From mountain biking via
orienteering to mountain bike orienteering – and Baptiste Fuchs,
our Athlete of May 2015, had found his sport. “From the beginning I
enjoyed the ‘playful’ side of MTB orienteering and I felt I could
spend hours and hours in the forest searching for controls without
feeling the time passing”, he says. Yesterday, he became together
with his team mates winner of the first World Cup Mixed Relay race of
this season. And we expect much more success for him in the near
future…
Name: Baptiste Fuchs
Country:
France
Date of Birth: January 31st 1987
Discipline:
MTB orienteering
Career Highlights: World MTB Orienteering
Championships – Long Distance 2nd (2014), Middle Distance 10th
(2014), Sprint 14th (2014), Relay 3rd (2014).World Cup overall –
8th (2014).
IOF World Ranking: 5th
Baptiste Fuchs was born on the last day
of January 1987 at Ambilly, where he lived for the first 20 years of
his life deep in the countryside, enjoying the majestic sight of the
Northern Alps. Along with his three sisters, he was encouraged very
early on by his parents to practise sports of nature. From walking
and biking to the more “radical” mountaineering, climbing and
paragliding: the Fuchs family did – and still do! – all of them.
In the life of Baptiste, however, there
is an event that was crucial in the personal and sporting options
taken thereafter. He tells: “When I was 10, I went to the
Mediterranean, cycling with my father. We rode an average of 100 km
daily, we bought our food along the way and slept in shelters or in
the tent that we took. For me it was like doing the Tour de France,
and I began to feed the dream of being a cyclist!” Baptiste Fuchs
took up cycling as a sport at the age of 12, and seven years later he
reached the French Cycling Elite. Divided between Cycling and the
need to continue his studies, he chose a Physical Education course
and he became a teacher. Based in the Paris region, that’s where he
discovered Orienteering: in the Fontainbleau forests.
A beautiful evening …
It all started with an invitation: the
challenge to be part of a team in a Foot Orienteering night race.
Readers familiar with Orienteering can understand the ingredients
assembled that night: the camaraderie, the team element, the
competition, the challenge of finding the controls, all in a scenario
of shadows and gloom. And when the team leader passed the map into
Baptiste’s hands, there was light. “I had stopped Cycling some
time back, and felt the need to find a sport that fitted with my
taste and interests”. And so Orienteering took over as “the
sport”.
For Baptiste, it was a surprise to take
note that Orienteering was also practised on wheels. And on all types
of terrain. “As I came from Cycling, MTB orienteering was of
interest from a personal point of view”, he says about this
unexpected discovery. Since the moment he left “his” mountains
and moved to Paris, contact with nature had been reduced almost to
zero and here was the chance of recovering it. But there was more:
“From the beginning I enjoyed the ‘playful’ side of MTB
orienteering and I felt I could spend hours and hours in the forest
searching for controls without feeling the time passing”. Holding
already the physical qualities and the control of the bike needed to
perform well, Baptiste was just lacking the technical part. But that
one can learn and improve with training and races. Motivated, he has
become a habitual presence at all competitions. He loves the healthy
atmosphere among runners. Above all, he enjoys this undeniable fact:
“The physically stronger is not necessarily the one who wins!”
Started at the age of 24
Baptiste’s first races with map and
compass were back in 2011. Baptiste was then 24 years old and the
question has to be posed: Wouldn’t it be too late to start? The
athlete sees things another way: “In fact, I started doing MTB
orienteering at the age of 24 and I didn’t expect to improve so
quickly! But I started with a good physical level, although it was a
disadvantage in the beginning because the habit to ride too fast was
huge and I ended up by getting lost. Looking to make up the time
lost, I ride even faster and … get lost again. Actually, my first
races weren’t very successful”, he confesses, a smile on his
face.
As he improved his orienteering
technique, however, Baptiste eventually achieved a balance with his
physical qualities, becoming what he is today. And he has the
ambition to get further away: “Some argue that it takes 10 years to
produce a champion. When I see what Ruslan Gritsan is still able to
do at the age of 37, I say to myself that I still have a long time
ahead to improve”, he says.
An unexpected medal
From 11th place on 22nd October 2011,
in the French Long Distance Championships – his first race counting
for the World Rankings – up to his silver medal in the World
Championships in Poland on 29th August 2014, goes a whole journey of
success. With Baptiste, we dived in on this “silver journey”, the
highest point of his career so far.
– What memories do you keep from
that day?
