On September 24 and 25, the 16th edition of the Fort Boyard Challenge is held. A multidisciplinary competition where sliding is omnipresent.
Stand-Up Paddle, canoe, windsurf… Since 2006, the Fort Boyard Challenge has offered multiple choices to those who would like to discover board sports. The 16th edition takes place this weekend, September 24 and 25, with a novelty and a busy program, bringing together amateurs, experienced and professionals.
FBC organizers wanted to spice up the event. They decided to include the wingfoil, in vogue since 2019. As their wish is that it becomes a discipline in its own right from 2022, they have chosen to open only 10 places to test the conditions in which the competitors will find each other. Committed riders will try to reach Fort Boyard as quickly as possible using an inflatable wing and a foil board over a 20 km course.
With more than 300 registered members, the FBC continues to appeal to athletes and a mass audience. It now appears as the largest multi-slide gathering on the French Atlantic coast. Why is the competition so full? No doubt thanks to its varied choice of disciplines offered. « The technicality of the water body allows the organizers to diversify the race formulas and to offer a unique course, adapted to the specificities of each discipline » is explained in a communicated .
It is not Antoine Albeau, sponsor of the event and multiple windsurfing world champion, who will say the opposite. “What makes the success of this event is due to three ingredients: the wind, the number of people who come to compete in this incredible race in a friendly atmosphere and above all the setting. It is the only place in the world where you can sail near such an emblematic building as Fort Boyard” , confided the rider, absent this year because of a World Cup round. The best tricolors will still be there, since the race is included in the official calendar of long-distance races of the French Sailing Federation. A boon according to Lucie Pianazza, bronze medalist at the Youth Olympic Games in 2014. “The good thing about this regatta is that amateurs can compete alongside great champions” she reacted.
The FBC is also once again a selective event for the French V6 canoe championships, where around twenty crews of 6 rowers meet on the beach at Fouras. Over a cumulative distance of 50 km (two races during the weekend), rowers will compete in the Pertuis Charentais between the islands of Aix and Madame, Fort Boyard and the Charente estuary. “My main motivation is to be able to offer a race in an interesting format to develop and promote the Polynesian canoe. Its specialty is that it is accessible to all categories of practitioners: men, women, young people, disabled people, and not reserved for an elite”. points out Pierre-Yves Chevalier, the race director.
On the Stand-Up Paddle side, the double downwind is still popular. Tom Auver, double champion of France, has confirmed his participation. Vincent Verhoeven, confirmed rider and contender for the podium, is a regular at the FBC. Winner of many SUP race competitions, nationally and internationally, he will try to win a new trophy on his list. Among the women, the native of Saujon, Fanny Teissier, French Stand Up champion in inland waters and world team champion, seems to have a head start over her competitors.
The inter-company challenge promises a fierce battle between the crews made up of companies in the Rochefort Océan territory. This allows the FBC to “be part of the animation of the local economic fabric and open the race to novices in a fun way” . The winners will seize the trophy made, especially for the event, by the students of the Merleau Ponty high school in Rochefort.
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