La Transju 2024: Steps for sustainability & consistency
For over 40 years, La Transju’ has been France’s most popular and continues to grow. Each year it demonstrates its dynamism, adapting to environmental and meteorological constraints, and multiplies its projects to promote the image of the Jura and Haut-Doubs beyond its borders. La Transju 2024 – a date in the Worldloppet calendar, not to be missed. For winter 2024 the Trans’Organisation sets steps for sustainability and consistency.
La Transju 2024 adapting to its environment
As Pierre-Albert Vandel explains, “In our events, we use the trails used every day by skiers and hikers. We almost never go beyond that. For our winter events, we’ve given priority to the idea of getting closer to the snow rather than producing or transporting it. This sometimes forces us to retreat to sites at higher altitudes, often a little more sensitive, a little less frequented. Certain species that have their habitat and sometimes find it difficult to move around, like the Capercaillie, for example, can be disturbed by larger numbers of skiers.
But bearing in mind that we’re on trails used every day by skiers, these species have moved on. We are also eager to avoid disturbance during nesting or breeding season. Nevertheless, to limit disturbance as much as possible, we don’t have refueling facilities in any of these sensitive areas. We also limit the use of snowmobiles.”
Skiing on the slopes of La Transju’ means skiing in a sumptuous setting in the heart of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. In fact, proximity to nature is most often the first reason given by skiers for their passion for Nordic skiing. La Transju”s environmental approach is therefore an obvious choice.
The historic trail becomes permanent
Like the Alpe d’Huez climb for cyclists or the Tour du Mont-Blanc trail for ultra-trailers, La Transjurassienne is a must for cross-country skiers. A permanent trail will be unveiled on November 7, with signage featuring numerous signs all along the route. Several of these signs, notably at Bois d’Amont and Bellefontaine, at the gateway to the Risoux forest, will serve as a reminder of the importance of good to reconcile sport and respect for the environment. For example: don’t be noisy, don’t throw anything away, respect the tracks without going off-piste, respect the rules, etc.
“It’s a win-win project for us, since we’ll be able to enjoy good conditions for our races, but also for the site managers, who will benefit from tourism spin-offs. We can even plan events throughout the ski season and take advantage of existing applications to enable skiers to go on specific sections.”
6 races for about 4500 skiers at La Transju 2024
As with every edition, the final routes will be unveiled at the traditional press conference scheduled for February 5, 2024, but the usual events have already been announced:
- – In classic style, on Saturday February 10:
- Classic 50 km
- Classic 25 km
- Rando Classic 20 km
- – In skating style, on Sunday February 11:
- Transjurassienne, Skating 50 km
- Skating 25 km
- Rando Skating 20 km
“We have to adapt more and more to weather conditions, and it’s up to the organizers to come up with simple and effective solutions.” explains Pierre-Albert Vandel. “We want LaTransju’ to be an event for everyone, whatever their level of ability and whatever the weather.”
With less than four months to go to La Transju’, registrations are already open, and the enthusiasm among cross-country skiers is high.”We’ve opened registrations and today, compared with the same date last year, we’ve even got a 10% increase in registrations. We should therefore have around 4,500 participants for all the races. The Transju’ 2024 promises to be a great event.”
