Baptiste Chassagne Post-2024 UTMB Interview

CBR of our own fire the day after the 2024 UTMB I'm here with second place man Baptist Shang congratulations Baptist how do you feel I feel super great I feel happy grateful okay and yeah really pleased to be there yeah like quite an honor to be with you so thank you for the invitation very good we're delighted to have you um so you have a history here at this Festival you were um top 10 at one of the UTMB races for the last five editions um you started at MCC in 2018 and you worked your way up to OCC and CCC and then you were 10th at UTMB last year um but then that was quite a big jump to your performance this year to play second so did anything change massively in your training in the last year I don't think so I think that the performance of yesterday is just the result of a a world process that I started like five or six years ago okay um yesterday I just had a really good day yeah I just it's a kind of concretization of all the the process uh there is perhaps um um mindset a change of mindset okay um yeah um jumping in the Nike Journey it also changed the way of the way of your thinking or your thoughts so yeah okay when I yeah last year I was um leading the World Championships I was first at the middle race head station and I've been like really anxious about leading the race because I was not designed for that okay and to jump into the Nike project it changed the the way of how you see the performance so when I was second yesterday okay I can manage base I can manage the folks and the yeah yeah very good yeah I think um the psychology of 100 MERS is a key part to it yeah um yeah so you were saying just before we started um so you were 10th last year but you're an hour and 20 minutes faster this year it's a slightly longer course as well but you said your splits were pretty much the same until k a so you had a really good second half and I noticed you were like um only you were still in 11th a ker year you've been gradually creeping up the whole race um was that always the plan to run a conserve the first half no there was no plan uh the only the only I don't know to say that but I really wanted to to be um really listening to my to my sensation my feelings and I have uh I never uh watched my my my watch I never saw my watch so I was very focusing on the on the pace so yeah there was no strategy and then okay it was like just super natural yeah very good cool and then in the second half um you're gradually picking off Runners and were you conscious of like was it like a game to like get the next one and the next one or did it just happen naturally yeah that's that's the thing I really love in ultra running is like playing chess yes you know every move is really important so I know if I push in this uphill perhaps I will pay for that in the the next downhill so yeah playing chess with the over competitors is something I really liked very good so yeah and did you actually run alongside anyone for a significant time where you on your own with we finished fourth very we we have a like I don't know how to say that but feeling and inition with aness okay which is an athlete I really really appreciate yes because we share a lot of kilometers during the last World Championships oh very good and we share some Partners together so it was really cool we jump from the uh position n nine position to the to the podium together in like 50k so very good yeah I think you're both similar Runners and that Hannis is very consistent as well yeah and very patient um very good and then it was around the top of tree on where you moved into second place um and how did you feel there I don't know it was like last year I suffered a lot uh in UTMB and my mindset my keyword is was okay I don't want to suffer uh like last year so I always want to to keep this little margin uh like I didn't want to go in the Red Zone stay in the orange Zone mhm and when I jump jumped into the second position I just I I I I had still this little margin and I just wanted to keep the pace with the little margin until the the last last appeal and yeah so yeah I felt like confidence and yeah and he was always quite close behind you but you were still comfortable with The Gap you had yeah it was a really really big fight okay in my in my dreams I think that's the dream of every every every tra there yes it's like Crossing the the the roads of shamoni like yeah giving iives and everything so I I imagine something different for my UTM like dreaming uh Finish Line yeah because I had to Sprint until the the last kilm so it was not disappointing but something different it was not what you expected exactly okay no but that that was really cool too like okay very good surprising but really cool nice and then there is something at the finish that confused a lot of us um the paddle yeah what was that about um it's like kind of signature for two reasons um first uh I consider myself not as a god gifted athlet more more like a hard worker you know okay um not with so much talent and in my in my opinion I have to row a lot to have things and to achieve my dreams yeah so that's the first explanation and the second one is that um one I I really love football soccer and the sign of one of my favorite player is like rowing when he scores a goal so Mar is a really small play not a small player but a team player is not a star he comes from a small island called t Okay so yeah hopefully he sees this yeah okay very good um and then just from looking at like your progression even like this past year you've still done a lot of short Trail Races um but you've done incredibly well at the biggest 100 mile race in the world so now are you going to try and focus more on this 100 mile distance or do you still like to do a bit of everything yeah from the from the scratch I mean when I started to Trail uh I really wanted to become an ultra R rner but I I am really really well surrounded by my coach my manager my family and everyone was telling me telling me okay you you have to be patient yes so you have to build this legs mhm that um they will allow you to to dream big at you team be so I yeah just yeah yeah as you as you mentioned for anest like consistency is the key so I just want to go patiently and yes yeah okay my yeah my ambition is to become one of the best Ultra tra runner in the world so okay well you're here um in second place on the UTMB Podium so I think you've already achieved that um and then just finally so I know you're local to the area do you um do you have a ski season or anything in Winter yes okay I think that's to be a local boy mhm helped me a lot yesterday okay about two or three things first uh I really know every Trails I mean this is my playground so I felt like really confident to run at home and then I also had a lot of lot of love and sharings from everyone so very good I really felt the extra power of yeah being at home running at home okay very good um and what will you do about sking season I'm sorry so that's why I like I I live here I really love to do the sport that the nature impos you so when it's winter yeah I really love to to maintainer ring ski okay very good yeah and the the combination seems to work very well for a lot of athletes yeah okay um well thanks very much it was great to have you for first of many and for our interviews thank you so much thank you