“It was a very special day. Contrary
to what occurred on the previous days with the Sprint and the Middle
Distance races, I woke up with a feeling of great confidence, that
this was my day. The day before I had already been amazed with the
10th place I achieved in the Middle Distance, especially since I had
made too many mistakes. I knew that if I had a clean race there was
no reason to fail in my original goal, which was to take a place in
the top 10. I started the race wishing to do things well, to complete
a course without mistakes according with my plan, and without
thinking about the result, just for the pleasure of feeling the
moment. And I got what I wished: I grabbed the race with the desire
to give of my best, and to have a successful race without thinking
about beating anybody. The silver medal is nothing more than a bonus.
I prefer to finish a course in 20th place but pleased with my
orienteering, rather than reaching the podium without the
satisfaction of having had a good race.”
– Did you expect to get the silver
medal?
“No, not at all. My best result until
then had been 7th place in a World Cup stage! I think the difficulty
of this Long Distance race in particular was not the choice of
routes, but the number of control points (37): It was necessary to
look ahead and keep concentration from the beginning to the end. And
we can see that easily when we analyse Jiri Hradil’s race, the
fastest passing through the spectator control but throwing it all
away at the 31st control. I may have managed to make fewer mistakes
than my opponents, keeping my concentration and holding to my race
plan until the end: choose always the shortest route, think ahead,
and keep well fed and hydrated.”
– One of the consequences of this
medal has to do with your place in the rankings. What does being 5th
in the IOF World Ranking mean to you?
“This is also a surprise. But it
shows how consistent I was throughout the season, proving that my
silver medal didn’t happen by accident. When I entered my first
international competitions, I looked to the athletes of the Red Group
and they were so strong… I was far from imagining that one day I
would join them. Above all, this will allow me to be in contact this
year with the best in the world and take the benefits from this
additional motivation.”
Training
Baptiste Fuchs has no personal coach
and he is the designer of his own training plans. But he admits that
having someone who can put in questions about what he does, give some
advice and, above all, force him to train when the will is poor,
could be important. He confesses his passion about everything that
concerns physical preparation, nutrition, recovery and the mental
part. His studies at the University of Lyon allowed him to acquire a
number of skills that he now seeks to deepen and complement with time
and experience. “It is exciting to realise how your body reacts and
measure the training effects on it”, he says, while finding the
PowerMeter “essential” to his physical preparation process.
Baptiste’s training scheme takes into
account the training of another great French athlete, Gaëlle Barlet,
and is divided in cycles of four weeks each, with three weeks of
progressive physical preparation and a week of recovery. In general,
a typical week does not stray far from the following schedule: Monday
– recovery, muscle strengthening and race analysis. Tuesday morning
– individual training; Tuesday night – training with Gaëlle.
Wednesday morning – muscle strengthening; Wednesday afternoon –
training with Gaëlle. Thursday morning – individual training;
Thursday night – training with Gaëlle. Friday – recovery, muscle
strengthening and competition simulation. Saturday and Sunday –
competition.
“The greatest enemy of the athlete
is himself, his mind”
In the training process, the mental
part plays a key role and Baptiste can identify perfectly its most
important aspects: “It’s not always easy to have the necessary
motivation to follow the workout plan, especially when it rains,
snows or the conditions are difficult. It is then that we see how
important the mental part is”, he says. However, his past in
Cycling taught him to “like suffering” when on a bike and it
proves to be particularly useful at this point. Directing attention
to pleasant moments or seeing images of a competition are strategies
that help him to overcome the difficult moments, to which he adds the
fact that he knows that his opponents are also training in the same
difficult conditions. Result: “My motivation returns quickly”, he
notes.
But it’s not just over motivational
issues that Baptiste focuses his particular attention in his mental
preparation. According to him, his state of mind remarkably affects
his performance during the competition: “We all have a similar
physical and technical level at the outset of a World Championships.
What makes the difference has to do with the ability to stay focused
throughout the competition, not to be upset by a mistake or an
opponent you meet or some mechanical trouble. The greatest enemy of
the athlete is himself, his mind”, he says. It is here that
Baptiste sees the reason for his improvement, especially during the
last season: “The confidence I gained allowed me to always move
forward being sure of the best option, and not come back to lose 15
seconds in analysing the map when I realised that this wasn’t the
best way to go”, he concludes.
