My history
How I came to mental preparation
I first became interested in Mental Preparation while practising my sport: road cycling.
I was using more and more mental practices during my bike rides and especially when I was climbing steep, difficult mountain passes.
After supporting professional tennis players at a number of WTA tournaments in Europe, including Roland Garros and Wimbledon, I wanted to support sportspeople to help them optimise their performance.
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I realised what I was capable of mentally when I injured my knee for the first time (meniscus and cruciate ligaments).
I discovered previously unknown abilities within myself to overcome my fears and doubts about the injury.
I had to work mentally and find the resources to be able to practice my sport again and return to competition.
Below, I describe one of my experiences of returning from injury and the steps I had to take to get back into competition.
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One of my experiences in coming back from knee surgery
At the end of February 2015, I injured my knee during indoor football training. The doctor's diagnosis: the cartilage in my left knee was badly damaged. In fact, I lost 9 mm of cartilage on each side of my knee. Following my doctor's advice, I had to give up football for good, much to my dismay.
So I went back to road cycling with a very unstable knee. For 19 months, I did a lot of cycling, but I always had some pain in my knee. It hurt when I stood for long periods and after heavy physical effort.
Then in October 2016, I decided to see another doctor-surgeon. To my great surprise, I discovered that I had ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in my left knee. As a result, I needed a 3rd operation on my knee.
At the end of February 2017, I finally had surgery on the anterior cruciate ligament in my left knee for the 3rd time. 4 days after the operation, I was already back on an indoor bike for 5 minutes. It was difficult. But this time, I had the perfect attitude to return to competition as soon as possible. A very positive mental attitude helped me enormously to manage this period of doubt. My determination to come back was much stronger than the pain and doubt. It all happened so quickly. I spent 6 weeks in rehabilitation and physiotherapy.
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At the beginning of April 2017, I started cycling outside again. At first, I couldn't get into a dancer on the bike because I couldn't bend my knee enough. I quickly adapted and every day I told myself that I was going to come back even stronger than before. So I did some hard training in the mountains.
At the beginning of May 2017, I climbed the first mountain passes on my bike. It wasn't easy at first to manage a long sustained effort up the cols.
At the end of the month, I did some much harder cols again for 3 weeks. That helped me a lot to perfect my condition in the mountains and improve my pace on climbs.
Then at the end of June 2017, exactly 4 months after my knee operation, I did a 70km bike race again. It felt good to put a bib back on, but the result wasn't as good as I'd hoped.
A week later, I climbed to the top of Mont Ventoux with 2 players and the former President of Geneva Servette Hockey Club, as well as a friend. I climbed the Ventoux in under 2 hours without being overtaken by anyone. It was a great performance and I was very happy to be back at this level after some very difficult weeks. This experience proves that you always need to have high objectives in mind to succeed and come back as quickly as possible after an injury.
My solo Tour de France by bike
I succeeded in September 2024: I covered 908 km in 8 days, starting in Geneva, crossing the Alps and finishing at the summit of Mont Ventoux.
I'm very proud to have accomplished this huge challenge and to have put in such a fine performance, both physically and mentally. This challenge would not have been possible without the help and daily support of my mother and uncle.
I'd like to thank them again for all their help and for the refreshments they provided during all the stages.
Thanks also to the FOG Artistics team for filming the last stage to the summit of Mont Ventoux.
If you'd like to see how I got to the summit of Mont Ventoux:
=> You can watch a short ‘INSIDE’ video documentary of my last stage in the ‘Gallery’ section of this site.
Here are the difficulties I had to face during these 8 days in order to complete my challenge.
What I had to overcome :
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✅A positive altitude difference of 11,656 metres
✅The cold at the top of all the passes
✅Heavy rain on the 1st day on the Col de la Colombière
✅Snow on the way up Alpe d'Huez and at the top of the Col de la Croix de Fer
✅The very thick fog on the descent of the Col de la Croix de Fer
✅A very violent and icy wind at the summit of Mont Ventoux
✅Be flexible about changing my itineraries because of bad weather conditions
✅Finding the right routes, climbs and hotels without navigation
✅Strong stomach pains for 45km in Haute Provence
✅Back pain on the descent of Mont Ventoux
✅Problem with my shoe cleats (which were very worn), I could only clip my pedals with one shoe. I descended the Col de la Madeleine (20km) at high speed with just one shoe clipped on.
However, I had a great time on the bike, even though I suffered a lot from the cold at the top of the cols and on the descents. I had to get out all my winter clothes in mid-September.
And I also took the time to look at the magnificent landscapes that I crossed during my Tour de France.
One of my biggest challenges
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In July 2020, I cycled 600 km alone in 6 days, crossing the highest Swiss passes in the Alps.
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My challenge that I had set for myself at the start: it was to reach Geneva in 6 days from St. Moritz in Graubünden, to cross Switzerland from West to East. It wasn't easy, but I had trained very hard and the form was there. However, I had to push all my limits every day and perfect my mental qualities. I knew in my head that I could do it.
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So I managed to get from Geneva to St. Moritz in 24 hours and 11 minutes over 6 full days. A great performance with an average of 4 hours and 2 minutes per day. It was a big victory for me and I was very proud of my achievement. Above all, I proved to myself that I could do it. The most important thing is to always believe in your abilities and never give up.
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It is through my various training courses in mental preparation and with my mental skills that I support athletes, so that they progress, perform in their respective sports and become even better.
