The last three winners of trail racing’s blue riband event – UTMB – are set to take each other on in a mouthwatering showdown in Italy next weekend.
Reigning champion Vincent Bouillard, 2023 winner Jim Walmsley and the GOAT Kilian Jornet are all set to line up in the 120K Ultra Trail Chianti Castles by UTMB in the stunning wine growing region in Tuscany.
There’s a question mark against Jornet’s participation as his wife is expecting a new addition to their family and that will be his clear priority.
But if he does race then he is hoping to use the Chianti contest to book his Golden Ticket for Western States this year.
Training partners – and rivals
But great friends Walmsley and Bouillard will definitely be there – indeed they are currently training on the course together.
Walmsley heads to Chianti fully recovered from an injury which had prevented him racing since last year’s UTMB. He returned to action last weekend and in some style as he won in a course record time of 3:40:43 at the Mesquite Canyon 50K.
And speaking afterwards on the live broadcast, which is embedded below, he said: “Things today felt really good. It’s been a really long, steady progression back to volume.
“I know putting on a bib this close to Chianti, the goal is not to overcook it so we’ll see how that went but the legs were turning over really good.”
‘Fun, fast race’
And turning his attention to the Italian race, defending Western States champion Walmsley added: “It’s the Golden Ticket race over there and I’m just hopping in for that. I’ll be over there a little less than a month total.
“I’ll meet up with Vincent Bouillard and then we’ll run through most of the course over a week or so. It should be a fun, fast race.
“Then we’ll come back and start getting ready for Western States. And then right after Western States this year the plan is to go back to Areches [where he lived in the French Alps to train for UTMB] and start teeing up big mountain races.”
