Rosanna Buchauer and Hannes Namberger (both Germany) have won the 120 kilometres long (5.800m+) Lavaredo Ultra Trail 2024 in Italy, part of the UTMB World Series Namberger beat Tom Evans and Yannick Noel. Buchauer was faster than Giuditta Turini and Michaela Wolf. It meant the third victory for Namberger at Lavaredo.
The men’s race was a battle between an incredible amount of strong runners, with the likes of Tom Evans (Great Britain), Andreas Reiterer (Italy), Thibaut Garrivier (France), Hannes Namberger, Germain Grangier (France), Pau Capell (Spain) and Andre Rodrigues (Portugal). Up front, it was hard to predict a winner. Maybe Evans, the winner of Western States last year. Maybe Namberger, the winner of the Eiger Ultra of last year and the winner of Lavaredo in 2022 and 2021.
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Nailbiter between Evans and Namberger
Even during the race it was hard to predict who would be back in Cortina d’Ampezzo first. Namberger started strong, but so did home favorite Andreas Reiterer (Italy). Still it was the German athlete and twofold Lavaredo winner who passed Federavecchia, the checkpoint at 34 kilometres as first. After Federavecchia Namberger fell back and by the time the ultra runners were passing Rifugio Auronzo, halfway the race, he was in fifth place. From there he won a couple of places, lost them again, took the lead at Col Gallina – 97,6 kilometres into the race – but lost it to Tom Evans, on the way to the passage of Mondeval, with only 14 kilometres to go,.
Evans had been in second place since Rifugio Auronzo, halfway through the race. At Col Gallina he took first spot, only to lose it to Namberger at the next climb up to Rifugio Averau. At Mondeval, with just one little climb to go, he recaptured the lead. Victory beckoned, but Namberger fought back one more time and passed Evans on the downhill to Rifugio Croda da Lago.
Under 12 hours
No matter what Evans tried, he didn’t see Namberger back again, until the finish. The German Dynafit Squad athlete stopped the clock at 11 hours, 57 minutes and 15 seconds; the only ultra runner to finish Lavaredo Ultra Trail within 12 hours. Three and a half minutes later Evans crossed the line: 12:00:45. Namberger: “After col Gallina I had nothing in my tank, but I went through this, I risked everything. My knees were hurting so much. I wanted to win, then see my son and my wife. It’s my third time here, my third win. For me this is the most beautiful and the most important race. Here I feel like I am at home.”
Yannick Noel (France, Inov-8) finished third in 12:12:37, after a strong second half of the race. Jonas Russi (Swiss) who won the Lavaredo Ultra Trail last year, just missed the podium, by finishing fourth in 12:27:53.
Andreas Reiterer went out hard and grabbed the lead before the Passo Tre Croci. However, the Italian home favourite paid the price for his fast start, because he fell back to sixth place in the last 40 kilometres. He finished in 12:42:35, 12 minutes behind Frechman Thibaut Garrivier (12:33:09).
Buchauer super strong
Where the men’s race was nail-biting, the women’s race was clear from the first few kilometres. Rosanna Buchauer was by far the strongest. The German ultra runner won in 14:09:23, good for twentieth overall. An hour and 10 minutes later Giuditta Turini (Italy) finished second. The third place went also to Germany. Michaela Wolf clocked 15:22:41. It did mean that Buchauer could enjoy her race: “From the beginning it was quite fun. The last 23 km I thought I was going to lose a lot of time, but I kind of motivated myself kept going. The most fun was when I could switch off my race head and just feel human, and enjoy the views.”
Archive photo
All results Lavaredo Ultra Trail 2024
