UTMB 2026 finally left Chamonix at 7.45 pm with 174km and 9,700m of elevation gain ahead of its runners — and with the weather having already reminded everyone who actually runs the Mont-Blanc massif.
Storm forecasts delayed the start, forced an alteration to the route and ensured the flagship race began against a distinctly unsettled backdrop.
Meanwhile, the CCC had spent the day producing drama of its own, with Cristian Minoggio and Yngvild Kaspersen emerging from rain, wind and a succession of lead changes as its champions.
UTMB 2026 delayed as storms alter the Chamonix start
The UTMB start had been eagerly anticipated. The mountains were less concerned with the schedule.
Storm forecasts prompted organisers to move the start to 7.45 pm in the interests of runner safety, while the original course was changed so that the race would no longer pass through the Limestone Pyramids.
It created an unusual scene in Chamonix. The first CCC finishers were reaching the end of their race just as the week’s headline act was beginning.
For an event built around endurance, uncertainty and considerable amounts of vertical suffering, it was perhaps a rather appropriate handover.
The adjusted UTMB course still presents 174km of racing and 9,700m of elevation gain. There is nothing remotely abbreviated about that.
Cristian Minoggio overturns the CCC men’s race
The CCC had started at 9 am in Courmayeur under persistent rain and strong gusts, with the weather causing two course modifications.
Its 106km route, carrying 6,400m of elevation gain between Italy and France, quickly became a hard race in more ways than one.
Hans Troyer, Benjamin Roubiol and Thomas Cardin were among those setting a fierce early pace. Cardin, one of the recognised favourites, was forced to withdraw between Champex-Lac and Trient.
Troyer continued to dictate much of the race from the front, with Elie Hemming and Miguel Arsenio staying within reach.
Minoggio, however, had other ideas.
The Italian worked his way progressively back towards the leaders rather than attempting one extravagant rescue mission. It was the sort of comeback that tends to look calmer on a results sheet than it does after several hours in wet mountains.
He eventually completed the turnaround, taking victory in 10:21.
Yngvild Kaspersen emerges from a shifting women’s battle
The women’s CCC was no tidier.
Miao Yao asserted herself early, confirming the threat suggested by her position among the favourites. Toni McCann gradually reeled her in and moved ahead, turning the front of the race into a genuine contest rather than a procession.
Behind them came another problem.
Honoka Akiyama, Jennifer Lichter and Yngvild Kaspersen remained involved in the leading group, with Kaspersen steadily advancing as the kilometres accumulated.
That patience proved decisive.
The Norwegian eventually reached and passed the runners ahead of her to win in 12:01, completing a women’s race in which control proved conspicuously temporary.
On a day of poor weather and repeated changes at the front, the two CCC victories shared a similar quality: neither was built on panic.
Gabioud brothers complete another formidable PTL
Elsewhere in Chamonix, one of the week’s longest adventures had already come to an end.
Jules-Henri and Candide Gabioud completed the PTL after 300km and 25,000m of elevation gain, finishing at 1.02 am after 89 hours. It was the brothers’ seventh appearance in the race.
Nicolas Lehmann and Sébastien Raichon followed at 9.36am.
Mike Marshall also reached the Chamonix finish for Team Adaptive, completing the PTL after previously finishing the MCC in 2025.
The distances involved make conventional sporting vocabulary begin to look slightly inadequate. Three hundred kilometres is less a race statistic than a lengthy disagreement with geography.
Courtney Dauwalter leads the names to watch at UTMB
Attention now turns fully towards the flagship race.
Courtney Dauwalter is pursuing a fourth UTMB victory, with Riley Brady among those facing her. Blandine Lhirondel has also joined the field following her victory at the Diagonale des Fous.
The men’s contest contains two highly rated Americans in Ben Dhiman and Caleb Olson, carrying UTMB Index figures of 946 and 945 respectively. Vincent Bouillard, whose 2024 UTMB performance established him among the significant French contenders, starts with an Index of 941.
There is important history potentially being made further through the field too.
Jonathan Naboulet could become the first team using a joëlette to complete the UTMB inside its time limit, which is set for Sunday at 4.30pm. Julien Veysseyre could become the first amputee athlete to finish the race using a transtibial prosthesis.
Five Team Adaptive athletes are taking part.
Chamonix prepares for another long night
The timing might have changed. Part of the route has changed. The essential proposition has not.
A field containing some of the sport’s most accomplished endurance runners has now disappeared from Chamonix into 174km of mountain racing while the weather remains part of the calculation rather than decorative scenery.
The CCC has already demonstrated how little authority an early lead can carry once conditions, climbing and accumulated fatigue begin collecting their debts.
Minoggio and Kaspersen leave the day with victories. The Gabioud brothers leave it with another extraordinary PTL finish. Dauwalter and the rest of the UTMB field have rather more unfinished business.
The clock started late in Chamonix. The mountain, predictably, had been working all day.
