From competition to bikepacking with Valérie Pellissier [Portraits of Valais women].

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Episode summary

Valérie Pellissier, a former endurance sports competitor, is the central figure in this new episode of Portrait de Valaisanne, a special edition of the podcast La Sportive Outdoor. After a serious cycling accident in 2017 a Valais native with a passion for wide open spaces and nature , has completely reoriented her sporting activities.. She shares her story, which led her to found Valbike Experience a business offering self-guided cycling holidays.

From a taste for effort to competition

It was her father, a former competitor, who instilled in Valérie a taste for effort and the audacity to try, taking her out on the trails at an early age, on skis, bike or on foot. She started out in athletics, before seeing her predisposition for endurance sports confirmed by good results. She went on to compete in road biking, mountain biking and ski-mountaineering.

A knee problem turned her towards cycling. Her most vivid memories of competition include the 2013 Tour du Mont-Blanc, a 330 km cyclo race with 8,000 meters of ascent in its first edition. This challenge, at a time when ultra-races were not yet fashionable, was a great adventure for her, marked by sharing and mutual support between competitors in grandiose landscapes (Switzerland, France, Italy).

In fact, this race was the inspiration behind the creation of Valbike, whose first itinerary was a four-day tour along the same route.

The accident, a radical change in life

In 2017, while preparing for an orienteering race, Valérie was involved in a serious bicycle accident. A branch in her front wheel catapulted her to the ground. She suffered multiple fractures, including a double open fracture of the ulna and radius, and a broken collarbone. She almost lost the mobility of her arm and required ten operations to recover.

This event changed his life completely:

• She stopped competing.
• She has learned to accept her vulnerability and know her limits.
• She has opened up to other activities that she didn’t allow herself before, such as meditation, reading and writing.
• She took her recovery as a competition, working hard to regain almost 100% of her mobility.

Today, she takes part in sport purely for pleasure, to share with friends, and to keep fit. She cycles, walks, climbs (summer and winter), ski-tours and cross-country skis. She no longer feels the need to wear a bib, although she does take part in races that are meaningful to her, such as a December race in aid of sick children, where she is sponsored to raise funds.

Valbike Experience: the adventure of bikepacking

In 2021, Valérie founded Valbike Experience, her business offering self-guided cycling holidays. The concept is based on light bikepacking :

• Participants carry as little as possible in a small saddlebag attached to the saddle (approx. 1.5 to 2 kg).
• There’s no follow-on vehicle for luggage, but nights are spent in selected establishments and meals in good restaurants chosen by Valérie.
• Proposed itineraries include the Tour du Mont-Blanc (four days, three nights), Tuscany, the Dolomites, Vercors, Provence, Valais…
• She also composes customized routes, adapting to the physical level and dreams of her clients, as was the case for an 80-year-old former triathlete she coached to climb Mont Ventoux.

Valérie organizes these stays mainly for couples, singles, or small groups of friends (four maximum), having found that in larger groups, the differences in level made people reluctant to mix. She also offers day trips and after-work sessions (departing from Sion and Martigny). .

She organizes special women’s outings, because she has observed that the dynamic is different, with less competition and more benevolence, which helps beginners, who often lack self-confidence, to take the first step before eventually joining a mixed group. What she appreciates most in this activity is sharing her passion, her training routes, and good food and wine.

Listening to your body during perimenopause

Valérie also spoke about perimenopause, a change that has affected her, especially as an athlete who knows her body inside out. She felt:

• More fatigue and difficulty recovering after exercise.
• Sleep problems.
• Muscle loss, even when you do a lot of endurance sports.
• No more joint pain.

Faced with this subject, which she considers taboo and little supported by specialists, she has adapted her routine by listening more closely to her body:

• She leaves more room for recovery in her workouts.
• She changed her diet to include more protein.
• She now does weight training and yoga to prevent muscle wasting and osteoporosis, and keep her supple.

The last word

Valérie Pellissier invites sportswomen to “dare”, whatever their physical level, age or background. Her message is not to put limits on yourself, because ” your body is capable of much more than you think “. She encourages you to take the first step, listen to yourself, take pleasure in what you do and enjoy life.

Links

• Website: https://val-bike.ch/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/valbike_experience/