Tom Owens leads the Skyrunner World Series Ultra ranking after Ice-Trail Tarentaise

Race report: Ice Trail® Tarentaise Mizuno, Val d’Isère - Sunday, July 13, 2014

Photos: slippery, soft snow didn't slow winners Francois D’Haene and Emelie Forsberg © Ian Corless

There was no doubt it was going to be a tough race. Struggling with lack of oxygen, torrential rain, fog and slippery, soft snow, more than four hundred runners lined-up for the Ice-Trail Tarentaise 4 am start in Val d’Isère.

For the winner, Francois D’Haene, it was a seven and a half hour struggle, for the others, much more. From the start, it was clear the race would be between Luis Alberto Hernando, recently crowned Skyrunning World Champion, and Francois, who came a close second to him in Chamonix. He was also the 2012 ITT race winner and second last year behind Kilian Jornet.

Luis led for the first 40 km of the 65 km race, with Francois comfortably keeping the pace, just seconds behind. At the Refuge Fours, at 2,500m altitude, Francois pushed on while Luis struggled to keep up.  At the Col d’Iseran, at 55 km, a 14 minute gap had opened up between the two and his strength gave out, forcing him to retire.  Francois closed, victorious, in 7:37:09 – just one minute and 27 seconds short of Kilian’s 2013 record.

In the lead pack at the Aiguille Pers, 51 km into the race and at 3,386m altitude, Fabien Antolinos overtakes Tom Owens on the ascent, 14’ from Francois and 10’ from Luis. Fulvio Dapit and Travis Macy keep the pace close behind. Tom was struggling with the altitude and, 56km into the race and nearly retired until he realised he was in third position. He rose to the challenge and held his position to the finish.

Emelie Forsberg, Ultra Skyrunning World Champion and last year’s winner, would lead the women's field from start to finish, closing in 9:24:09, 17 minutes ahead of the second woman, Alessandra Carlini. Alessandra and Maud Gobert ran close together over the entire course to finish just six minutes apart. Francesca Canepa, third here last year, was forced to retire after a fall early on in the race.

After two out of five races, Tom Owens now leads the Skyrunner® World Series Ultra ranking with 144 points, ahead of Fulvio Dapit and Manuel Merillas, both with 132 points.

In the women’s field, Alessandra Carlini leads with 146 points ahead of Maud Gobert, with Emelie Forsberg and Anna Frost who both have 100 points after winning one race each.

Next weekend The action moves to the spectacular Italian Dolomites for the iconic Dolomites VK® and SkyRace® with another world class line-up.

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Find out more about the Ice-Trail Tarentaise on the race website: www.icetrailtarentaise.fr

Men's results

Women's results

Click here for full results