Baouw: Hi UGO, can you introduce yourself?
Ugo : Ugo Ferrari, self-proclaimed “Duke of Savoy” at the beginning of May 2019. I followed a classic, not to say banal, curriculum to bring me to work in OpenSpace in electronics engineering.
Fascinating field, but complex companies and SMEs to get to grips with, at one point I had a fair amount of free time that prompted me to... launch my own business, microphone in hand!
So, in 2017, I found myself starting a new adventure, at first alone against all odds, then in 2018, with an almost full calendar of events, stability had been found.
In sporting terms, I also searched a little before finding “my” sport. First a mountain biker from 2007 to 2011, then a road cyclist, I switched to the most individual sport possible: trail running, after becoming fed up with my poor skills in the peloton.
From the great nonsense of 2014 to the seriousness of 2015, it was in 2016 that I was really convinced and convincing on the Ultra Trail with a 4th place at the TDS behind a promising young runner named Pau Capell.
Baouw : Can you tell us more about your track record?
Ugo : My record of achievements remains meagre, since after a successful 2016 season, in 2017 “everything” happened to me, including an incomprehensible bacterial infection and an extremely rare fracture of the kneecap.
The recovery was very complicated in 2018, and it was only in 2019 that I was able to get back to a decent level, working to resolve some refuelling problems. The consecration came, only belatedly, at the Ultra Trail of Cap Town in early December. 4th behind François D'Haene and Nicolas Martin.
2020…ahahahah
And 2021, 18th on the UTMB and the rest to be written!
Baouw :
What is your fondest memory and your biggest goal?
Ugo : Without a doubt the arrival of the 2016 TDS, which was absolutely unexpected, and the goal is...its big sister, theUTM!
For a number of reasons, the UTMB is currently THE race I want to perform in.
Close to home, an interesting course around a mountain that's not too bad, lots of friends on site, a field of runners unrivalled to date on any other ultratrail, media coverage of the event adding that extra touch of excitement, everything's in place for a great week.
And above all, this process, month after month, of trying to arrive in the best possible condition on D-day, by constantly questioning yourself, is perhaps also the best part.
Baouw : What role does nutrition play in your practice?
Ugo : I'd say it's been very present since 2014, even if I think it's crazy to reduce nutrition to sports performance. After all, it's the pillar of health, long-term work that can't be bought, to live long and beautiful years and not “survive”.
Then in 2020 I took a turn, realizing that, on my own, I sometimes fell into certain bad habits, by taking on a nutritional coach.
Sébastien Diefenbron, a friend and sportsman trained by the same physical trainer as me: Patrick Bringer.
It's the simple things that we repeat without ever doing, like eating locally (there's no shortage of cooperatives around my home), banishing processed foods and eating sugar sensibly.
Now that it's down on paper and I have the program in front of me, every deviation is much smaller than before and is always followed by 3 or 4 super-clean days!
As I'm already in very good health, I haven't seen any obvious benefits yet. But I'm not here to “PSCHIIT” for a year or two. My absolute dream is to give the youngsters a major beating when I'm 80.
But I don't think that'll be very hard, because when I go to do my VMA sessions in the high school slots, I don't see any athletes in the classes.
Baouw : Why did you choose Baouw?
Ugo : It's quite simple. Knowing part of the team, I didn't really feel like giving myself over to pure sponsorship, which doesn't really make sense to me. I feel more like strengthening ties with a group of friends.
For me, Baouw has all the essential qualities: unprocessed food, complex sugars, a high proportion of quality lipids, a company that's as local as possible and on a human scale, a dynamic spirit and a touch of politeness - everything you need to evolve healthily in your sport!
The products taste excellent, even if I'm not a fan of all the bars. There are 11 different flavors, so I appreciate the diversity. There's a real sense of teamwork between the nutritionist, who proposes the best food for the body, the cook, who has to juggle to get us to swallow the so-called perfect food in the best possible way, and finally, the sales person, who also has to keep an eye on this to propose affordable products.
The Baouw range is expensive, if we compare bar weights between the different brands. But who makes the biggest margin? Is it the Annécienne brand, with its sophisticated organic products, or a lambda or even foreign brand, with refined sugar?
Do I really assimilate what I consume when I swallow a piece of junk?
Let's face it, yes, but let's ask ourselves another question: what impact will decades of fast-sugar consumption have on my stomach, intestines and teeth in the long term?
That's why, all of a sudden, Baouw seems less “expensive”.
All the more so since the fact of paying, in an impactful way, for your bar encourages you to consume it intelligently.
As I have a year-round endowment, I can't eat a fridge full of them either, so with my nutrition coach, we work out strategies for each training session.
Some days, even though the session lasts 2 or 3 hours, I don't need to eat Baouw bars. Other days I do. This strategy involves cycling your carbohydrates. This is a common practice in training, where you cycle your VMA, your threshold, because it's not something you do every day.
The contribution I'm looking for in Baouw bars is blood sugar maintenance. Stability. Baouw bars are essential in ultratrail, and if my pace doesn't increase unreasonably or if the weather conditions don't become too extreme, they enable me to maintain the same level of energy throughout the effort, without damaging my health.
In the event of a glitch, I burn fast sugars brutally and excessively to get the train back on track. That's when fruit purées come into play for me.
They also come in handy, sometimes, on split efforts where I only have 2 to 4' of recovery time between blocks if, for various reasons, I've left training later than planned and the previous meal is a distant memory.
Baouw : Do you have a favorite Baouw bar or puree?
Ugo : The cocoa bar without hesitation! And the sweet potato purée, I love the original salty taste!
Baouw : How can we follow you?
Ugo : Not juste on Insta! I love sharing experiences and, for those who want to dig deeper, I devote a considerable amount of time to it on my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/UgoFerrari
Also, with my friend and Baouw athlete Nicolas Martin, we've written an eBook to popularize training, for Trailer wishing to get their first foot in the door without immediately having to invest in a personal trainer: https://lantreduduc.fr/boutique
Finally, I've been hosting a “catch-all” podcast every Wednesday for over 3 years. It's available on Spotify under the funny name of “Trailer Dévergondé”.
Baouw : Thanks Ugo and good luck to you for the rest of the season!
