Germain Grangier Post-2023 UTMB Interview

Sarah Brady of iron fire I'm here the day after the 2023 UTMB with third place man Jermaine Granger congratulations how are you thanks uh yeah I'm doing uh I'm doing good today yeah okay and did you get any sleep and how was your legs and everything feeling yeah I got a pretty good amount of sleep and the legs for sure that are not perfect but uh it's not too bad okay not going anywhere too quickly today anyway um yeah so this is your third UTMB and your best performance so far so you've previously been ninth and then moved up to fifth um so you said in your pre-race interview that you kind of committed to it a little bit more this year in terms of like spending the last few weeks in Germany and more specific preparations so um do you think that's what made the difference and led to a better performance this year yeah I think it's it's more like a global approach I would say I had better training uh food holder I was more consistent and did way more running than I used to before you I used to cross train a lot with biking and I think like I needed it more kilometer also in my legs to to be more consistent during the whole you can be a like race until the end so and yeah for sure the the fact that I stayed in in the valley longer this time also help so yeah it's like as always like a multi-factorial I don't know if to say yeah okay um and how did you find the conditions then um I thought they seemed quite perfect but I know some people said it was a bit too humid during the night and that was an issue yeah it was super immediate the the the start of your chain B is always you mean more or less but um yeah on the terrain was pretty wet some snow field also were called ubonom they're dancing to the shop here was really wet and slippery and one thing was uh that it was really foggy uh most of the down here we we had to like use the lower settings of the headlamps because it was too foggy to to really see and there was too too much reflection with the fog but otherwise the temperature was just perfect yeah okay that sounds like a bit more of an adventure with the fog um so then the first half of the race uh you were never too far back from the front you're kind of swapping positions around the top six so how how did that first half of the race feel were you very comfortable to write yeah I try to stay uh like in a comfortable uh pace and state of mind and to learn to combayo and see how it will evolve from then and yeah uh was yeah it was pretty close from uh from the the leaders whole night and I and I stayed with most of the night with Peter hongdal who's a who's a friend and I also like sometimes do schema racing and he's around so we knew him well I knew him from like the winter and yeah we had a such a nice nice uh nice night together until Mayo and yeah and then you said previously as well that cremeier to lafully was your favorite part of the course so um how did that go was that whenever when you started to move a little bit forward into Podium position yeah that's true then um I think from Kumar to to Champaign I was uh alone actually and uh that that's the part of the race I like also the the most so I think I I uh yeah took advantage of liking this part and being alone and being more in tune with my uh my feelings and uh and try to find a good pace and um yeah made it to Champaign great and then when I seen you just coming into champagne um you were just in front of gym by like a half a second and it was like a close battle and like loads of people around you um that must have felt quite intense how was that part yeah I knew that uh Jim was not too far because people were telling me he was just just ahead so yeah I catch up to in the I would say at the end of the more or less the climb of champagne with Jim and I honesty it was uh it was only going to be me passing gym and and keep going and when I saw him running by me on the on the lake of Champaign I was like okay he is like definitely uh going at another speed now okay and uh yeah I try to like buffer it first and then uh then I understood he was really on the on a mission uh okay did you feel like you were a little bit stronger maybe on that like uphill bit before shampoo lock and then it got to The Flash and he's very fast then yeah exactly it's the first two things I told myself when the speed was really different this is that okay maybe has like good running shoes a new road running shoes and then and then I I was thinking okay this is definitely Jim's like uh best best like part so I was trying to hold it like that okay and I was thinking I would like maybe catch up in the like steeper part of the building climb yeah but no it didn't happen and it's still like it's I suppose it's the final almost quarter of the race but it's still 50 kilometers to go so you can't push too hard and do someone else's Pace either did you find that you had to hold back and not be too sucked Along by him yeah it's exactly what uh I took like five minutes to think about that and um yeah if if I was trying to to push to to stay with him I probably would have like blow up like somewhere around like 30. and then probably like maybe losing my Podium spot uh that's why when I after when when people think to me Zach is about eight to ten minutes I took the splits from behind because I I wanted to know if I can do my real person not like totally blow up but he handed up that uh the the splits with gap was always the same and always like was always the same so yeah is that too that the splash back to you was constant and he was like oh no um yeah and then I was just wondering because you've done this race before um about the course changes it was like slightly different towards the end this year did you find that um much different or better or worse yeah I already knew the the new race route from uh called the Monte to to chamoni I'm not a big fan of that because it's like a yeah it's it's not really going up it's a lot of up and down it's it's really technical it's good so yeah I think I prefer to do oh yeah you prefer the original yeah I prefer the original so okay it's like the big climb and then the big downhill yes and uh yeah yeah that last downhill is is very good from laughing um okay great and then um so this is a really good performance to get on the podium but you do you think this is you peeking at UTMB or do you would you be ambitious to come back and try and do better again yeah I don't know the only thing with your team is that every time I finish the race is a is a faster time for me and a better position so it always keeps me in the in the mood of maybe getting back to to UTMB but I don't know yet but uh yeah definitely the try try to do something better yeah okay um it's a little too soon to ask that really anyway um and then in terms of the rest of the year you've done quite a lot already so are you gonna just chill out now for the Autumn or have you anything else yeah I think I will just uh wait for for the snow to to land at home and get on the skis when uh when the condition will be great and I think I'm yeah I probably will be done like running arm in racing running yeah okay nice to have that um change for the winter season anyway um well congratulations again thanks so much for taking the time out to talk to us and enjoy your recovery thanks a lot