No Kilian Jornet, no Francois d’Haene. So the question is, who can stop Jim Walmsley from winning the UTMB for the second year in a row? Or is the double – Western States and UTMB – too much of a good thing for the American winner of last year?
In 2023 Jim Walmsley made history. No American ultra runner had been able to crack the code of UTMB, although many had tried. Including Walmsley himself. After moving to Europe and living close to the UTMB course the American superstar finally did it. This year he’s the big favourite to win again.
Outsiders
However, even without Kilian Jornet and Francois d’Haene racing, there are lots of outsiders, who are hoping 2024 might be their year. For starters Ludovic Pommeret. The 49 year old Frenchman might be ageing, but he knows what it takes to win UTMB. He did so in 2016, In 2022 he won the TDS, the 147 kilometres (8.710) race at UTMB. And he is still going strong, because at the beginning of last month he won the Hardrock 100 (161k, 10.360m+) in the United States.
RELATED: Hardrock 100: Course records for Pommeret and Dauwalter
Hannes Namberger is another name to keep an eye on. The German Suunto runner has had an extremely good year, with – among others – a victory at the Lavaredo Ultra Trail in Italy. Last year he finished eight at UTMB. Mathieu Blanchard is back. The Frenchman won this year the MaXi-Race du lac d’Annecy (93k, 5.200m+). Last year he just missed the podium at UTMB, but in 2022 he fought an epic battle with Kilian Jornet, who beat him by only 5 minutes.
Can Granger surprises?
Germain Granger is another Frenchman who can surprise. He knows the trails around Mont-Blanc well, as he won last year the Marathon du Mont-Blanc (90k, 7.000m+) and stood on the podium (third) at UTMB. Joaquim Lopez might hope nobody will watch him as he’s mostly racing outside of the European spotlights in Ecuador. When he does race in Europe, he delivers. As he did this year by finishing third at the Trail 100 Andorra (109k, 6.900m+).
Other outsiders are the French runners Baptiste Chassagne (UTMB 875), Arthur Joyeux Bouillon (860), Vincent Bouillard (832), Spanish runners Manuel Anguita Bayo (874), the winner of Tenerife Bluetrail (109k, 6.343m+) and Pablo Villa (878), Romanian Ionel Cristian Manole (889) and the Brit Tom Evans (917). Ben Dhiman (United States) also set his eye on this race, just like Ji Duo (China) and Pau Capell (Spain.).
