Caitlin Fielder Finished Fifth at CCC But Was Joined By A Stranger In the Finish Chute

Caitlin Fielder covered the 107.8 kilometers (about 67 miles) from Courmayeur to Chamonix on Friday, climbed roughly 6,200 meters on the way, and crossed the CCC finish line beside a man who had run none of it.

Fielder, of New Zealand, was fifth woman in 12:25:17 and 43rd overall. Writing on her Instagram account, she said a man who had not entered the race joined her over the closing meters and stayed with her to the line. “Little did I know I’d be sprint finishing the bloke from the bar,” she wrote, adding that she was “pretty taken aback by it at the time and didn’t really know how to react.”

The CCC started at 9 a.m. on Friday in Courmayeur and ran counterclockwise through Switzerland into France. Organizers changed the route three times: around a landslide between La Fouly and Praz de Fort, down into Martigny after the 54K checkpoint at Champex-Lac, and once more mid-race, which took the late climb to La Flégère out of the run-in Fielder was finishing. Yngvild Kaspersen of Norway won in 12:01:14. Fielder crossed 76 seconds behind Jenn Lichter, who took fourth in 12:24:01.

Entry to the Chamonix races runs through a points system. Runners collect Running Stones by finishing UTMB World Series races, one for a 20K rising to four for a 100-miler, and double that at the series’ Major events. One stone earned in the previous two years is the minimum price of a place in the lottery, and stones accumulate, so a runner who has raced more often draws from a better position. Fielder made the point sarcastically, writing that “there’s no need to stress about getting race entry, collecting stones or even actually completing the race.”

The 2026 regulations for the Chamonix races carry a long penalty table. A runner who has company on the course outside the tolerance zones, whether or not anyone lays a hand on them, loses 10 minutes each time it is noted. Taking crew support outside an authorized zone costs 30 minutes, and so does dropping litter or setting off without the poles the runner intends to use. Starting without water, a waterproof jacket, a headlamp, a survival blanket or a phone brings immediate disqualification. Sharing a bib brings a lifetime ban. The rules address spectators in one clause, and that clause penalizes the competitor: a runner can be sanctioned, up to disqualification, when the people supporting them behave rudely or ignore instructions from officials. Nothing in the table covers a person who was never in the race.

Fielder wrote that this was “especially frustrating given how strict” the UTMB World Series is “about so many other rules and regulations around the event,” and added: “You’d think ensuring random people don’t run alongside athletes in the finish chute would be a pretty basic one.”

Governing bodies do sometimes punish people other than runners for what happens at a finish line, when they can identify them. In March, a referee at the Chongqing Wanzhou Marathon in China mistakenly obstructed the leading runner, Sheng Xueli, close to the line and steered him into the wrong lane. The Chongqing Athletics Association banned the official from marathon duty for a year.

Fielder’s 2026 has been the strongest of her career. She was second at Tarawera by UTMB’s 102K in February in 8:45:35, and fourth at the Western States 100 in June in 15:57:09, a race Lichter won in 15:28:05 to take Courtney Dauwalter’s 2023 course record of 15:29:33. Lichter has now finished in front of her twice this year. Fielder wrote that she had been looking forward to the CCC finish line “for a long time” and had been “excited to have that moment to myself.”

UTMB has not commented publicly on the incident. Fielder ended her post on the man who did get the moment: “he got his little finish line moment and I’m sure I’ll get plenty more.”