It’s UTMB World Series time, with 2 races in one weekend. This weekend, May 11 and 12 2024, the eyes are on Wales and Argentina for Ultra-Trail Snowdonia and Valholl Argentina.

Corine Kagerer (Switzerland) is the highest ranked athlete in the 100 miles (9.500m+) in Llanberis, Wales. Kagerer finished 11th last year at the UTMB Mont-Blanc TDS (Sur les Traces des Ducs de Savoie). This year she finished second in the Les Courses du Mont-Terrible, a 106 kilometres (5.100m+) UTMB Index race in Switzerland

However, Nikki Arthur (UK) and Rachel Fawcett (UK), the number two and three on the startlist, will have home advantage. Arthur won this year’s Montana Winter Spine race; a 258 kilometres (5.910m+) race along the Pennine Way in Britain. Fawcett is the number 3 in last year’s 100 kilometres race in Snowdonia.

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Mathieu Clement

In the men’s race Mathieu Clement (Switzerland) is the highest ranked athlete. The Asics runner won last year UTMB’s Trail Verbier in Switzerland and the Canyons Endurance Run in the United States. Clement has to keep an eye on Ivan Hrastovec (Slovenia), who last year won UTMB’s Julian Alps. Another competitor is Belgium’s Guillaume Deneffe (Hoka-Trakks), who is a regular on the podium at UTMB’s hundred miles races.

The 50 kilometres race has a very interesting women’s field with 3 Scandinavian favourites: Henriette Albon (Norway) and the twins Sanna El Kott Helander (Sweden) and Lina El Kott Helander. Henriette Albon recently set the winter record on the Bob Graham Round in the Lake District (England).

Valholl Argentina

The longest race in Argentina is the 125 kilometres (5.000m+) Epic 125k. Here, Ludovic Pommeret (France) will start with bib-number 1. The Hoka athlete won in 2022 the TDS at UTMB Mont-Blanc. His Hoka teammate, Cristofer Clemente Mora (Spain) will be his biggest competitor, together with Sergio Gustavo Pereyra and Santos Gabriel Rueda (both Argentina).

Clemente Mora knows the course well. Last year he finished second. Gustavo Pereyra is the number 20 of last year’s UTMB, while Gabriel Rueda was the number 13.

Double for Veronica Ramirez?

In the women’s field the Americans Tara Fraga (The North Face) and Annie Hughes (Hoka) will battle it out, while Claudia Veronica Ramirez, last year’s winner, and Mariele Vigliocco, number 2 last year, (both Argentina) will hope they slip up.

Fraga won this year the 84k at UTMB’s Transgrancanaria. Hughes finished last year third at Hardrock 100 and The Canyons Endurance Runs.

Photo Pablo Barrionuevo