Official UTMB Discussion Thread

How has Jim's training been? Haven't seen any Strava data and is he over his injury?

Feel that's a huge part of his performance chances

Is that Chinese woman that blew up royally in 2019 running? The one that Zach Miller'd it?

I kind of like to think Francois is right up there until he puts up a stinker. If it were a horse facing form guide, the writers would have put 'looms as a threat' next to his name.

2017 Jim I think is a bit of a different animal. I have the clip of him finishing then crying as he hugged Francois on my phone and I send it to friends after a workout that completely goes to sh*t. Anyway I like the fact that Jim seems to be quite taken by Francois' chill goat runner but also family man and wine guy approach. I think he's learned a lot from hanging with him and if he's fit, going back to the form guide, 'expect a bold showing'.

Pau Capell - 'must respect'

Rockz wrote:

How has Jim's training been? Haven't seen any Strava data and is he over his injury?

Feel that's a huge part of his performance chances

I don't do Strava so maybe somebody else can help with that. I did watch the iRF interview and it sounds like he's fine and purposefully afforded himself better recovery from WS this year in order to come in fresher. Let's hope that works out.

If I understand correctly Pau is out (injury) - sure would be epic if he could run.

Jim's not been posting the last couple of weeks. He usually either posts everything (even wahoo rides) or goes dark and posts nothing when he's knuckling down

For the women I’d keep an eye out for both Sabrina Stanley who has won the two last Hardrocks and holds the FKT for Nolan’s 14 and Beth Pascal who won western states and holds the Bob Graham record.

Both have done big efforts this year though, so like Francois it will be interesting to see how recovered they are

Yep. On both men's and women's sides it's:

Western States winners (Walmsley, Pascal)

vs.

Hardrock winners (D'haene, Stanley)

vs.

The rest (Mityaev, Villa, Dauwalter, Debats, etc.)

i dont know about competitors, but the race itself is a thing of absolute insane beauty.

If nothing unexpected happens, Francois should win this. Jim is probably a faster guy on faster terrains, but this course is way different than WS100. With no disrespect to Jim, of course. Francois is my first guess, Xavier takes his place if something goes wrong for D'Haene.

Sad to see there is no Kilian this year. It's always exciting to see them racing.

Sad news from Chamonix, a Czech runner died on the course of the TDS race after falling. Organizers decided to turn back around 1200 people because of the rescue efforts.

ercq0ewkmfsal329 wrote:

Yep. On both men's and women's sides it's:

Western States winners (Walmsley, Pascal)

vs.

Hardrock winners (D'haene, Stanley)

vs.

The rest (Mityaev, Villa, Dauwalter, Debats, etc.)

Good call on Pascal - I totally forgot. Thought I read Stanley scratched?

Buzzards wrote:

Sad news from Chamonix, a Czech runner died on the course of the TDS race after falling. Organizers decided to turn back around 1200 people because of the rescue efforts.

Sad indeed...RIP.

pacoza wrote:

If nothing unexpected happens, Francois should win this. Jim is probably a faster guy on faster terrains, but this course is way different than WS100. With no disrespect to Jim, of course. Francois is my first guess, Xavier takes his place if something goes wrong for D'Haene.

Sad to see there is no Kilian this year. It's always exciting to see them racing.

One of the most intriguing storylines is Francois being paced by Jim at HR this year. While indeed Jim historically has not delivered in the big mountains, I would not discount this "new Jim" quite so quickly as in the past. We'll see...

Buzzards wrote:

Sad news from Chamonix, a Czech runner died on the course of the TDS race after falling. Organizers decided to turn back around 1200 people because of the rescue efforts.

This report and embedded Twitter pics provide additional context

No one bringing up Tollefson?

letsgoletsgo wrote:

No one bringing up Tollefson?

Fair game - I have my thoughts but how about you start.

love this thread.

I gotta go with Xavier with this one. This race is literally his backyard.

Walmsley seems to have lost his competitive "edge" he held... a sign he is overtrained. If Walmsley was ready he would have basically told the interviewers that "Someone is going to have to close that gap". Damn I miss that Walmsley lol. He used to have the Tiger Woods effect of people would fear him. No longer, IMO.

As for Dehaine; dude is a stud. If he doesn't blow up he will win.

Love this thread....

As far as Americans goes I might put my money on Tollefson this year. He has always performed well at international races (minus 2018 & 2019 UTMB) but I think that will probably drive him to a really strong finish this year. His experience on different terrain from all over the world Lavaredo, Madeira Ultra etc I would think really helps him out, he doesn't just race the butter trails. He rallied back this year at Western so I think it will be interesting to see how UTMB goes!

Ok your thoughts........:)

letsgoletsgo wrote:

Love this thread....

As far as Americans goes I might put my money on Tollefson this year. He has always performed well at international races (minus 2018 & 2019 UTMB) but I think that will probably drive him to a really strong finish this year. His experience on different terrain from all over the world Lavaredo, Madeira Ultra etc I would think really helps him out, he doesn't just race the butter trails. He rallied back this year at Western so I think it will be interesting to see how UTMB goes!

Ok your thoughts........:)

Overall seems like a great guy and one who's easy to root for (re: aren't they all?). Yeah he's podiumed here and other international races, but as you noted, sorta hit some rough patches in the road in the last couple years - but who hasn't? Can he bounce back and put it all together again? Well winning UTMB is an elusive thing for American men in general, and anyone outside the elite of the elite really, so it's certainly a tall order. While I can't say I'm expecting it, I'd certainly be thrilled to see it!