Everything You Need To Know About UTMB 2026 Race Week

UTMB Mont-Blanc opens its 23rd edition in Chamonix on Monday, Aug. 24, with eight races on the schedule and a flagship start list missing the man who holds its course record, the woman who holds hers, the defending men’s champion and a four-time winner.

The organizer calls it “one of the strongest fields in its history.” There are 846 elite entrants across the week, 34 more than in 2025, drawn from 54 nationalities, and 46 percent of them are women. Three of the four absent names came off the lists this month.

What the UTMB Is and How Runners Get In

The route goes around Mont Blanc and returns to where it began. Runners leave Chamonix, drop into Italy, climb into Switzerland, and come back into France, covering 174K (108 miles) and 9,900 meters of vertical gain, about 32,500 feet, inside 46 hours and 45 minutes. More than 2,300 of them set off at 5:45 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 28.

It is the 100-mile final of the UTMB World Series, the fourth edition under that format. Entrants qualify at a World Series race earlier in the season and then come through a lottery, so the field holds professionals and runners who will be out for two nights alike.

The course is not fixed. UTMB’s race page reserves the right to adjust distance and elevation “depending on terrain constraints,” which is why the record books read as they do. Tom Evans ran 19:18:58 to win in 2025, faster than anyone before him, on an altered route. The men’s course record is still Jim Walmsley’s 19:37:43 from 2023, and the women’s Katie Schide’s 22:09:31 from 2024.

How to Watch UTMB 2026

Everything runs through live.utmb.world, which carries the broadcast and the tracking together. LiveTrail builds the tracking: course maps, GPS positions, live rankings and predictive finish times.

Broadcast rights are split by territory. Le Groupe L’Équipe has France, DAZN has the rest of the world except Canada, France and the United States, the European Broadcasting Union covers Europe through Eurovision Sport, and iQIYI Sports and Tencent carry China. FloSports takes the U.S., and it is new for 2026, as is the Tencent deal. UTMB has not published broadcast hours or said whether the FloSports coverage sits behind a subscription.

Every race also gets a 45-minute recap, on the UTMB World Series channel on YouTube inside two days of the finish.

The Eight Races and Their Courses

Race	Start	Distance	Climbing	Route	Limit
PTL	Mon. Aug. 24, 8 a.m., Chamonix	300K	25,000 m	Teams of two or three, unmarked, unranked, course changes yearly	151 hours
Mini UTMB	Mon. Aug. 24, 8:30 a.m., Martigny-Combe	Children’s race	n/a	n/a	n/a
MCC	Mon. Aug. 24, 10 a.m., Martigny-Combe	40K	2,350 m	Col de la Forclaz, Col de Balme, upper valley hamlets, finish Chamonix	10 hours
TDS	Mon. Aug. 24, 11:50 p.m., Courmayeur	145K	9,500 m	Aosta Valley, Pas d’Outray, Pierra Menta, Grand Mont, Hauteluce, finish Chamonix	44h55
YCC	Tue. Aug. 25, 11 a.m., Courmayeur	4K, 8K or 15K by age	200 m to 1,200 m	Youth race, top finishers race again Wednesday in Chamonix	n/a
ETC	Tue. Aug. 25, 2 p.m., Courmayeur	15K	1,200 m	Aosta Valley balconies, loop back to Courmayeur	4h30
OCC	Thu. Aug. 27, 8:15 a.m., Orsières	60K	3,500 m	Champex-Lac, Trient, Col de Balme, Tête de Balme, Vallorcine, Col des Posettes, Le Tour, finish Chamonix	14h30
CCC	Fri. Aug. 28, 9 a.m., Courmayeur	101K	6,050 m	Grand Col Ferret, La Fouly, Champex, Trient, Vallorcine, Vallons des Chézerys, finish Chamonix	26h30
UTMB	Fri. Aug. 28, 5:45 p.m., Chamonix	174K	9,900 m	Full Mont-Blanc loop, finish Chamonix	46h45

The CCC and the UTMB share a Friday and a finish line. Francesco Puppi won last year’s CCC in 10:06:02, and applied to this year’s 9 a.m. start that would put the winner back in Chamonix at around 7 p.m., roughly 80 minutes after the UTMB field has left the same square. The PTL is the outlier: 300K in teams of two or three, no waymarking on the route, and entry conditional on a self-assessment form about mountain experience.

The Elite Start Lists

Both tables come from UTMB’s own top-ranked runners page. The first number column is the runner’s Index in the 100-mile category, the second the general Index across all distances. UTMB activates a category only for runners who have finished one of its World Series or Index races at that distance in the previous 24 months, so “None” marks a runner without such a finish rather than an unrated one. Names appear as UTMB renders them.

