After successful multi-day versions of the Ultra Tour Monte Rosa, Lizzy Hawker now launches the big one: a 170km race which will prove a real test for any ultra runner.
A new 170km mountain ultra marathon is being launched in September by endurance athlete Lizzy Hawker. The Ultra Tour Monte Rosa encircles Europe’s highest mountain massif on the Swiss-Italian border.
Why another ultra? “This is the race I wanted to race”, says Lizzy Hawker, an endurance athlete and five-time winner of the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc. “I trained here for the UTMB. I love this route - it’s bold, very beautiful and definitely brutal. It’s at least twenty percent harder than the UTMB,” says Hawker.
“The full UTMR course is going to destroy runners that think it's just another long run in the mountains,” said Fergus Edwards from UK who recced the new course over four days last summer. “This is not a race that you turn up at and hope to hike the ups, jog the downs, and make it back tired but inside the cutoffs. Two key reasons: firstly, the ascents and descents are longer and steeper than other races; secondly, the terrain is very technical with boulder fields and narrow paths clinging to cliff edges.”
“The full tour is pretty tough,” says Hawker who completed a solo test run of the route in July 2016 in 37 hours and 10 minutes. “I think the winning times will be about 30-32 hours for the women and 26-30 hours for the men if the weather is good. The winners will be masters of their craft - skilled mountain runners with depths of experience to draw on and bloody minded determination.”
The 170 km ultra is one of four events being offered as part of the Ultra Tour Monte Rosa. Both the 170km and 116 km events are also offered as stage races. The multi-event format enables runners to find the challenge that is right for them.
The North Face athlete Sébastien Chaigneau placed 2nd in the 2016 3-Stage Race said, “The stage format was ideal a few weeks before the Ultra Trail Mt. Fuji, I’m persuaded this kind of format is ideal for preparing for a longer [race] objective. And of course beyond the kilometres, it is impossible to overlook these breathtaking landscapes!”
SCOTT athlete Ruth Croft, who was runner up in the 2016 stage race, said, “The course was challenging but the scenery was even more rewarding. What I loved most was the intimacy of UTMR compared to other events and the opportunity to meet new people.”
Registrations for the 2017 stage races and ultramarathons are now open and places are limited to 100 for the 170 km ultra.
