From our special correspondent in Chamonix,
François D’Haene holds his unprecedented double. Only six weeks after conquering his first Hardrock 100 in Colorado, the Rhone trail runner once again dominated the competition on the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (171 km and 10,000 m of elevation gain) by completing the event on Saturday in 20:46. He calmly left two surprising trail runners, the Australian Morgan Pillet, in the lead after 21 km at Saint-Gervais, and the Peruvian Remigio Huaman Quispe, leader at Notre-Dame-de-la-Gorge (35 km), lead the start. race Friday. Then followed a long hand to hand with Jim Walmsley.
Careful as rarely on a UTMB Friday evening, the American was perfectly in the game at Courmayeur (78 km). But the difficult climatic conditions in the aftermath, at the Col du Grand-Ferret, got the better of the record holder of the Western States 100, forced to retire after losing 15 places in the 10 km following the exit of the supply from Courmayeur.
He overtakes Kilian Jornet and Xavier Thévenard
A rain of abandonments also took place during the night, between the former triple winner of the UTMB Xavier Thévenard (after only 50 km), the American Tim Toffelson, also a contender for the podium, as well as the ephemeral leaders Morgan Pilley and Remigio Huaman Quispe. This new top-flight performance by François D’Haene brings his number of coronations in Chamonix to four. It’s simple, each time the Beaujolais winegrower registers for the premier ultra-trail event (2012, 2014, 2017, 2021), he wins.
Here too, we are facing an unprecedented feat, since François D’Haene had previously shared three UTMBs with Kilian Jornet and Xavier Thévenard. To see the brutal failure of the latter, we understand a little better the scope of the repeated exploits of François D’Haene, whether in the Alps, in Reunion or in the United States.