Women, 55 entrants

Bib	Runner	Country	Team	100M	Index
3	Courtney Dauwalter	USA	Salomon	859	859
5	Riley Brady	USA	Nike ACG	819	826
1	Ruth Croft	New Zealand	Adidas Terrex	812	822
7	Fuzhao Xiang	China	Arc’teryx	809	823
13	Abby Hall	USA	Adidas	806	808
17	Lucy Bartholomew	Australia	Salomon International	802	799
9	Sunmaya Budha	Nepal	Kailas Fuga	802	814
24	Antonina Iushina	Neutral athlete	Running Heroes Russia	793	791
15	Blandine L’Hirondel	France	Kiprun	789	807
19	Eszter Csillag	Hungary	Hoka	788	798
36	Martina Valmassoi	Italy		784	781
34	Rachel Entrekin	USA	Norda	784	781
42	Henriette Albon	Norway		774	774
32	Lin Chen	China	Adidas	771	782
62	Aroa Sio	Spain	Craft	754	754
60	Emilie Mann	Canada	Merrell	754	756
66	Anna Carlsson	Sweden	Asics Trail	752	751
68	Leah Yingling	USA	Lululemon	749	749
64	Claudia Tremps	Spain	On	748	753
56	Mari Klakegg Fenre	Norway	Hoka Norway	744	760
52	Anna Louden	USA	Brooks Trail Runners	737	763
48	Careth Arnold	USA	Altra	736	766
74	Corinne Shalvoy	USA	Aravaipa	735	739
50	Katarzyna Dombrowska	Poland	On Trail Team	734	765
102	Hanna Aho	Sweden		731	729
44	Jazmine Lowther	Canada	Arc’teryx	730	772
106	Anastasia Davydova	Neutral athlete		728	728
104	Melanie Delasoie	Switzerland	La Sportiva	727	729
58	Anna Li	China	Hoka	727	758
118	Andrea Vlasakova	Czech Republic	Scott	724	723
126	Manon Gras	France	Team Trail Mizuno	720	717
122	Eevi Bengs	Finland	Team Altra	717	719
130	Nicolette Kaylin Griffioen	South Africa	Suunto	716	715
70	Madison Liechty	USA		714	742
136	Anne-Sofie Pollestad	Norway		712	710
142	Oana Marina	Romania		710	708
112	Stephanie Auston	Australia		709	724
80	Liping Wang	China	Aonijie	709	730
140	Michaela Wolf	Germany		707	707
138	Julia Davis	United Kingdom		701	708
26	Shea Aquilano	USA	ACG	None	789
30	Rachel Drake	USA	ACG	None	786
40	Eleanor Davis	United Kingdom	The North Face	None	774
46	Ekaterina Mityaeva	Neutral athlete	Adidas Terrex	None	769
54	Katie Asmuth	USA		None	761
72	Anne-Cecile Thevenot	France	Team Mac Sport	None	741
78	Emily Schmitz	USA		None	739
76	Genevieve Asselin-Demers	Canada	Naak Pro	None	733
108	Jennifer Lemoine	France		None	728
114	Enrica Dematteis	Italy	Podistica Valle Varaita	None	723
124	Victoria Stansfield	United Kingdom		None	715
128	Amanda Basham	USA	Altra	None	715
132	Nicol Guidolin	Italy	Fuga Mountain Club	None	712
144	Michaela Lishakova	Slovakia		None	702
148	Anne-Lise Le Quere	France	Fuga Mountain Club	None	700

