Mathieu Blanchard has made a late call to be on the start list for the Ultra Trail du Mont-Blanc next Friday.
The French star has finished second (2022), third (2021) and fourth (2023) in trail racing’s biggest race over the last three years.
In that record-breaking 2022 race he and winner Kilian Jornet became the first men to break the 20-hour mark.
But despite a 100% big-race record in 2024 with victories in Le Marathon des Lumières de la Muzelle and the MaXi-Race le tour du lac d’annecy en 1 jour, his participation in Chamonix was in some doubt.
But he announced on his social media channels that he literally now had the green light: “🟢🟢🟢🔴 ➡️ 🟢🟢🟢🟢”.
‘I will be at the start of UTMB’
And he explained exactly what that meant in a lengthy and detailed post on his LinkedIn page, with the English translation as follows: “Until Tuesday, I only had 3 green lights out of 4. But that’s it, it’s official! I will be at the start of the UTMB 👇
“When deciding to start a race, I thought for a long time: “Let’s go, then we’ll see.”
“But my vision of sports has evolved. I don’t want to be a shooting star, but rather aim for a long-term career.
“I’ve seen too many athletes have careers of just a few years and not recover from overtraining.
“Often, it’s related to a thyroid problem. And it can be irreversible. I don’t want that to happen to me.
“I knew that all my lights had to be green to multiply my chances of succeeding in this combo.
“Because I know from experience that the recovery will take much longer if I start with an orange marker.
The four key markers for Blanchard
“Here are the 4 markers I measure when deciding to start a major race:
🟢 Physical: my cardiovascular, muscular and general fitness
🟢 Mental: my state of rest and mental load
🟢 Energetic: my motivation and my inner flame, the desire to fight
🟠 Biological: different blood markers (hormonology, renal, hepato-pancreatic, etc.)
“Generally, my biomarkers are in the red right after a race, and that’s normal. They are back in the green 2-3 weeks later.
“Except that some of my liver markers have been out of the norm for a long time.
“I pushed the research to the limit. Until meeting a hepatologist specialist the day before yesterday.
“He reassured me a lot. Liver standards are made for a sedentary and often sick society. Especially since they change from country to country.
“For a high-level athlete, it’s normal for the standards to be different. And my levels are not at all worrying.
“In fact, my approach interested him so much that we will probably continue this relationship to further the study (echo, MRI, fibroscan, etc. at different times of the year).
“Ultra-trail running is very new. We don’t know anything about the impact this sport can have. And I am proud to be able to contribute to it at my level.
“My biomarker goes green light 🟢
Who are the UTMB favourites?
“As in business, when working on a new offer, you usually wait until the last moment to decide on the market launch. The product is ready. Can I deliver it 🙂
“Let’s go for a new UTMB adventure!!”
It’s great news for the race and he will be among the favourites alongside the likes of defending champion Jim Walmsley and Tom Evans.
Blanchard’s UTMB Index rating is 905 which puts him eighth in a list topped by Walmsley on 935.
