Franck Michel
Over the past three years, Mats Skott and I have looked at and worked on four different locations as possibilities for the first-ever ÖTILLÖ swimrun in France. For different reasons, we’ve never been able to cross the final line of presenting an ÖTILLÖ event.
Now, finally we have found our home in France, a country where swimrun is exploding and where we feel very motivated to put on a fantastic race.
Thenew ÖTILLÖ swimrun Cannes weekend of October 20th and 21st will of course have a Sprint course on Saturday and the World Series race on Sunday. However, within a very short period of time, we will also present some new elements, too.
We were inspired by what has been done in Cannes before but the Sprint and World Series courses designed by us will be awesome.
The World Series race will be just under 40 km with almost 23% swimming, and it will include two big hills, two islands, some fantastic trail running and, obviously, some spectacular urban parts. The city of Cannes has a lot to offer and we believe this race will be enormous .
We have fantastic support from the Mayor of Cannes, David Lisnard, and his team. We are also working with Philippe Cordero and Laurent Gourmaud, who will help us build the local organisation and do all the pre-race production. And clearly we’ll be on-site for the final race production with our team, too.
We look forward to building an iconic event together with you in a unique place. Michael Lemmel, ÖTILLÖ Co-founder and Co-director
Top 6 things to know about new ÖTILLÖ Swimrun Cannes
1. When can we sign up?
The website will be online by June 10th and registration by June 15th.
2. What will swimrunners discover in Cannes?
Philippe Cordero, who co-founded Swimrun Xperience with Laurent Gourmaud, says, “In the heart of Cannes, you’ll find paths in the middle of nature with trees, discovery trails, a unique seafront, passages to mythical places such as the Majestic and the Martinez hotels along the 2 km Croisette and, of course, the Palais des Festivals, famous for its red carpet steps during the Cannes Film Festival every May – there’s a Hollywood-style walk of fame here: the Allée des Étoiles du Cinéma.”
The area’s natural heritage will also be on display, including the Lérins islands – Île de Saint-Honorat and Île Sainte-Marguerite, where the Man in the Iron Mask was said to have been imprisoned at one point.
3. What are the temps in October?
“We swim all year in Cannes,” says Philippe. The lowest average temperature is 13.3°C and it’s around 16.8°C in October. October and November are rainy months but here that means maybe six days in total! The average temperature is around 12°C low/22°C high.
4. How to get to Cannes?
Cannes is ideally located between sea and mountains, with access via Nice-Côte d’Azur airport (25 km) and Marseilles airport (150 km).
From Nice airport, there’s a 210 Cannes Express bus (€33 return, T1 platform 4, T2 platform 3) and new flat-rate taxi fares at €80. By bus, the Nice-Cannes 200, which you can pick up on the Promenade outside the airport, costs €1.50 and takes about 90 minutes.There’s also a SNCF train station in the heart of the city, a five-minute walk to Croisette.
From Marseilles, you can take the TGV or a bus from Flixbus.
5. Where to stay?
There are lots of Airbnb options and a booking centre managed by the tourist office handles www.cannes-hotel-reservation.fr/.
6. Food & drink
Best café latté: Volputé (32 Rue Hoche). Best cocktail: Carlton Hotel terrace or bar (58 blvd de la Croisette), made famous by Grace Kelly in the movie To Catch a Thief. Best area for dinner: old town of Le Suquet, 5 minute walk from Croisette at west end of city.
By Nancy Heslin
ARTICLE FIRST PUBLISHED IN SWIMRUN LIFE MAGAZINE ISSUE #8 (JUNE 2018)
