With Kilian testing positive for COVID which possibly affected his loss at SZ I am going to go ahead and call it for Jim. I think its finally his year.
But who knows, Kilian is a beast so maybe he will still have it in him to pull off another win even with having tested positive and coming off a 5th place at SZ.
Hope big Jim does well but gotta go with Killian FTW even with this COVID announcement.
Whoa - when was this, I'm not a social media type?
Its right in the mens preview:
Two days ahead of UTMB, Kilian reported that he’s tested COVID positive, and that while he previously had been testing negative, he may have had the virus prior to racing Sierre-Zinal. Late on Wednesday, he wrote “feel ready and well prepared for the race and symptoms that are not there but I will check with my doctor closely what is the best decision for my health and the other runners on the day of the race.” [Paragraph added August 25, 2022]
Hope big Jim does well but gotta go with Killian FTW even with this COVID announcement. Hot take - Zach Miller as top American and on the podium.
That is a hot take, I think. I dont see Zach ever making the podium at UTMB no matter how much he wants it. He doesnt really seem to have the discipline to pace himself properly for 100 mile races. I appreciate his gutsy racing style but I just dont think it works for these long races. Walmsley seems to have figured that out, not sure why Zach hasnt.
Yeah we'll have to see about Kilian. It's one thing whether he starts the race at all, and it's another thing whether he feels the effects of covid and DNFs. I think if he's not close to 100% once he starts moving he will just drop out. But I don't know his thought process.
I am ready to be wrong about Jim Walmsley. He has certainly switched up his approach, introducing more skiing in the winter as well as some biking, and moving to France to train this year. He's going all in on replicating the exact steps of the people who actually have success over there.
I was shocked how few people have actually won the mens race - Kilian (3), Francois D'haene (4), Xavier Thevenard (3), and Marco Olmo (2). There have only been 6 other winners ever. I feel like I was fed a narrative that American men should be ashamed of their failure to capture UTMB, but idk, it just seems like there has always been 1-3 dominant european beasts spanking everyone.
The Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB) is a single-stage mountain ultramarathon, first held in 2003, that follows the route of the Tour du Mont Blanc. Since UTMB Group's partnership with IRONMAN Group in 2021, UTMB World Series...
