27 - 31 August 2008
UTMB®: 3 countries - 166 km and 9,400 m of altitude gain - 46 hours max – 2300 runners
CCC® (Courmayeur-Champex-Chamonix): 3 countries – 98 km and 5,600 m of altitude gain 25 h max – 2000 runners
La Petite Trotte à Léon: 3 countries – 220 km and 17,000 m of altitude gain. A non ranking event open to 50 inseparable teams of 3 people over 100 h max
25 JULY 08 - While hundreds of amateurs are busy training and the snow is melting on the Mont Blanc circuit, top-level athletes enrolled for The North Face® Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc® are fine-tuning their preparations with the aim of winning this unique event.
All the winners of the previous races as well as the greatest world specialists in ultra-endurance racing are making their bid this year. Marco Olmo (ITA), Christophe Jaquerod (CH), Dawa Sherpa (Nepal) and the Frenchman Vincent Delebarre will be attempting to reach the highest step of the podium, after two years of Italian supremacy from Marco Olmo.
However this year, the three countries of the Mont Blanc circuit will be welcoming some heavyweight outsiders! Firstly Scott Jurek, top runner from across the Atlantic who, learning from his unfortunate experience last year, is spending this summer in France specifically to train for the UTMB®. German runner Jens Lukas (2nd in 2007), Hungarian Casaba Nemeth (2nd in 2006) and Thierry Chambry from La Réunion (1st in 2007 for the Diagonale des Fous) are also very serious challengers. One must also not rule out the French Nicolas Mermoud (3rd in 2007), Samuel Bonaudo (4th), Antoine Guillon or Sébastien Chaigneau (this year part of The North Face team), and around thirty other Spanish, British, Italian, Japanese, and Moroccan outsiders capable of causing upset to the favourites.
The organisation is communicating intensively with the runners to make them aware of the difficulties and dangerous objectives of this new event. The Petite Trotte à Léon will take place on paths far more “committed” than those of the UTMB® : narrow paths, very steep slopes, stone falls, crossing heaps of fallen earth, risks of getting lost. Often taking place at altitudes of over 2,500 metres, the course can be far from any huts and in the case of poor weather, meteorological conditions can be difficult. Finally, there will no other assistance other than that usually supplied by the huts, except for evacuations where necessary.
Focussing on the ladies, if France’s Karine Herry (1st in 2006) wants to regain her title she will need to beat off b contenders from The North Face Team, this year represented by Nikki Kimbal (USA – 1st in 2007) who is going to attempt the double, Elizabeth Hawker (GB, 1st in 2005) returning to the UTMB® after her victory in the 100km World Championships and Kami Semick (USA) who is taking part for the first time. Alexandra Rousset (1st in the 2007 Diagonale des Fous), Sandrine Béranger (1st in the 2006 Diagonale des Fous) and Simone Kaiser (LU, 2nd in 2006) are also ranked as favourites.
The French, Catherine Dubois, Martine Vollay or the Canadian, Chloé Lanthier are also highly ranked contenders, ensuring this year’s event will be a hard fought battle for the eventual winner.
New for 2008…
A course with a harder, but even more exciting finish!
A change for a « Grande Finale » Finish.
"The route of the course is the strength of the event" comments Catherine Poletti. Always on the lookout for ways to improve, the organisers have chosen to make some changes.
A 100% mountain and country course (less than 5km of made-up roads).
This year, the world ultra-trail competitors will have to face a final hurdle on The North Face® Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc® course. Just at the end of the race, after Vallorcine, they will have to summit the Flégère (1,877m) before the final finish in Chamonix.
This course modification makes the race noticeably harder than previous years with the additional ascent of 700 metres!
Runners will take their final strides in front of the incredible Mont-Blanc landscape and will have to face one last physical and mental challenge. Will they be capable of finding the physical strength for this final test? Without doubt runners will need nerves of steel and to draw on their final reserves to ascend to 2,130 m of altitude and clear this final hurdle.
So the final section of the race promises suspense right up until the last minute. And with an extremely demanding finish…. emotions will be pushed to the absolute limit!
The Ultra-Trail Exhibition, the first cross-country racing Exhibition
Alongside the race itself, around sixty exhibitors are coming together in the context of the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc®. Open to any relevant company, the aim is to create an annual rendezvous. All the great names in running will be there to exhibit their products, as well as companies looking to support the tourism impact of this extraordinary race.
In fact a race of this size is a huge tourist asset for the region. Runners and supporting teams come from all over the world staying on average for a week, often several times during the year. Particularly in Chamonix, the Ultra-Trail® week has, in a very short space of time, become the busiest week of the year. The Ultra-Trail® Exhibition is already tipped to be a major success in it’s first year!
2008 Programme…
As well as the race programme, many other events are planned, day and night, right along the course, in each community and the refreshment points. Celebrations, concerts, and even dinner-dances, will be on the programme.
Wednesday 27th August 2008
8:00 in the centre of Chamonix Mont-Blanc: Start of La Petite Trotte à Léon, Place du Triangle de l’Amitié
Thursday 28th August 2008
10:00–19:00 in Chamonix Mont-Blanc: Ultra-Trail® Exhibition: Cross-country Racing Exhibition on the champ du Savoy, under a 2500 m2 tent with issue of CCC® & UTMB® race numbers
Friday 29th August 2008
6:00–17:30 in Chamonix Mont-Blanc: Ultra-Trail® Exhibition: Cross-country Racing Exhibition on the champ du Savoy, under a 2500 m2 tent with issue of CCC® & UTMB® race numbers
10:30 in the centre of Courmayeur: Briefing for the CCC®
11:00 in the centre of Courmayeur: Start of the CCC®
18:00 in the centre of Chamonix Mont-Blanc: Briefing Place du Triangle de l’Amitié, in the centre of Chamonix
18:30 in the centre of Chamonix Mont-Blanc: Start of the UTMB® from centre of Chamonix
In the evening: 1st arrivals from La Petite Trotte à Léon
Approx. 23:30 in the centre de Chamonix Mont-Blanc: 1st arrival for the CCC® in the centre of Chamonix.
Saturday 30th August 2008
11:00: Podium announcements for the CCC® by category
12:30 in the centre of Chamonix Mont-Blanc: Final arrival for the CCC®
Approx. 16:30 in the centre of Chamonix Mont-Blanc: 1st arrival for the UTMB®
19:00 in the centre of Chamonix Mont-Blanc: Press conference with the winners
Sunday 31st August 2008
11:00: Podium announcements for the UTMB
15:45 in the centre of Chamonix Mont-Blanc: Official prize-giving ceremony for all the events in The North Face® Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc®
16:30 in the centre of Chamonix Mont-Blanc: Final arrival for the UTMB®
PUBLIC TRANSPORT
A very well organised public transport service will be freely available to runners and their supporting teams.
