The China Mail - Mont Blanc: The Holy Grail of ultra-trail running

As in every edition since 2003, the strains of "Conquest of Paradise" by Greek composer Vangelis, will ring out at 6:00 pm in the "Triangle de l'Amitie" (Friendship Triangle) in Chamonix to accompany the athletes' first strides.

Tens of thousands of spectators are expected in the ski resort for the occasion to cheer on the runners who have come from all over the world for the gruelling challenge.

The course, which dips from France into Italy and Switzerland, and passes through Courmayeur, the Grand Col Ferret and Champex has a total climb of around 10,000 metres (32,800 feet).

It was originally designed to be completed by hikers in seven days but to be considered a "finisher" of the Mont Blanc Ultra Trail (UTMB, to give it its French abbreviation) you have to cross the finish line in 46 hours and 30 minutes.

Astonishingly, the fastest competitors should take around 20 hours to complete this tour of Mont Blanc, meaning they will cross the line on Saturday.

"It’s our Tour de France, the final of the Champions League, the most important event of the year," said British trail runner Damian Hall, who finished fifth in the Mont Blanc race in 2018 but will not take part this year.

In the absence of Spanish star Kilian Jornet, the four-time winner of the event who is injured this year, there is no clear favourite.

Frenchman Mathieu Blanchard, the only man apart from Jornet to have gone below the symbolic 20-hour mark in 2022 with a time of 19 hours, 54 minutes and 50 seconds, will have to achieve another extraordinary performance to win.

He finished seventh in the Western States 100-mile trail race in California in June, falling below his expectations.

"After that, I took a big hit to my morale, but I arrived in the Chamonix region at the beginning of August and I have done a few enormous weeks of training. I'm not tired, not sore," Blanchard told AFP.

Could he win the UTMB? "The signs are there," he said enthusiastically.

American Jim Walmsley, who moved to the Mont Blanc region in 2022 with the sole aim of winning the race, and Britain's Tom Evans will also fancy their chances.

K.Leung--ThChM