The greatest race on earth

[Bierzo Baggie]

Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc.
166 km and almost 10000m elevation gain. No prize money.

Next weekend the very best ultra, trail and mountain runners will assemble once again in Chamonix for what must surely be the unofficial world championship for this non-Olympic sport.

Here are some of the candidates:

Kilian Jornet: Catalan. 22 years old. Winner of the last 2 editions. 3 times Skyrunning world champion. Born and brought up in a Pyrenean ski station. Undisputed king of the mountains... is he unbeatable?

Marco Olmo: Italian 60-something and winner of the 2006 and 2007 races. Sounds impossible. It isn’t! He’ll probably never win it again but he might still just beat Scott Jurek.

Scott Jurek: American golden boy and star of “Born to Run” book. Won the Spartathlon 3 times but still hasn’t cracked the UTMB. Could 2010 be his year?

Dawa Sherpa: Nepal. 1st in 2003. 2nd in 2008. Born in the shadow of Mount Everest and spent his formative years in a Buddhist monastery.

Miguel Heras: Spain. Brother of Roberto Heras, the Tour de France cyclist. Was well positioned last year for a top 3 finish but got lost.

Sebastien Chaigneau: France. 2nd last year.

Cristophere Jaquerod: Switzerland. 2005 winner.

Tsuyoshi Kaburaki: Japan. 3rd last year and 4th in 2008.

Karl Meltzer, Topher Gaylord, Max King, Geoff Roes: all form part of the American contingent.

Jez Bragg is probably the best positioned Brit.

http://www.ultratrailmb.com/

(Probably) the greatest race on earth.