There are lots of hills. It is a town surrounded by countryside, so in five minutes, I can reach the trails quickly. There are no high mountains, but hills with elevation ranges of 100 to 300 metres, which can be tackled one after the other. The terrain is extremely varied. If I want more mountainous terrain, I go to Swiss Jura or the Alps.
Portrait
Thibaut Baronian
Find out a little more about Thibaut Baronian, the man from Haute Savoie who came to settle in Besançon, at the gateway to the Jura Mountains.
Thibaut Baronian, between work and passion
Thibaut Baronian is from Haute Savoie, Ambilly to be more precise. After his baccalaureate exams he came to Besançon in Franche-Comté for his first year of medical studies, specialisation physiotherapy. He then trained as a masseur-physiotherapist from 2009 to 2012 and qualified with the training institute in 2013. For the 2014/2015 season he worked with the French world cup cross-country skiing team. Nowadays, as a freelance physiotherapist, he can organise his schedule as he sees fit, which allows him to train for 10 to 12 hours per week.
A born athlete
Thibaut comes from a sporty family and grew up in an environment conducive to sports activities. He followed a 4-year sports study programme at the Lycée du Fayet in Amancy. Before he started trail-running, Thibaut was a skier, with a preference for cross-country skiing. He joined his regional team and then later the national team. By the age of 12 his sporting life was a succession of competitions and training sessions. In 2008, when he was 20 years old, his baccalaureate achievement took him to Besançon where he made it successfully through his first year of medical studies. It was during that period that he interrupted his career as a high-level athlete to devote himself to his studies. Thibaut got into trail-running during his first year in physiotherapy training. In 2013, at the age of 24 years, he won his first races and then joined Team Salomon France in 2014.
Thibaut's favourite kind of race is the maratrail run, preferably in the mountains but on relatively smooth terrain. He enjoys distances of between 40 and 50km and appreciates a little difficulty such as rainy or muddy conditions.
