UTMB hero Tom Evans back to winning ways in iconic Yorkshire Dales fell race

Reigning men’s UTMB champion Tom Evans won the iconic Yorkshire Three Peaks Race on Saturday [25 April].

Billed as the ‘marathon with mountains’, the 71st edition of the event attracted Britain’s greatest ultrarunner on the men’s side, with Evans in a super-select group of athletes to have won both Western States in the USA and the sport’s blue riband event the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc in Chamonix, France.

The former British Army captain triumphed in the latter last August amid emotional scenes.

Exhibition display

This year he’s set to tackle the 100km race at the Ultra-Trail Snowdonia next month before moving back up to 100 miles for the Hardrock 100 in Colorado in July and then the defence of that UTMB crown.

He’s surely the highest-calibre ultrarunner to tackle the Yorkshire Three Peaks, though double Olympic triathlon champion Alistair Brownlee took part last year when he finished in third place.

The race brings together the best fell runners and is actually a little under marathon distance at 24.2 miles, with an elevation gain of nearly 1,600 metres as it traverses the peaks of Pen-y-ghent, Whernside and Ingleborough.

And Evans put his mark on the race from the outset – he was first up Pen-y-ghent, just under a minute ahead of his nearest rival.

He would go on to be quickest on every single section and climb as he notched one of the most emphatic victories in the event’s history.

No new record

Evans reached the finish in Horton-in-Ribblesdale in three hours, two minutes and 17 seconds.

That was more than 15 minutes clear of runner-up Jordan Clay.

However it wasn’t a record time as searing hot temperatures mitigated against that.

Those conditions were in stark contrast to Evans’ previous race this year when he was forced out of the Transgrancanaria Classic after 67km owing to wind, rain and fog.