break it all down, and that’s another thing! But hey, it’s fun!”

volunteer

On the sporting front, 1,700 competitors have registered in the various races of the weekend, in the French Cup or the Junior World Cup. This is a record challenge for the organization and the French Cycling Federation.

“We didn’t yet realize the weather was going to be there over the weekend. There would be teams everywhere, bikes everywhere, they would come and go. The mechanics who would move their wheels or the home trainers. They would be running in all directions and going non-stop!”

Benjamin Cadet, FFC Mountain Bike Director

The fame of the Chabrières circuit, the backyard of the Olympic Games in mountain biking, now extends beyond the city limits of Creuse. Moreover, big names are expected in this sport, including the Olympic champion in the British discipline Tom Pidcock, as well as two world champions: New Zealander Samuel Guise and Frenchman Pauline Ferrand-Privot.