PRESS RELEASE

8 july 2016

AURÉLIEN DUCROZ

PRESS KIT, SUMMER 2016 A world champion skier onboard with the Round France yacht race SKIER / SKIPPER

LATITUDE SNOW / LONGITUDE SEA

Twice Freeride World Tour Champion, four times winner of the Xtreme de Verbier final, and writer/director of sea and mountain adventure documentaries, Aurélien is a charismatic athlete who leads from the front in his chosen joint career as skier and skipper! It's an ambitious challenge, but one in which he has clearly succeeded as a competitor in the Transat 6.5 transatlantic race from Quebec to Saint-Malo, with a 4th place finish in the , and a 9th place finish in the 2015 Tour de France à la Voile Round France yacht race for Diam 24 . Aurélien is back again this year for another Tour de France with Olympian crewmembers Laurent Voiron and Oliver Backès. With some excellent performances already to their credit and painstaking preparation, Team COVED promises to be a major contender in this year's event, with sights set firmly on a Top 5 finish.

FROM WHITE MOUNTAIN PEAKS... Aurélien Ducroz is already a Freeride legend and one of the best skiers in the world, who continues to inspire those who love the wide open spaces of this world through his adventures on the sea and in the mountains. Season after season, his CHAM’LINES web series has set the benchmark for discovering the legendary runs of Chamonix and the intense thrill of high-speed slopes. The freeskipper also films some of the world's most extraordinary places on his 100% Latitude Neige - Longitude Mer travels. After the Lofoten Islands, Greenland and Spitzberg, Aurélien set sail on Thierry Dubois's boat Louise on a quest to find the most beautiful couloirs in Iceland that lead at the water's edge… This 52-minute documentary on TREK TV is a getaway treat to look forward to this autumn.

... TO OCEAN BLUE WATER

It was a series of chance encounters that led him to discover his new passion: . The freedom of vast expanses and a free choice of route to follow are just two of the many parallels between this sport and skiing. Sailing has become a major focus for him, and some of the great names of sailing, including Sébastien Josse, François Gabart and Michel Desjoyeaux, have helped this talented sportsman to achieve his potential on the water. Since 2011, Aurélien has built up his experience in a broad range of competitive sailing classes, from Mini and Figaro to iMoCA Open 60, Class40 and the Diam 24 . That experience spans single-handed sailing, crewed sailing, monohulls, multihulls, offshore racing and inshore regattas. This man of the mountains has chosen to try everything, observe, learn and experiment to realise his dream of one day competing in the Vendée Globe. It's an ambitious challenge, and one that he's working towards, not only in the Diam 24 class, but also through a Class40 project targeting the 2017 Transat Jacques Vabre and the 2018 .

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8 to 31 July 2016

FIRST APPEARANCE IN SAILING

TRANSAT 6.50 LA ROCHELLE / SALVADOR DE BAHIA

TRANSAT QUEBEC / SAINT-MALO

TRANSAT JACQUES VABRE 4th PLACE FINISH IN CLASS40

TOUR DE FRANCE À LA VOILE TOUR DE FRANCE À LA VOILE 9th PLACE FINISH IN Diam 24

TOUR DE FRANCE À LA VOILE

The Tour de France à la Voile round France race gives Aurélien the to get to grips with pure sailing and regatta racing with the super-agile, high-speed 7.25-metre Diam 24 trimaran. This legendary event is fought out between 30 crews with famous-name skippers in a sporting battle of rare intensity over three weeks of competition. From Dunkerque to Nice, the 9 legs alternate races in water sport centres with day-long inshore races.

TEAM COVED: PERFORMANCE AND LEARNING Although multihull racing is a true sliding sport that combines technique with speed and direction that seems ultimately to have a lot in common with skiing, experience and expertise are non-negotiable if your ambition is to go head-to-head with the best. As a newcomer to trimarans, Aurélien called on two Olympic sailors voted Sailors of the Year by FFVoile (the French Sailing Federation) in 2002 for his first experience of the TFV in 2015: Laurent Voiron (also from a mountain background!) and Olivier Backès, both of whom finished fourth in the 2004 Athens Olympics and were runners-up in the 2002 Tornado-class world championships! Despite having sailed together for only a few days, the three-man crew of Ducroz/Voiron/Backès demonstrated its strength and ability by finishing 9th overall (7th in the inshore ranking and 10th in the technical ranking). Thanks to partner Coved, Aurélien Ducroz has been able to prepare this year to a standard worthy of his ambitions. To prepare the boat, he has brought onboard Marius Damilano, who trained in the boatyard of Michel Desjoyaux. A perfectionist and superb technician, this young man is also from Chamonix and the son of a mountain guide, and completes the perfect and extraordinary sea/mountain team and its combination of energy, performance and experience transfer. Sharp and ultra-motivated, Team COVED has the capability to compete with the best in the Diam 24 class and has its sights firmly set on a TOP 5 finish!