Man shall not live by MTBO only
In addition to MTB orienteering,
Baptiste Fuchs finds some time for other types of physical activity
and sport. Cross-country skiing and Ski Orienteering are two of the
preferences of this athlete in winter, asserting that “orienteering
technique in both skiing and mountain biking is the same; someone
exemplifying that is Hans Jørgen Kvåle, a brilliant athlete in both
disciplines.” Trail running, ski outings and some raids – “to
develop endurance and mental toughness” – in winter, and cycling
in spring are complementary activities, and then there are
paragliding and climbing, these two limited by the fact that there
isn’t enough time for all. Above all, Baptiste Fuchs can’t stand
to be at home: “I like any sport, from the moment that I leave home
and dive into the nature, preferably without having to take the car”,
he concludes.
– What do you think of mountain
biking “hard and pure”? Do you consider it essential as part of
the training of an MTB orienteer with ambitions?
“I don’t go mountain biking. I
train myself exclusively on my road bike and I think here’s the
example that one can be successful in MTB orienteering without always
going mountain biking! I’m aware of my weaknesses in terms of
control of the machine: I don’t have the same agility as Kristof
Bogar in downhill, for example. But I don’t think this is decisive
in MTB orienteering. There are so many aspects that I must work on in
order to win a few seconds, so I have no problem in putting this
subject to one side.”
MTB and MTB orienteering: Two
different realities
In addition to the wish to go further
with his studies, the “bad atmosphere sometimes” among the
athletes weighed in Baptiste’s decision to leave Cycling. “A
certain mentality is maybe a consequence of money and prizes involved
in the races”, he suggests, comparing it with what happens in MTB
orienteering: “It’s fantastic that a good atmosphere remains
preserved in our sport. To win a mug and a lamp when you’re 2nd
placed in the World Championships may seem unbelievable to any rider
used to receiving prize money, but I think it’s precisely therein
that lies one of the charms of MTB orienteering. You can’t live by
it, you spend a lot of money travelling to the four corners of the
world where the events take place, but people who are willing to make
financial sacrifices of this scale, do it through necessity just for
the pleasure and for the passion”. And he concludes: “As long as
things continue like this and doping and other derivatives remain
away from our sport, it’s perfect.”
The topic of conversation remains on
MTB, and we can’t avoid talking about the mass phenomenon that MTB
is, whilst MTB orienteering continues to attract a much lower number
of dedicated practitioners. Baptiste finds the explanation in the
fact of MTB being “a very media-conscious discipline which has
managed to adapt in order to make the races dynamic and spectacular.
The circuits are shorter, allowing live broadcast of the races”.
And also, “young people can easily identify with their champions,
signing up in clubs and trying to imitate them. On the other hand,
MTB orienteering is not easily broadcast as you don’t know the
options of each competitor. And we have to admit that putting a
camera next to a control to see a regularly repeated sequence is not
exactly exciting. I think this is the greatest handicap to its
development”, he concludes.
The risk is part of the game
When we see an athlete riding along a
single track filmed by his own GoPro, we often feel a bit of vertigo,
such is the speed that things happen. Speed is synonymous of risk,
and the risk is part of the game, we all know, but is that risk
necessary to be a World Champion? Baptiste talks of the last IOF
Athlete of the Month, Hanka Doležalová, “the victim of a terrible
accident in Portugal”, as an example of the ever-present risk. To
him, “to ride a mountain bike is no easy task, but to ride and read
a map at the same time makes it even harder. Ask Julien Absalon if is
he able to read a newspaper and summarise it at the end of a World
Championships race. I’m not sure that he would get to the end and
win the race!”
His experience leads, of course, to him
taking the risk factor into account. “It’s always with some
uneasiness that I leave for a race. But from the moment I first look
at the map, I end up forgetting some security rules and I take undue
risks. One of the things I try to do is to memorise as much
information as possible to avoid being forced to look at the map
whilst riding downhill, for example. But unfortunately this is not
always enough”, he concludes.
France a strong team
Baptiste’s endurance work in winter
was distributed between skiing, running and biking. The athlete
sought to participate in as many Foot Orienteering races as possible,
especially urban Sprint – races that most resemble MTB orienteering
in the taking of options and speed of decision. With the arrival of
spring, Baptiste packs up the skis and focuses exclusively on the
bike.
Recently he has been in Spain and
Portugal together with his MTBO Team Elite colleagues. About the
team, he says: “It’s a strong team, full of young people who are
progressing very quickly and challenging the oldest. We will
certainly have a very homogeneous Relay team this year.” It is
clear, however, that what makes this team so special is its self-help
capacity. Baptiste confirms: “We have a great atmosphere within the
Team and do not hesitate to organise ourselves and move on to a
Training Camp as a group, regardless of the meetings organised by our
Federation. We also have this habit of meeting together out of
competition. The creation of the MTBO Team Elite is a dream that has
become true and I just hope that this positive moment will last”,
he notes.
