French victory in the North Face Chamonix-Champex-Chamonix

This year just over 1600 runners signed up for the CCC and they headed off through the streets of Courmayeur to the roars of an 8000 strong crowd. At 86km in length it is the equivalent of running two marathons back to back and with 4500m of altitude gain to negotiate, the CCC is by no means the easy option. The start times are carefully worked out so that runners from the CCC and the Ultra Trail will never cross paths, and of the 1609 runners that set off, an incredible1342 arrived in Chamonix within the 24 hour time limit.

Right from the start, it was Frenchman Julien Chorier who lead from the front and went on to win in 10hours 19 minutes and 46 seconds. A bit of a rank outsider to the betting man, 27 year old Chorier had only been training to run for the past year and during his first forays onto the course itself 2 weeks ago, he was faced with pretty extreme conditions including snow at 2000m!

At the finish line in Chamonix around 11pm on Friday evening, it was fellow Frenchman, Sebastien Talotti that took second place, 21 minutes behind the winner, followed by Flavio Gadin of Italy (10hrs, 55mins) in 3rd. The Swiss proved to be the strongest in the womens race with Andrea Ursina Zimmerman winning in 12 hours, 28 minutes.

With the first runners already tucked up in bed (or whatever they do after such a gruelling race!), the day was by no means over for the 1200 doctors, nurses, masseuses and general all round good people who had volunteered to man the full length of the course. Providing food, refreshments, a rub down or an arm to lean on, the volunteers and hoards of friends and families carried on supporting each and every runner until the last one passed the finish line on Sunday evening.

For the report and results of the Ultra Trail click here.

Source: Chamonix Tourist Office