Florian Olivier has been passionate about sports and mountains since childhood. Wanting to work in the great outdoors, he now works as manager at the
Maison du Tourisme du Pilat. After a successful sporting career in volleyball, playing at national level, he now dedicates himself to trail running.
In 2013, he achieved his first successes with several podium finishes and victories in competition. Notably, at the French Orienteering Club Championships where he won the Vice-Champion of France team title in National 3 in 3h54min04 sec. Then, at the Etoiles de Gimel (22 km / 560 D+) finishing 1
st in 1h41 minutes, where he repeated the victory in 2014, on the 32km (1000D+) in 2h35 minutes.
Since then, he continues to rack up the kilometres and metres of elevation gain and is ready to conquer new summits equipped by CimAlp. In 2014, Florian Olivier became CimAlp's trail ambassador: "
As a Mountain Guide, I've known CimAlp for several years, particularly for the quality and reliability of its products. It's a pleasure to represent the brand's values of innovation and performance to the trail running community."
Florian's race anecdotes:
To date he has completed, among others, the
trail des Aiguilles Rougess in 2013, which was his first real major mountain race: 50 km and 4,000 metres of positive elevation gain!
«
The race is just a succession of magnificent memories: a majestic sunrise over Mont Blanc from Brévent and passages above 2,500 m altitude in wild mountains! This race, completed with two friends, shows that despite trail running being an individual sport, the team spirit is very much present. My best memory remains that feeling of fulfilment, alone on the singletrack below Brévent, daybreak arriving and chamois taking possession of the scree slopes. The mountains are so beautiful...! »
The same year, he ran the
Saintélyon, which is without doubt «
the biggest nature race in the Rhône-Alpes region and perhaps even in France! It's only when arriving at the start line that you realise... The crowd is impressive! I wanted at least once in my trail running career to take on this legendary event and that was achieved with the 60th edition. »
« This race is quite different from the events I've faced until now: longer, more tarmac, more rolling... and all at night and in winter. The big unknown was the nature of the paths encountered as we were warned about a lot of ice. And what had to happen, happened with a nasty fall at km 12 and an extremely painful knee. At that moment, the question of continuing or stopping the race crossed my mind and it was ultimately mental strength that allowed me to continue, spending a good part of the races alongside Maud Gobert, runner and 2011 trail world champion. The pleasure of trail running is also that, being able to run alongside great champions! This nasty injury slowed my progress and my hopes of finishing in the top 50 of this legendary race. However, I finish at daybreak, in the top 100 out of over 5000 runners with a splendid panorama of the Alps »
On Saturday 5th September 14, Florian OLIVIER took part in his first ultra trail in the Vercors with our brand new 3Dflex trail range.
Here's his feedback: This Vercors Ultra Trail was a magnificent race both in terms of organisation and the quality of the mountain landscapes crossed despite gruelling heat conditions (over 50% abandonment rate in the race). I finish in a very encouraging 11th place for my first ultra in 12h55'14''. This new Cimalp 3Dflex kit lives up to all its promises: comfort, weight, breathability... and on top of that, it's "super stylish", which doesn't hurt! My full report can be viewed here
https://flo-trailer-pilat.jimdo.com/2014/09/08/mon-premier-ultra-ultra-trail-du-vercors/ and soon a complete product test on my blog"
