I need your support in helping me giving a particular meaning to my fourth participation to the Vitosha 100 duathlon in Sofia, Bulgaria, competing in both the mountain bike 100km on Saturday, and the same distance, by foot this time, on Sunday.

I spent the last 3 years completing it to prove myself I could push my body to its limits while doing some crazy father-daughters bonding time, it is now time to make this challenge useful.

The cause I am supporting came by itself as two weeks before the event, a young cyclist got hit by a reckless driver, and Yana was left severely injured. Initially fighting for her life, she is now conscious but is at risk of losing one of her legs and will require serious surgery. Her recovery process will take years.

So yes she will need support, hence I opened this space to gather as much as possible to help her going through this difficult period of her life.

I had also initially set a challenge to try to raise as many hundreds of euros as the number of hours I will improve versus my best time, but… it turned out that I already got more support than I could have imagined, making it physically impossible for me to meet this target, which is a good problem to have! The event went also better than expected, as I set my personal best at 20h19, 5h11 less than last year!

Sport, and particularly extreme sport, is after all a representation of life: when the world sems to collapse around you, when you’re about to lose your job, when your body starts to fail you, you're left with your will and your heart to reach the finish line and achieve great things.

And during these 20+ hours, I could always remember the kindness of all colleagues, friends, family, and even anonymous generous people who had supported the cause, financially and with words, which should give us some confidence in a future always brighter! Because caring for one another is what really matters in an unfair world.

To conclude, may I ask all of us having our two valid legs to have a thought or a prayer for Yana and all people who cannot use them, today and every day, when we walk, run or ride, and be particularly vigilant when driving? Such an accident can unfortunately happen to

any of us?

Kind regards,

Emmanuel