Race news: The North Face® Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc® 2012
In appalling weather conditions nearly 6000 competitors from 72 nations took the start line this weekend in one of the three North Face® Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc® races. Organizers, volunteers, runners and supporters have been juggling constantly with the hazardous weather - snow, rain, wind and fog - to offer their fullest support and assistance to the world-renowned rendezvous for trail running.
UTMB® - François d'Haene reaps the rewards
- UTMB® - 103,42 km - 5862 vertical meters (classic route168 km - 9600 vertical meters)
- 2482 took the start, 215 of which were women. Number of finishers and abandons to be confirmed
The 28 year old winemaker from Villefranche-sur-Saône, François d'Haene, won the 10th edition of the UTMB® early Saturday morning in a time of 10:32:36. Following Vincent Delebarre in 2004, François d'Haene is only the second French runner to take the title of this mighty challenge. Due to deteriorating weather conditions above an altitude of 2000m (winds, snowfall, cold, fog), the organising committee decided on Friday to establish a new race route for the UTMB®, entirely on French terrain, approximately 100km in length. "In the end, even if the course did not follow the genuine UTMB® route (168km) I thought that most of the competitors would nevertheless be there and that the battle could take place" said François. Sébastien Chaigneau (FR), Miguel Heras (ES), Manu Gault (FR), Jean-Yves Rey (CH), Tsuyoshi Kaburaki (JP) or Carlos Sa (POR) would honour the race with their presences.
"I didn't really have a strategy for the race. It was really the one who could best adapt themselves to the conditions and the new race route. As soon as someone attacked I responded. I started to believe in it in Les Houches. This victory makes me feel really great" continued the young winemaker from the Beaujolais, owner of 4.5 hectares of vineyards for the last year after being a physiotherapist as a profession.
Being fast will have played a massive part on this year's race route due to the reduction in the usual high mountain route. This is probably the reason for some unexpected results on the podium.
The Swedish atghlete Jonas Budd will finish second, just half an hour behind the winner, taking advantage of the many abandons. Jonas has some impressive road racing achievements: Three times secon places in the 100km road race World Championships, fourth in the Comrades Marathon in 2011, and a marathon best of 2:22! In his first 100km mountain trail race (even if he has also won the Alpine Swiss Marathon de Davos 6 times), Budd will have suffered to keep his place. "At the end of the race I was exhausted and not very lucid". He nevertheless resisted, right to the end, the tornado from the other side of the Atlantic, Mike Foote (USA) who finished the race at full throttle to gain third place.
Among the women, British Lizzy Halker of The North Face® Team, defended her crown by winning for the 5th time in a time of 12:32. She finished in 16th place over all and merely 1:59 after the first man and in front of many male favorites such as Ludovic Pommeret (FR) or Matthias Disppacher (DE). A race won through mental strength after suffering from several recurrent physical injuries at the start of the season. Trail running specialists will confer that this is an exceptional performance, and believe her to be far out of reach on this legendary race. 44 minutes later Francesca Canepa, one of the best Italian specialists in ultra racing, crosses the line.
Photos: UTMB winners François D'HAENE and Lizzy Hawker © The North Face® Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc® - Franck Oddoux
TDS™ - Dawa Sherpa 9 years later!
- TDS™ - 114 km - 7150 vertical meters (classic route 112 km - 7150 vertical meters)
- 1465 took the start, 125 of which were women. 629 finishers. 836 abandons
On the most mountainous route of this edition, 9 years after his success on the very first UTMB®, Dawa Sherpa opened the weekend's racing with a victory in the TDS™ on Thursday, with a time of 14:37:07 of effort. He beat the Lafuma duo Lionel Trivel & Antoine Guillon, who arrived hand in hand after 15:05:26. In difficult conditions, that are often the route to his success, Dawa Sherpa took the lead after several kilometres. Trivel and Guillon stayed more than fifteen minutes behind the Nepalese runner. "Due to the tough conditions we decided to stay together" Antoine Guillon explained. "Dawa was stronger than us. We hit the groove at the Col du Tricot and by then we realised that there was no catching him". "It's such a great pleasure to win this today" Dawa said. "It is a beautiful course, the whole day I enjoyed every minute, I really loved the route".
Among the women, the French Agnès Hervé started out carefully before catching up with the leader Juliette Blanchet to win in 19:37:07 beating Juliette by 32:53.
