March was a hard month for the athletes of the SCARPA Team International who were busy with the Fourth World Cup in Les Diablerets in Switzerland and the two stages of the Great Course, the 29th edition of Pierra Menta and the Millet Tour du Rutor Extreme.

Let proceed in order. In Switzerland, the World Cup were over for the Junior and Espoir Categories, and Federico Nicolini won in the Overall rank and in the Vertical.  In the senior category Kilian Jornet Burgada won both the competitions; In the individual  Alexis Sevennec classified Fifth, Martin Anthamatten Sixth and Manfred Reichegger Seventh.

In the Women category the Swiss Maude Mathys came second after Laetitia Roux, while French Axelle Mollaret won the Espoir rank. In the uphill trial the Italian athletes Lorenzo Holzknecht and Manfred Reichegger, made a great work, and they came second and third behind the Catalan Kilian. In the Women Category, Mathys confirmed the second position of the previous day, while Mollaret won all three ranks of the Cup and gained the title of the Vertical Race, Individual Race and Overall.

After the middle of March, the athletes, free from any other commitment in the World Cup, competed in the two La Grande Course trials. From the 20th to the 23rd of March in Areches-Beaufort (Alta Savoia-France) they competed in the Pierra Menta 29th edition, a great competition lasted four days with more than 10.000 meter of altitude gap uphill.

The fight for the final victory has always been a personal affair between the two guys of the Centro Sportivo Esercito, Matteo Eydallin and Damiano Lenzi, and the team of Matheo Jacquemoud and William Bon Mardion. The two French guys left the victory to the Italians only in the second trial, but this event gave a great contribution to the final visctory with a 3’23’’ of lead. In the third and fourth trial the Alpini of Courmayeur kept an eye on the French guys, and lost only a few seconds. The last Trial of Pierra Menta was raced in a great snowfall, Jacquemoud and Bon Mardion, wanted to win whatever the cost, but the Italians were on the heels.  In Areches the people welcomed the favourites, winners of the trial, but they celebrated the 29th edition winners too, Matteo Eydallin and Damiano Lenzi.

In the Women competition, the strange couple Laetitia Roux and Maude Mathys won all the trials included the last one. The French Axelle Mollaret placed second together with Emilie Gex Fabry. The Italian Martina Valmassoi placed third in the rank with Severine Pont Combe.

Among the Young Category Federico Nicolini and Davide Magnini came second behind Oriol Cardona Coll together with Remì Bonnet.

The athletes didn’t have enough time to recollect forces that some days after the end of Pierra Menta they started a new adventure with the Millet Tour du Rutor Extreme, a competition by stages in the snows of the Rutor in Valle d’Aosta. The figures are clear: a gap of altitude of 7000 m, 25 asset changes, 53 km of development (26 km uphill), 3 km of canals and peaks at 3000 meter of altitude.

The balances of the Pierra Menta are the same, but Matteo Eydallin and Damiano Lenzi are lightly stronger than the French Team made up of Matheo Jacquemoud and William Bon Mardion.

The italians won all the stages, followed by the French guys who didn’t manage to get closer to the leaders, The victory was purely formal. On the third step of the podium there were Valentine Favre and Xavier Gachet, fourth position for Manfred Reichegger and Lorenzo Holzknecht.

In the Women category the podium colored yellow Alien with in top position Maude Mathys together with Laetitia Roux, second position for Francesca Martinelli and in third position Axelle Mollaret.