Euro2021 wrote:
D'Haene would disagree. He won Hardrock and UMTB.
He also really lucked out with weather, injured competition, and a race full of a lot of 100 miler newcomers. I don't mean to minimize what François did this year – it's absolutely epic – but with people like Xavier dealing with lyme, Pau recovering from surgery, and the Americans predictably not prioritizing UTMB, he had a much easier time pulling it off.
It's pretty simple to me: American men (1) don't prioritize UTMB as their main objective for the year and (2) don't shine in mountainous trail 100s. Jim Walmsley will never win UTMB, simply because he's not a runner that excels in 100s that have inclement weather and a lot of hiking; perhaps he would do better at something like OCC. The best we have may be Tim Tollefson or Dylan Bowman (commentator this year), and neither of those guys can compete with the best European MUT runners on a huge stage like UTMB.