How was Arnaud Manzanini able to travel 1,500 km on snow to reach the North Cape?

Arnaud Manzanini is the type to achieve a sporting feat that no other athlete on this planet had ever considered attempting. Judge for yourself: on January 16, the ultra-distance cyclist completed the 1,500 km (9,000 m of elevation gain) of his North Calling project, after 13 days cycling in Lapland to the North Cape. “I still have a small loss of sensitivity in my fingers, the 48-year-old Lyonnais admitted to us when we interviewed him 15 days later. At the same time, after finishing the Race across America (RAAM) in 2015, it took me six months to regain full sensitivity in my fingers. »

The scene is set: the (rare) enthusiasts of ultra-cycling, a discipline whose existence we did not even know before meeting Arnaud Manzanini, are pushing the limits like few extreme sports. Nothing seemed to predestine our interlocutor to such a crazy adventure. Passed by the sport-studies of Gueugnon in football, this one takes his first road cycling license only at 19 years old. This is followed by six “classic” years at the elite amateur level, with a status of top-level sportsman in parallel with a DUT in marketing techniques. With his rolling profile, Arnaud Manzanini won regional races, before devoting himself fully, from 1998, to his professional career in the management of real estate agencies.

The Race across America, an institution for forty years in the United States

Until then, nothing can justify his presence one day in our Off-road section, since he even abandoned the bike for good for eleven years. An inguinal hernia, in June 2009, pushes him to get back in the saddle on the advice of doctors. The click took place a few months later, at the age of 37, when he discovered, “totally by chance on the Internet”, the existence of the bicycle crossing of the United States.

Any road cyclist would have just smiled seeing images of this fascinating Race across America (RAAM), which since 1982 has linked Los Angeles to Washington. Except Arnaud Manzanini, who attempted his first RAAM with a friend in 2013, and completed the 4,833 km (60,000 m of elevation gain) in eight days and 15 hours. Our guy changes dimension in 2015 by performing this XXL challenge again in eleven days, but this time solo, which makes it the best performance ever by a Frenchman left to himself on the RAAM.

The Covid-19 got the better of its world tour in 2020

“Physical and psychological preparation takes on Herculean dimensions there,” explains the Lyonnais. I had no experience in ultra but I had an exceptional mind and total commitment. “We readily believe it, all the more so by immersing ourselves in his book Dreams across America, published in December 2018, in which he recounts his adventure from the inside. At the same time, he is pursuing another dream: to raise enough funds to organize a world tour in 2020.

After the 80 days of Jules Verne, Arnaud Manzanini then aims for his side the milestone of 120 days (with only four essential links by plane), to afford the world record without assistance. The rest, you can imagine: the Covid-19 pushes back his dream. But don’t count on him to mope and settle for a few sessions here and there on his home trainer.

A failure in the Alps leads him to plan Lapland in the middle of winter

No, the ultra-cyclist opts for a tour of France in 2020 by the coasts and borders, i.e. 5,000 km covered in less than 21 days. “It was nice to be in the middle of June, I almost had an anxiety attack in the Col de la Bonette (Alpes de Haute-Provence) so much the cold paralyzed me. I then said to myself that I had to confront myself with this weakness. And since I still couldn’t go around the world, why not climb on the roof of Europe? »

Understanding the North Cape (Norway), and as much as you need to do in the middle of winter, in January 2021. With pleasant temperatures on the menu throughout Lapland, between -5 and -35°C. With hindsight, it does not fail to make Arnaud Manzanini smile.

It gives a regular feeling at -45°C, which is 95°C different from the 50°C I experienced in Arizona or Utah on the RAAM. I have no preference: the two contexts are equally aggressive. »

Constant monitoring of body temperature

To resist this “aggression” in mode Into the Wild, everything goes: mask, balaclava, heated socks, between three and four layers of merino wool and Gore-tex clothes, but also a trail bag placed against him to prevent his water supply from freezing. And succulent nut or almond fats as a daily treat. But even in the great cold, the Covid-19 changes Arnaud Manzanini’s plans, since in January 2021, he cannot cross the borders between Norway, Finland and Sweden as he pleases, and he must respect a curfew there. . He is therefore content to cover “only” 800 km in seven days, more punctuated by his body temperature than by his speed (from 16 to 18 km/h on average).

“When you have the right to a whole day at -30°C, you really pick up, he confides. The faster you want to go, the more time you waste. I had a sensor to always know my temperature. Of course, I had to avoid hypothermia, but if I went above 37.6°C, I would sweat. The drops of sweat therefore immediately turned into crystals in my helmet, I could not see anything and I froze very quickly throughout my body. I then had to find a reindeer herder with whom to change my clothes. » CQFD.

“Only the survival instinct was still there”

Stuck by the demanding rules linked to Covid-19, the Rhone athlete must return to Scandinavia in January 2022 to resume his route where he had stopped a year earlier. And thus reach this famous North Cape on his very special bicycle with tires equipped with 350 nails each. A grand finale of 700 km, all the tastier as the average temperature is -30°C over the six days, with bonus tracks gusts of wind at 120 km/h which knocked him off his bike three times. Arnaud Manzanini has no trouble understanding that his initiative is in every way “out of the ordinary”, especially at this time of year: he did not meet any cyclist during these 13 days of North Calling, in 2021 and 2022.

“A lot of people stopped in the car, but only to tell me that it was too dangerous and that I had to stop,” he says. I was clearly more yelled at than encouraged there. The Lyonnais spends between 6,000 and 7,000 calories each day, to enhance this project under the sign of surpassing oneself and the sense of adaptation in a hostile environment, since he has traveled the entire 1,500 km on a thick layer of snow. Arnaud Manzanini easily recognizes that these 13 days were most often a hassle.

I only take pleasure in the outcome of this project. Only the final objective of arriving at the North Cape, after two ascents of 6 km at 9%, allows us to move forward. The brain and the memory disconnect and on certain days, I only have flashes in my head. I realized that I could no longer intellectualize anything. I wasn’t delirious at all about making a record, only the survival instinct was still there. »

“We are now where the ultra-trail was fifteen years ago”

A state of mind that he shares with most of his guests on podcasts UltraTalk and Inside the mind of a cyclist that he animates. Through this, he does everything to highlight his passion. He is also the organizer of four ultra-distance races in Europe, including the Race across France which he created (5th edition on June 18 and 28), with 2,500 km to be covered from Touquet to Mandelieu.

An event that has grown since 2018 from 43 to 1,300 participants, proof of the growing enthusiasm around this extreme sport. “We are now where the ultra-trail was fifteen years ago, summarizes Arnaud Manzanini. We also speak the same language as the ultra-trailers. We know a little more who we are thanks to this type of adventure, which takes us out of the collective hysteria in which we sometimes find ourselves. Okay, Alexander Supertramp.