In the Basque Country, Skyrhune stands to say no to “trail money” – Libération

2024-09-21 07:07:02

After ten years of existence, this crazy 21-kilometer which brings together the elite of professional runners and runners, stops after a final edition this Saturday. The reason is an increasingly expensive “trail fee” that organizers don’t “want to support”.

One last one for “Tie the loop” and put a model trace of them “doesn’t want to (slowly) approve anymore”. In the Basque Country, Skyrhune, a 21-kilometer race, with a difference in altitude of 1,700 meters to be covered in 4 hours and 10 minutes maximum, on the slopes of Rhune, standing definitively after ten years of life A cocktail of sports performance, crazy atmosphere and simplicity, which brings together 600 elite and sponsored runners for the start of the final on Saturday, September 21. For Nicolas Darmaillacq, the organizer of the race with a handful of friends in the year 2014, the galloping project of the trail world led to the end of a “Village Tribe” like Skyrhune, with values ​​opposite to those of “trading business”. According to him, this unconventional race could not meet the budget requirements required by the evolution of the discipline, taken on the trail of the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB), “The locomotive that breaks everything in its path”.

Since its founding in 2014, Skyrhune’s budget has tripled to reach 90,000 euros today, “without increasing the number of champions”, explained the organizer. And it’s not the riders that are expensive, he said, but the services. “There are all activities that develop around racing, in video or images for example, and the pie must be big because everyone wants to make a living from their passion”. As a speaker, a volunteer ten years ago who has done his work since then, or videographers who have replaced good spirits and their telephone, and who now have price questions. “I don’t criticize that we want to make a living from it, but it has consequences and without a supervisor, the one who rides pays and I refuse that,” piece by Nicolas Darmaillacq. It is unknown for him to take the registration fee for the race, already set at 35 euros. “We already discussed it at length the first time, six years ago when we went from 15 to 25 euros, but there is no question of going even further, sport must be accessible to everyone, not become privileged CSP+.” Between 2018 and 2024, according to a comparison drawn by the specialist site Outside.fr, the price of the bib increased by 60% for UTMB, now at 400 euros, by 23% for Diagonale des fous, in the island of the island. Combined, or 28% for the invasion of the Great Pyrenees.

“Unstoppable Bidding War”

This is it “The Unstoppable Heartbreaker”noticed by Nicolas Darmaillacq and his organizers, which caused them to question their event two years ago. Nicolas Darmaillacq expresses his anger with the sport now “uses». «The thing that makes me angry is that this Saturday, there are 80 people who are not running, people who are using the race that they haven’t even started because they signed up and they know very well that they won’t be able to do it all. them, and they will do all of them. sell their bibs. And for us, in addition to that, we would have said no to a young man who would have been preparing for months because we no longer had the opportunity.”angry Nicolas Darmaillacq. For Maud Combarieu, who knows Skyrhune well having raced six times and is the downhill speed record holder, “Professionalism is good because now there is real respect for the elite runner, pay for his actions, but the average runner will not be very fast anymore and not everything we want to achieve.” Although he regretted the loss of Skyrhune, he shared this famous vision.

Thibaut Baronian, French trail champion in 2023 and professional runner, also experienced the beginnings of Skyrhune, which he won twice in 2016 and 2017. Someone who was 2nd in 90 km of Mont-Blanc at the end of May, has not recovered , will be on the slopes of Rhune, but to ensure supplies for his companions from Salomon’s side. “I understand that the organizers want to keep the spirit of the race and it is their honor to be on the ten editions that do as they want, because here we are in the spirit of the trail and you feel that there is no business after. she”, he comments. Among the organizing models, the neighboring races of the Basque Country of Spain, known for their public enthusiasm, such as the legendary Zegama-Aizkorri, the last edition of which was won for the eleventh time by Kilian Jornet at the end of May . It also increased its prices, with a bib at 75 euros and a drawing establishment for 1 euro. “It is not a statement when we know that 14,000 people are trying their luck,” the relief of Maud Combarieu.

For the developers of Skyrhune, two parallel worlds are now emerging, as well “Great races and all the money they raise”and small local races that will not disappear for all this. “But the problem is that the first ones will no longer be available to everyone, deplres Nicolas Darmaillacq. Why weight at all costs? UTMB today has 11,000 runners and 50 different races. But for what reason?”