"I'm lucky enough to begin this journey with two multihull specialists who understood what I wanted to achieve and are teaching me everything they can. We share the same appetite for competition and the same pleasure in sailing together. Everything I learn with the Diam 24 will be useful to me in ocean racing, because, just like skiing, you have to learn the basics in a defined environment! I love to work hard and the excitement and responsiveness of the Diam 24 is perfect for that."

TRACK RECORD

FREERIDE SKIING Freeride World Championship • World champion in 2009 and 2011 • Runner-up in the 2005 championship • 7 general classification podium finishes in 10 years • 15 FWT (Freeride World Tour) wins Xtreme de Verbier (Freeride World Cup Final) • Winner in 2006, 2009, 2011 and 2015 • 2nd in 2010 and 2012

SAILING Transatlantic events • 2013 Transat Jacques Vabre (Class40): 4th • Transat Quebec - Saint-Malo 2012 (Class40) • Transat 6.50 La Rochelle - Salvador de Bahia 2011 Other • Tour de Bretagne (Figaro): 6th • (Imoca) • Artemis Challenge (Imoca) • Open Demi Clé (Classe Mini) • Trophée Marie-Agnès Péron (Classe Mini) • Mini Fastnet (Classe Mini) • Pornichet Select 6.50 (Classe Mini) • Mini Pavois (Classe Mini) • Open Mach Trophy (Mach 6.50) • Grand Prix de l’Ecole Navale (DIAM 24 One design) • Tour de France à la Voile 2015 (DIAM 24) : 9th • MultiTYCO (DIAM 24): 3th 2/3

ADVENTURE • Long-distance expedition documentaries: Canada, Etna, Spitzbergen, the Lofoten Islands and Greenland, and coming soon: Iceland (52 min.) to be screened in autumn 2016 on TREK TV • ChamLines webseries: 3rd season • Short documentaries: 2 episodes of the Chamonix Experience in 2014

OLIVIER BACKÈS TRACK RECORD (EXTRACT) • F18 World Champion (2012) • F18 European Champion (2011) • F18 World Champion (2010) • F18 French Champion (2009) • 4th in the Athens Olympics and runner-up in the Tornado class European Championships (2004) • Tornado class European Champion and runner-up in the World Championships (2002)

LAURENT VOIRON TRACK RECORD (EXTRACT) • 3rd in the Nacra 17 World Championships as coach (2013) • Coach for Team Tilt 4th in the Youth America’s Cup (2013) • 4th in the Athens Olympics and runner-up in the Tornado class European Championships (2004) • Tornado class European Champion and runner-up in the World Championships (2002)

PARTNERS COVED: THE SPECIALIST IN TAILORMADE WASTE MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS IS ONBOARD WITH AURÉLIEN "Aurélien has the unique talent set needed to compete at the top level in mountain sports and in ocean racing. When he competes at the highest level, he takes the values of his home region with him: courage, tenacity, team spirit, proximity and humility. So it's only natural that COVED, which partners the regions of France in creating a zero waste environment, fully recognises its own identity in these values and wants to support this ambition". As the waste management subsidiary of the Saur Group, Coved provides expertise in every aspect of waste collection, from the cleansing of public spaces to waste sorting, processing, and recycling: www.saur.com/index.php/nos-metiers/proprete

Press contacts : Emilie Rouzaud Tel.: +33 (0) 6.24.39.29.31 Email: [email protected]

MEDIA Follow the racing at www.team-coved.fr

About Coved: The Saur Group waste management core business operates through its subsidiary company Coved to provide expertise in every aspect of waste collection, from the cleansing of public spaces to waste sorting, processing, storage and recycling. Key figures for 2014: 3,000 employees, 5 million residents served, 1 million tonnes of waste collected annually, and 2.4 million tonnes of waste processed. €340m revenue. http://www.saur.com/index.php/nos-metiers/proprete

 COVED COVED SAS au capital de 23 000 000 Euros Follow us on Twitter Siège social : 9 avenue Didier Daurat-31400 TOULOUSE 343 403 531 RCS Toulouse @GroupeSaur 3/3