Photos: TDS - winner Dawa Sherpa. GUILLON Antoine - SHERPA Dawa - POLETTE Catherine - TRIVEL Lionel at the finish line © The North Face® Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc® - Franck Oddoux
CCC® - Castañer and Greenwood rise above the debates
- CCC® - 86 km - 5998 vertical meters (classic route 100 km - 5950 vertical meters)
- 1913 took the start, 255 of which were women. 1582 finishers. 331 abandons
The Spanish Tofol Castañer continued the tradition of Spanish victories on the Ultra-Trail® by winning the CCC® early Friday evening, in less than 9 hours. From track and road racing the stocky Mallorcan wins his first great victory in the trail running world, after winning the European mountain race in 2010. Castañer, 40 years old, immediately appeared at the forefront of the race. He and the 1913 competitors of this CCC® confronted terrible racing conditions, notably on the Grand Col Ferret, where the snow combined with freezing winds and fog that you could cut with a knife. In these conditions the French Erik Clavery, who seemed to be able to keep with the Iberian, drifted off course. The straw that broke the camel's back and the world trail running champion of 2011 abandoned his race.
Behind him a magnificent head-to-head took place between Nicolas Piante, double winner of the Marathon du Mont Blanc, Mikeal Pasero and Seb Camus.
Among the women, the Scottish Ellie Greenwood, winner of the Western States last June, won in a time of 11:17:24 ahead of French Maud Combarieu (2nd 34 minutes later) and Maud Gobert (3rd 39 minutes later). Relatively unknown in France her important achievements across the other side of the Atlantic (1st American Rivers 50 in 2011 and 2012 and 1st Canadian Dead race 100 in 2010) predicted a beautiful victory.
Photos: CCC - Montée refuge Bertone © The North Face® Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc® - Pascal Tournaire
More than ever this tenth edition belonged to the mountain: unpredictable, wild and sometimes hostile. The North Face® Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc® this weekend experienced moments of strong emotions, between exhaustion, solidarity, endurance and adventure. So, only the front runners can go and rest this Saturday morning, there are still more than 1500 runners enduring the winter cold that has settled on the Mont Blanc massif.
UTMB - men's top ten (provisional)
1 D'HAENE François 10:32:36
2 BUUD Jonas 11:03:19
3 FOOTE Michael 11:19:00
4 SA Carlos 11:22:39
5 NEMETH Csaba 11:37:18
6 REY Jean-Yves 11:43:48
7 FAIVRE François 11:51:32
8 LEJEUNE Arnaud 11:53:17
9 BUFFARD Sébastien 11:57:47
10 KABURAKI Tsuyoshi 12:03:04
UTMB - women's top ten (provisional)
1 HAWKER Elisabeth 12:32:13
2 CANEPA Francesca 13:17:01
3 ROCA Emma 13:23:37
4 BOSIO Rory 3:43:10
5 FORI Katia 13:58:25
6 LACZAK Magdalena 14:07:50
7 MACIEL Fernanda 14:12:01
8 SPROSTON Amy 14:13:35
9 LECOMTE Emilie 14:35:54
10 MARTINEZ URRUZOLA Nerea 14:58:59
TDS - men's top ten (provisional)
1 SHERPA Dawa 14:37:07
2 TRIVEL Lionel 15:05:26
3 GUILLON Antoine 15:05:28
4 VILLA GONZALEZ Pablo Manuel 15:40:35
5 BAUMANN Ryan 16:18:38
6 LE SAUX Christophe 16:18:39
7 TRIVEL Damien 16:18:39
8 MARTIN PASCUAL Jordi 16:21:52
9 MORIN Olivier 16:27:25
10 DAVID Benjamin 16:45:57
TDS - women's top ten (provisional)
1 HERVE Agnès 19:07:00
2 BLANCHET Juliette 19:39:53
3 CARLINI Alessandra 20:32:14
4 REBUFFET Laure 21:03:30
5 HAEGEL-ARPIN Helene 21:59:49
6 DIEZ FONTANET Laia 23:14:31
7 JOUBERT Marion 23:51:39
8 LITHERLAND Catherine 23:54:12
9 VETELE Nadia 24:06:02
10 KERTESZ Dóra 24:34:20
CCC - men's top ten (provisional)
1 CASTANER BERNAT Tofol 08:57:04
2 PASERO Mikael 09:39:06
3 PIANET Nicolas 09:39:38
4 CAMUS Sébastien 09:43:47
5 DURAND Regis 10:00:48
6 GUIBERT Augustin 10:00:48
7 BUSSIERE Franck 10:08:11
8 VIET Vincent 10:21:46
9 MACKEY Dave 10:21:48
10 BROCHARD Laurent 10:23:26
CCC - women's top ten (provisional)
1 GREENWOOD Ellie 11:17:24
2 COMBARIEU Maud 11:51:40
3 GOBERT Maud 11:56:42
4 VALERO Anne 12:43:30
5 EHANNO Audrey 12:55:55
6 DEWALLE Christel 13:00:07
7 VANNSON Claire 13:10:38
8 GUILLAMON GIMENO Rosa Mª 13:10:58
9 MORBELLI Simona 13:19:01
10 MOTTO-ROS Sandrine 13:30:03
Full results for all races at www.utmb.livetrail.net/
Web : www.ultratrailmb.com
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Twitter : twitter.com/TNFUTMB
