Last updated: 25-Nov-16
1600 runners lined up at in Courmayeur this morning for a dawn start. The weather conditions were perfect in many ways with excellent visibility and sunny skies. However the heat was a factor as the day wore on and the sun beat down.
The race is 119km long with a hefty 7,250 m of ascent. The cut off time is 33 hours and some hearts will certainly get left out there on the course.
The profile of the race is enough to make your eyes bleed with a steep climb up to the Arete du Mont-Favre right from the off. The race lead changed several times during the first few hours. At the four hour mark, Jessed Hernandez Gispert was leading for the men and Meredith Edwards for the women.
By twelve hours in, the men’s lead had changed and it was Pau Capell in first, Yeray Duran Lopez in second and Franco Colle in third.
Those positions were to hold good for the rest of the race. Capell came in at 14.45.44, Lopez at 15.14.07 and Colle at 15.32.45.
Pau Capell is a young Spanish runner who runs for Compressport. He burst onto the scene just three years ago with a second and third placing in Collserola and Menorca and has been going from strength to strength.
In May this year he triumphed at Ultra-Trail Australia, a 100km race in the Blue Mountains. At the time he said, “I don’t believe it. This is a dream. I dream about this. I think this was amazing.”
We are pretty sure that today’s fantastic victory at TDS will have surpassed that! He crossed the finish line in great form and to an absolutely esctatic welcome from the hundreds of people who had turned out to cheer in the leaders.
As we publish this, the women are still out on the course. Frenchwoman, Delphine Avenier is currently in the lead with the USA’s Meredith Edwards about 11 minutes behind. Edwards had led for most of the race.
We’ll be keeping you updated live on Twitter so follow us there and we will also be updating regularly on Facebook. We’ll be in Chamonix all week.