“I am eager to do my first WRE
race”
– How is your physical shape?
“I feel quite well. I am lucky that I
never get sick and rarely injure myself, so I have so far been able
to follow my workout plan strictly. I’m a few pounds less compared
to last season at this time, and I dare to believe that my
preparation is also earlier compared to last season. I am eager to do
my first WRE race to compare myself to the others.”
– Judging by results, it seems to
be at Long Distance that you feel most comfortable. Is that true?
“Yes, it is true. In terms of results
I am better in the Long Distance races. I think when we start
Orienteering the most important thing is to simplify things, and the
Long Distance races are the ones where you can more easily express
your physical potential, rather than the technical side. But as I
improve, I take a growing pleasure in an urban Sprint rather than a
Long Distance race, for example, because of its ‘playful’ side. I
have to say that the route choice options haven’t had a decisive
importance in recent years with regard to the big Long Distance
races. In Poland, the number of control points and the weak slope
meant that the long-leg options didn’t have a decisive character.
In this context, it is easier for a “non-orienteer” to be
successful. But things will be different in Portugal. I look at Long
Distance map samples, quietly sitting in my office, and I find I
can’t draw a route to the first control that would clearly be the
best one. On the other hand, I think Portugal is a country that is
well suited to my skills. When I was into Cycling as a sport, I was a
good climber above all. I like it when we are faced with real climbs,
when there is enough slope. I live in the Alps and the peaks around
me are my ‘beach’.”
Triangle of emotions
In a year when Portugal, Hungary and
the Czech Republic form a triangle of high-level competitions, it is
time now to address the big goals. As mentioned above, Baptiste
nourishes a preference for Portugal and there is a strong emphasis on
the European Championships. To the athlete, “there are all the
conditions to enjoy the European Championships, but I also have good
memories from Hungary where I participated in my first World
Championships in 2012. I did the first leg of the Relay and
guaranteed the leadership for France’s second team, and then I was
second in the qualifying heats of Long Distance, to everyone’s
surprise”, he recalls. But despite the many good expectations that
Baptiste may have about the Portuguese and Hungarian competitions, it
is on the Czech Republic that he focus his greatest attention: “The
Czech Republic is the country of MTB orienteering. They are used to
organising a large number of high quality events and I’m certain I
will not be disappointed by the way the World Championships will be
held”, he assures.
“To enjoy myself, especially since
the results will be the logical consequence of well achieved races”;
this is the way Baptiste Fuchs summarises the goals for the current
season. The most difficult part, he keeps for himself: “To confirm
that my podium placing at the last World Championships wasn’t an
accident”. To do so, Baptiste knows that he cannot overlook the
strong competition, admitting that “all the first 20-ranked in the
World Rankings are capable of getting on to the Championships
podiums”. Once again, “my biggest rival will be myself”. But if
Baptiste shows the same state of mind as in 2014, then he knows –
we all know! – that a medal is quite possible. And we keep the
expression of his greatest wish: “To have a perfect race! But does
such a thing exist?”
Athletes’ Questions
Hanka Doležalová, Athlete of the
Month in April, put the following questions to Baptiste Fuchs: “Are
you planning to participate in the Plzeň 5 Days 2015? What do you
enjoy the most in this event?” And the athlete says: “I
expect, indeed, to participate in the Plzeň 5 Days 2015, as part of
my preparations for the World Championships that will take place in
the Czech Republic in August. The first time I participated in this
competition was in 2013 and I found a great atmosphere there.
Athletes are all hosted in the same place and take meals together,
and children from 4 years old participate on small bikes without
pedals, among the other competitors. We can clearly see that MTB
orienteering is more popular in the Czech Republic than in France. I
also liked the “originality” of some of the organisation’s
plans, in particular the classification of the best in the arrival
corridor, the chasing start on the last day, the Relay triathlon and
the semi-free order format, which gave me huge problems.”
Baptiste Fuchs asked Emily Kemp, the
next Athlete of the Month: “I know that you have lived in France
and you currently live in Finland. The dream of French orienteers is
to be able to head for Finland and Sweden to continue improving. Are
there many differences in the way that French athletes and Finnish
athletes train? Are the training conditions for high-level athletes
the same in both countries? What are the positive (or negative)
differences between Finland and France in terms of improvement in
Orienteering?
