It missed! Leaving in the night from Sunday to Monday for an attempt to set a speed record on the famous GR20, the Frenchman Xavier Thévenard did not manage to do better than the time of François d'Haene. Namely, cross Corsica from north to south to Conca (180 km, 14,000 vertical drop) in less than 31 hours and 6 minutes.
“I already recognized the GR20 last summer with my friend Benoît Girondel (Editor's note: double winner of the Diagonale des Fous in Reunion) and Corsican guides. Suddenly, I thought it was time to try the record of François D'Haene, we had declared one of the best specialists in ultra-trail before the race. For a mountain and long distance enthusiast like me, this is a real challenge. "
Despite the start of the race ahead of the record, the native of Nantua (Ain) did not hold onto the distance. In the early hours of Tuesday, Thévenard's advance had melted. And the last part turned out to be harder than for its predecessor. Where François d'Haene had maintained the pace, even accelerated, the triple winner of the Mont-Blanc race (2013, 2015, 2018) was left behind.
At km 140, at 27 hours of racing, the former student in sport-studies biathlon at Pontarlier (Doubs), who had rubbed shoulders with the champion Martin Fourcade on the podiums, was still in record time. But 20 km later, the stopwatch posted 29 hours and 30 minutes behind the Haene record. To break the record, Thévenard should have arrived at 11:06 am… He finally covered the 180 km of the GR20 in 32 hours and 33 minutes. It is nevertheless the 3rd time in the history of the course.