“Life is a succession of experiences, and this is going to be a beautiful one”

Trailer for a dozen years, Stéphane has made a specialty of 60-65 km events, such as the famous and competitive 6000D which he won twice. But Stéphane's particularity is that he threw himself headlong into the snowshoeing championships, a discipline in which he managed to win the supreme title at world level in 2014, 2016 and 2018. This will be his first MDS, and even if the Sahara has little to do with a plain covered in powder, Stéphane will be able to count on his endurance and resistance.

“I'm more of a snowshoe and snow specialist, and I always said to myself that it would be great to try the MDS adventure one day. I'm with two friends, we are the Chamois du Désert team, and we are running for the Vaincre la Mucoviscidose association. We all three have different objectives but we come for the same madness, for the adventure. We are a little stressed because there are a lot of unknowns, like the heat, the weight of the bag, the length of the race, the food, the sleep. I think it’s letting go that’s going to be important. We are in jobs, lives, where we want to control a lot, and there we have to be able to let go. And live simply for a week, without too many artifices, without comfort. It’s interesting and stressful at the same time to step out of your comfort zone. I start from the principle that life is a succession of experiences, and this is going to be a beautiful one. From a sporting point of view I am competitive so I will try to play a little, but without putting too much pressure on myself because it is the best way to explode in flight. I want to go to the end and see what it's like to do the MDS.“