Men, 62 entrants

Bib	Runner	Country	Team	100M	Index
8	Caleb Olson	USA	Nike ACG	945	945
10	Hannes Namberger	Germany	Dynafit	943	941
12	Vincent Bouillard	France	Hoka	943	941
16	Chris Myers	USA	Brooks	937	937
6	Ben Dhiman	USA	Asics	932	946
14	Jonathan Albon	United Kingdom	The North Face Trail	924	938
27	Josh Wade	United Kingdom	The North Face	922	920
25	Baptiste Chassagne	France	On Trail	921	926
23	Andreas Reiterer	Italy	La Sportiva	917	930
37	Tobias Geiser	Italy	Dynafit	914	913
33	Rod Farvard	USA	Hoka	913	915
41	Joaquin Lopez	Ecuador	Kailas Fuga	906	912
35	Raul Octaviu Butaci	Romania	Mount to Coast	906	915
39	Paul Cornut Chauvinc	France	Asics Fuji Trail	903	912
47	Zach Miller	USA		900	908
43	Antoine Charvolin	France	On Trail Team	899	911
51	Yannick Noel	France		896	905
45	Canyon Woodward	USA	Green Racing Project	895	907
59	Theo Detienne	France	Brooks	892	903
79	Marek Causidis	Czech Republic	Salomon	889	887
73	Gautier Bonnecarrere	France	La Sportiva	883	888
53	Jean-Philippe Tschumi	Switzerland	Kailas Fuga	881	905
49	Ionel Cristian Manole	Spain	Salomon / 226ers	876	904
57	Jiasheng Shen	China	Salomon	875	903
107	Thibault Marquet	France	XBionic	872	874
105	Arthur Joyeux-Bouillon	France	On Trail Team	872	876
83	Abel Carretero	Spain	Otso	872	884
123	Borja Fernandez	Spain	Scott Running	871	867
103	Corentin Play	France	Mount to Coast	870	876
127	Andy Symonds	United Kingdom		867	865
65	Guomin Deng	China	Kolon Sport	867	896
121	Aubin Ferrari	France	Team Altra	866	867
115	Santos Gabriel Rueda	Argentina	Columbia Europe	866	870
69	Bartosz Gorczyca	Poland	Grupa Luktrans	865	891
109	Ferdinand Airault	France	Aravaipa Racing	863	873
137	Theo Le Boudec	France	Cimalp	862	860
139	Richard Lockwood	USA	Norda Trail Team	860	860
85	Andreas Rieder	Austria	Brooks Trailrunners	860	881
149	Tommy Sullivan	USA	Craft	858	857
117	Cody Lind	USA	Adidas	857	869
77	Baptiste Coatantiec	France	Nike ACG	853	887
84	Manuel Anguita	Spain	Kailas Fuga	852	884
113	Nicolas Gourdon	France	New Balance	850	870
31	Drew Holmen	USA	Nike ACG and The Feed	None	920
55	Arnaud Bonin	France		None	903
67	Ramon Manetsch	Switzerland	Mount to Coast	None	893
71	Valentin Marchon	Switzerland		None	890
81	Marcos Ramos-Gonzalez	Spain	Asics	None	885
82	Miguel Heras	Spain	Joma	None	885
101	Virgile Moriset	France	Asics	None	879
119	Kamil Lesniak	Poland	Hoka Garmin	None	868
125	Gian Marchet Schicktanz	Switzerland	Brooks DACH	None	866
131	Pablo Villa	Spain	Adidas Terrex	None	864
133	Martin Halasz	Slovakia	Mount to Coast	None	863
129	Ricardo Cherta	Spain	Brooks Trail Runners	None	863
135	Riccardo Montani	Italy	Team Vibram	None	861
141	Tobias Dahl Fenre	Norway	Hoka Norway	None	859
143	Mael Bures	France		None	859
147	Valentin Benard	France	Asics	None	858
151	Baptiste Petitjean	France	Millet / Mount to Coast	None	856
153	Simon Gosselin	France	On Running	None	855
155	Aleksei Tolstenko	Neutral athlete	Adidas Terrex	None	852

Ruth Croft wears bib 1 as the defending champion, and she sits third on the women’s list. Courtney Dauwalter, in bib 3, leads it on both numbers at 859. On the men’s side the two columns disagree about who the favorite should be: Ben Dhiman tops the general Index at 946, but on the 100-mile column he is fifth, and Caleb Olson leads at 945. Nineteen of the 62 men and 15 of the 55 women carry no 100-mile figure at all, Drew Holmen among them.

Jornet, Walmsley, Evans and Schide

Tom Evans won here in 2025 and announced on Aug. 13 that he would not start, giving no reason. Kilian Jornet has won it four times and withdrew on Aug. 20 with a knee injury, with surgery to come, no procedure named and no timeline given. Jim Walmsley still holds the course record and came off the start list with a knee injury dating to Western States in June. On the women’s side, Katie Schide is out with a foot injury that also cost her Hardrock.

Walmsley’s record now goes a third straight year without its owner on the course. He dropped out in 2024, ran the OCC in 2025, and is not entered this time.

The Men’s Race

Vincent Bouillard won here in 2024 in 19:54:23 and has had the best year of anyone entered, taking 23 minutes off the Western States course record in June with 13:46:15. Baptiste Chassagne finished second in 2024 and won the Diagonale des Fous in 2025. Josh Wade was third here last year, and Hannes Namberger fourth in 2024. Andreas Reiterer, Tobias Geiser and Rod Farvard complete the top 11 on the 100-mile column.

The index columns point somewhere else entirely. Caleb Olson tops the 100-mile list at 945, on the strength of winning Western States in 2025 in 14:11:25, and he has not raced beyond 50K this year: fourth at Speedgoat in July, 27th at Broken Arrow in June. Chris Myers is fourth on the same column at 937 and won the Mt. Fuji 100 in April in 17:50:13. Myers was also second at that Western States, six minutes and 14 seconds behind Olson in 14:17:39, with Jornet third in 14:19:22. Two of that podium are entered here, and neither is anybody’s pick.

Three Chinese men finished in the top 10 here in 2025. Jiasheng Shen, eighth that year, is back.

Croft Against Dauwalter

Ruth Croft has not finished a UTMB race off the podium since 2020, she is the only woman to have won all three World Series finals, and she defends the title she took last year.

Courtney Dauwalter has won here three times, in 2019, 2021 and 2023, came up short in 2025, and won Hardrock again in 2026. The women’s preview picks Croft. UTMB’s own Index picks Dauwalter.

Blandine L’Hirondel has won the CCC and the OCC, set a course record at Transvulcania this year, and needs this one to complete the set. Riley Brady sits second on the entry list at 826 and was second woman at Western States in June in 15:42:14; Brady uses they/them pronouns. Fuzhao Xiang is fourth at 823 and ran 16:47:09 for second at Western States in 2025, behind Abby Hall’s winning 16:37:16. Both are entered here. Rachel Entrekin, Sunmaya Budha and Lucy Bartholomew fill in behind them on the index.

Schide’s absence takes the fastest time in the race’s history out of play. