Running: In Millau, do trail and road partly follow the same path ?

1 200 personnes engagées sur les 100 km cette année. Archives

Alors que les fameux 100 km sur route de la cité du gant se tiennent ce samedi 28 septembre, le Festival des Templiers aura lieu du 17 au 20 octobre. Deux épreuves hors normes bien différentes et pourtant pas si éloignées, en Sud Aveyron. Décryptage.

With two major events such as the 100 km of Millau and the Trail des Templiers, southern Aveyron offers endurance and physical challenge enthusiasts two of the biggest national walking events. But are they really in competition??

It is difficult to compare the two disciplines as the audiences are so different. Whether on the road or in the countryside, ultra-distances attract an increasing number of enthusiasts looking for different challenges and sensations. On the road, the runner is more looking for timed performances on linear or looped courses. We can talk about pure and hard ultramarathons.

During trails in the wilderness, the competitor is more in search of sensations, technical challenges on sometimes difficult passages with the keystone of discovering nature and the landscapes crossed, contrary to what some consider to be the monotony of road races where the course can seem repetitive. For Gilles Bertrand, organizer but also creator of the Festival des Templiers which will celebrate its 30th anniversary this year, trails have for about fifteen years taken the advantage over road races.

Being able to say « I did it »

"If you look at the race calendar in Aveyron, there must be between 70 and 80 races in the year and 75 to 80% are trails now, he says. Whereas ten, fifteen years ago, it was the opposite." Trail races have gradually taken a back seat to the road racing landscape. Regarding the other flagship event in Aveyron, the 100 km of Millau which is taking place this Saturday, Gilles Bertrand does not consider it at all as a competitor, even though it is only a few weeks before his own and in the same sector. "It is a well-organized event, contested in a beautiful setting with atmosphere and which resists well unlike others because the 100 km has completely collapsed in France, many have disappeared and there must be only 7 or 8 left while there must be between 200 and 300 races over 100 km or more in the world of trail."

"We had to refuse 10,000 entries"

If the diversity of the races offered, sometimes more than 10, the trail attracts thousands of participants, road races, the 100 bornes in particular, generally see a thousand participants. The only exceptions: events like Marseille – Cassis, more than 20,000, or the Paris marathon, with more than 50,000 participants. Figures that are verified in Aveyron. “We have 1,200 participants in the 100 km, 100 more than last year and 350 in the marathon”, sighs Jacques Brefuel, the boss and volunteer from the very beginning (despite his young age at the time) of the legendary Millau event which is in its 52nd edition and whose attendance record dates back more than thirty years (3,875 runners). In comparison, the Festival des Templiers records 13,000 entries in total for the 14 races offered. “We had to refuse more than 10,000 entries”, Bertrand adds, who voluntarily limits registrations. But what makes all these competitors run ?

Performance, but not only

In fact, the motivations are not that different. "If some runners come to the 100 km for the time performance, it is not the majority, raises Brefuel. Many come to have fun, spend a good time with friends, enjoy a beautiful course. And cross the finish line even if it took them about twenty hours." For quite a few enthusiasts, being a finisher in Millau and being able to say “I did it”, is worth all the medals. On the trail side, there is of course the performance, the physical challenge, the surpassing of oneself that motivates the runners, but a large majority, some of whom had never run before participating in a trail, come above all for the nature side.

In any case, strong in their differences, the 100 km of Millau and the Festival des Templiers coexist in perfect harmony. “The two events are not in competition, they are complementary”, support Gilles Bertrand and Jacques Brefuel with one voice, who know each other well, of course. “And having two of the most beautiful national events in the department is as gratifying as announcing that three races of the French rally championship are taking place in our territory”, concludes Jacques Brefuel, aware of benefiting from an exceptional territory for the sport in general.

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