© Pam Williamson
© Pam Williamson
© Pam Williamson
The North Face Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc Results are coming in!
Winners of the TDS & OCC races are anounced as others continue their run
After what looked like it could have been a very wet and slippery trail round the infamous UTMB course, 2014 has (so far!) brought the sunshine and some of the best weather we have seen all summer.
The sun has certainly brought the crowds out in force to support this fantastic race and all those athletes who have spent years training to complete some of the toughest trail races in the sports calendar. The first race to kick off was the TDS which left from Courmaeyeur on Wednesday morning at 07:00. The first of the top athletes crossed the line a mere 14 hours later after running 119km. Men's race winner was Xavier Thevenard from France finishing in 14.10hrs with Nepalese athlete Samir Tamang only 35 minutes behind him. In the women's race Teresa Nimes Perez of Spain took first place with a time of 18.41hrs, and in second place almost 1hr behind was Italy's Lisa Borzani. Hopefully there were still plenty of supporters in the streets as these amazing athlete completed the race around 01:00/02:00 this morning!!
The second race, and the newest addition to the UTMB family, the OCC left from Orsieres this morning at 08:00. This 53km race was won is fantastic fashion by the French man Nicolas Martin who said that he was slow to start as others sped past him in the opening stages, but he found his form as he reached Flegere and powered on to overtake his fellow athletes and win this inaugural race in a time of 5.07hrs. France also took second place with Regis Durand in a time of 5.23hrs and Spanish Marc Pinsach Rubirola just after at 5.25hrs.
The lead women are currently still on trail, coming down from Flegere and are set to arrive in Chamonix any time now! We look forward to seeing if current first placed Sonia Glarey can hold that lead to take the podium as the first placed female.
Tomorrow morning sees the start of the CCC in Courmayeur at 09:00 and then later on here in Chamonix itself that start of the UTMB which is scheduled for 17:30. So make sure you are out in the streets to support the runners as they make their way through town and begin this enormous challenge!
It's going to be another scorcher tomorrow both on and off the trails - you can follow the action on our facebook page, and we'll be keeping you up to date on Twitter too.
