Ceven'Trail: Course, Elevation & Route Profile

Course & Elevation

Start and finish are at the Halle aux Sports in Le Vigan, and the first thirty kilometres belong entirely to the Cévennes. The course climbs early, two and a half kilometres at almost 13 percent from kilometre 3, then works its way past Saint-André-de-Majencoules into the Mandagout basin. From kilometre 20 comes the hardest section of the whole race: roughly 450 metres of height gain in little more than a kilometre and a half up to the Serre de la Toureille, at just over 1,200 metres the highest point, followed by the aid station at the Cap de Coste refuge. You climb it in darkness or first light.

After the return through Mandagout the race changes landscape. Past Arrigas, where a drop bag can wait for you, it heads onto the limestone plateau of the Causse, with a second long climb of 2.5 kilometres at 16 percent from kilometre 56. Then comes the descent into the Cirque de Navacelles to the source of the Vis and the climb back out to Blandas, 2.2 kilometres at 15 percent on average with ramps nobody runs. After Bez one last 2.3-kilometre climb starts at kilometre 90 before the route drops back to Le Vigan.

Underfoot it alternates between forest tracks, narrow stony paths and ridge trails; not even ten percent of the route is flat. In early March the Toureille summit can carry snow, and the finish greets you with soup made from the sweet Cévennes onion, the race's trademark.

Pacing Strategy

The night hours are the first trap. The Toureille comes after about twenty kilometres, in the dark and on fresh legs, and anyone who pushes it at the field's rhythm pays for it on the Causse. Hike it at a steady cadence; the climb is so steep that running gains little time and costs a lot.

The race is decided between Arrigas and Blandas. That is where the long climb from kilometre 56 sits, and the descent into the Cirque de Navacelles with the steep path back out, after more than seventy kilometres in your legs. Time your eating so you have fuelled before dropping into the cirque; almost twenty kilometres separate Le Quintanel from the Relais du Cirque.

The second mistake is treating Blandas as the end. After Bez there are still more than 300 metres of climbing, and the stony descents demand concentration right to the finish. If you ran the earlier descents on stiff quads, the last ten kilometres will be a walk.

Training plan for Ceven'Trail: 12-week build

For most age-group runners this is a day of fifteen to twenty hours, starting in the dark and often finishing in it. The effort is mostly aerobic but it comes in blocks: eight long climbs with hardly any flat ground between them, and just as much steep downhill.

The foundation is long sessions with a lot of climbing, better several days back to back than one monster run. Practise steep power hiking, with poles or hands on thighs, on gradients beyond 25 percent, because the Toureille and the path out of the cirque ask for exactly that.

Downhill matters at least as much. A quarter of the course is steep descent on rock and roots, and the descents keep coming after eighty kilometres. Build in technical downhills on tired legs so your muscles do not give out before your engine does.

Then there are the conditions of an early-March race: cold at night, possible snow on the summit, wind on the Causse. Train with a headlamp on trails, test your clothing across several temperature swings and practise eating for many hours, because the mandatory rain jacket and survival blanket are not a formality here.