Thirteen minutes and 43 seconds; that’s all that separated Cristofer Clemente Mora (Spain) and Courtney Dauwalter (United States of America) after running 159 kilometres and climbing 8.200 metres from Saint-Etienne de Tinee in the Pyrenees to Nice in France. For both it meant the win of Nice Cote d’Azur, a UTMB World Series race .
For Dauwalter it meant she was again very close to an overall victory in a hundred miler on European ground. Last month the American superstar finished second overall in the 71 kilometres (4.050m+) Swiss Peaks Trail. There Simon Quartier (Switzerland) beat her by just 4 minutes.
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Dauwalter chasing Mora
Dauwalter grabbed the second place after St. Sauveur Sur Tinee, a bit more than 60 kilometres into the race. She passed St. Sauveur Sur Tinee after 8 hours and 7 minutes; 33 minutes behind Clemente Mora. From there on she started to chase the Spanish ultra runner.
When she passed Utelle, after 100 kilometres (5.766m+), she was 17 minutes behind. Thirty kilometres later, at Tourette Levens the gap was 15 minutes. At Drap, 7 kilometres later, she took another 4 minutes off. With still 20 kilometres to go, an overall victory looked hard, but possible. Yet, Clemente Mora was aware of that as well and the Spanish Hoka runner, who lives on the Canary Islands, had enough in the tank to hold on to the first place and finished in 21 hours, 22 minutes and 14 seconds. “It was a long race, alone. I enjoyed it a lot. Except the weather; it was freezing cold; a shock to my system. It was good to get to Nice and see the sun again. Now I’m looking forward to recovery. My body needs it.”
For Clemente Mora it was also a personal victory, as he didn’t make it to the finish at Valhöll Argentina and Tenerife Bluetrail, earlier this year.
Behind him, and Dauwalter, Nicolas Cerisier (France) grabbed second place. He finished more than an hour behind Clemente Mora in 22:28:24. Vincent Fabre (France) finished third in 22:56:36.
Dematteis second woman
For Dauwalter the race with Clemente Mora was the most interesting one. Her first place in the women’s race was never in danger. Enrica Dematteis finished almost 5 hours later; 21:35:57 versus 26:33:34. The Italian ultra runner had Agathe Lebel (France) on her heels. She finished third in 26:37:57. Dauwalter: “I feel lucky to experience this race. When I came over that last hill I was super excited to see Nice, because it was a hard race. The terrain, the rocks, the roots and the rain made it a fun, but difficult night, but I loved every moment.”
Albon and Nordskar win 50k
Jon Albon (Great Britain) won, as expected, the 50 kilometres Eze – Nice race. Simon Paccard (France) finished second, Ezekiel Rutto (Kenya) third. In the women’s race Sylvia Nordskar (Norway) was the strongest. She beat Camilla Mugliano (Italy) and Louise Serban-Penhoat (France).
UTMB winner Vincent Bouillard ran the 20 kilometres race and won. The Frenchman was with 1:32:07, almost 2,5 minutes faster than Clement Genot (France), who clocked 1:34:32. Third place was for Morgan Le Tennier (France) in 1:37:37. Marie Nivet (France) won the women’s race for Alexandra Yatzimirsky (France) and Jekaterina Gallamova (Latvia).
Photo: UTMB
You can find all results from Nice Cote d’Azur here.