Very Flat Race 2026: everything you need for Sunday

All hundred bibs are sold and the race is full, but not everyone received our Thursday email. So here, openly, is everything you need for Sunday 4 October on Sougey beach — forecast, timings, courses, access, lunch. Pass it on: there is always a teammate who changed their email address.

Light wind on Sunday, and a forecast that has settled

Updated Saturday morning. Sunday: 13°C at first light, 25°C in the afternoon, and a north-north-east wind of 7 km/h, gusting to 19. Sunny spells rather than clear blue sky, and the chance of a shower is back down to about one in four — nothing forecast over the race windows. The wind is what matters: at that strength, on the flattest lake in Europe, the water stays a mirror. Still, bring something to cover up at first light.

Saturday, on the other hand, is wet: showers in the morning, a dry window from 9 am to 3 pm, then rain in the late afternoon. If you are coming the day before to drop off your board, aim for the afternoon rather than the evening. The 6 pm welcome drink is on, the tent will be up, and the night will be mild — 14°C, dry.

The water is 20°C — you do not need a wetsuit. A shorty is comfortable for the morning start, which is cool. Leash mandatory. Buoyancy aid optional, up to you.

The programme

Bib collection from 8.30 to 9.30 a.m., under the Alpine Lakes Tour tent, on the beach. Nothing to print, everything is done on site.

If you bought your bib when registering, we refund you €2 at collection. If you did not, we lend you one — to be returned after your last race of the day.

• 9.45 a.m. — briefing
• 10.00 a.m. — beach start, long distance 12 km and short distance 5 km together
• 11.30 a.m. — Le Globe Trucker food truck opens
• 12.30 p.m. — lunch by the lake
• 2.00 p.m. — Kids Race
• 2.45 p.m. — Technical Race
• 3.30 p.m. — Dragon Race
• 4.30 p.m. — prize-giving and 2026 overall rankings

The courses

Long distance, 12 km: a full lap of the lake. Short distance, 5 km: a half lap. Beach start at 10.00 a.m., both distances together, straight off the sand.

The buoy plan

Nine buoys mark the course. Green: buoys 1 and 2, plus the left-hand buoy of gate P. Red: the right-hand buoy of the gate and buoys 3 to 7. At gate P the short distance turns left and heads back to Sougey beach, while the long distance carries on to the right towards Aiguebelette harbour. Buoy 7 is moored at the north end of the beach, so you finish along the sand. The finish line runs between a buoy on the water and a banner ashore, in the middle of the beach.

Between buoys you simply follow the shore — no marks where the bank does the job. Everything is covered again at the 9.45 am briefing.

A rowing competition is on the lake the same day. It was meant to be the following weekend; the calendar decided otherwise, so we work around it. For the long distance: we pass north of the markers of the rowing training course, and an extra buoy is added so nobody cuts through the zone. Boats leaving the rowing base have instructions to give way to SUPs where they cross our course. No effect on the short distance. It will all be covered again at the 9.45 a.m. briefing.

Refreshments are waiting at the finish, on the beach. Cups are reusable, with a €1 deposit: keep yours as a souvenir, or hand it back and take your euro.

Lunch: tell us what you want before Friday noon

The food truck Le Globe Trucker will be on the beach, serving from 11.30 a.m. Stéphane drives up from Aix-les-Bains and buys his stock in advance: tell us what you plan to order, so he brings enough and throws nothing away.

And he is bringing his wood-fired grill.

• Meat box — sirloin and pork fillet, 80 g of each, home-made chips — €16
• Burger and chips — €15
• Hot Diot sausage and chips — €12
• Hot dog and chips — €10
• Home-made chips — €4
• Beer €3 · can €2.50 · sparkling water €2.50 · water €1.50 · waffles

Email us at [email protected] with your dishes and how many of you will be at the table, guests included. It is indicative and commits you to nothing: you order and pay on the day.

Replies before Friday 2 October, 12 noon.

Saturday evening: welcome drink and fondue on the beach

Many of you arrive the day before: Saturday 3 October, 6 p.m., Sougey beach. Nothing formal, nothing to pay — a drink by the water.

And for those who want to carry on: a shared fondue under the lit ALT tent, by the water. Pots, cheese, bread, and the lake in the dark right behind. Bring something or share the cost — just tell us if you are in, so we get the quantities right.

Getting there and parking

Sougey beach, 300 route du Sougey, 73610 Saint-Alban-de-Montbel.

By car: A43 motorway, exit 12 “Aiguebelette”, which leads straight to the lake, then a few minutes to the beach. Chambéry 30 min · Annecy 1 h · Grenoble 1 h 05 · Lyon 1 h 10 · Geneva 1 h 20.

By train: Lépin-le-Lac – La Bauche station, on the Chambéry–Lyon line, a few kilometres from the beach. Plan that last kilometre: with a board under your arm, it is better to have warned someone.

The car park is up the hill, the beach is down below. You park at the top, then walk down: allow about 300 metres of descent. Vehicle access to the beach is reserved for the organisation.

Up top, the car park. It has two zones — one reserved for vehicles under 2 m high, one open to all: trucks, vans and camper vans. Camper vans have a dedicated free area of about a dozen places, but numbers are limited: first come, first served. The toilets are up there too, at the entrance to the beach right next to the car park, and open 24/7 — including Saturday evening and overnight.

Parking is free, and the paid beach access only runs from 13 June to 30 August: on 4 October entry is open. But the car park is not extensible, and traffic around the lake is deliberately limited — car-sharing strongly encouraged, there will be 130 to 150 of us.

You can drop your board off on Saturday evening. We stay on site overnight: if you arrive the day before, carry your SUP down to the beach and leave it there. On Sunday morning you walk down with your hands in your pockets — three hundred metres less to carry. And conveniently, that is the evening of the welcome drink and the fondue.

Down below, the beach. That is where everything happens: start village, bib collection, the start itself, lunch and the prize-giving. Once you have parked up top, you never move the car again all day.

Lake Aiguebelette is a regional nature reserve: no combustion engines, and you take your rubbish home. That is the trade-off for the hundred-rider cap, and it is what lets us come back every year.

Who will be on the water

A hundred bibs, but a hundred and fifty-eight starts: 64 on the long distance, 34 on the short, 2 on the Kids Race, 30 on the Technical Race and 28 on the Dragon Race. Close to a third of the field races morning and afternoon.

On the long distance: 34 men on hard boards, 21 on inflatables, 6 women on hard boards, 1 on an inflatable. On the short distance inflatables lead among the men — 12 to 7. In total, 38 inflatables to 54 hard boards, five nationalities, ages 12 to 74, average age 51.

Eight trophies, and it is all decided on Sunday

Eight engraved wooden discs are waiting on a table: scratch men and women, inflatable men and women, 60-and-over men and women, junior boys and girls. None of the eight standings is settled — the Very Flat has the biggest field of the season, so it pays the most points.

Where the season stands: the provisional standings before the Very Flat Race.

And this year, for the first time, the Alpine Lakes Tour also publishes a club ranking. That one is not settled either.

A friend wants to come?

Entries are closed, but the waiting list is open and there are always withdrawals: join the Very Flat Race 2026 waiting list.

For everything else, the race page remains the reference, and if you want to know where this race comes from, we told the story of the eleven editions of the Very Flat Race.

See you Sunday,
Benoît and the Alpine Lakes Tour team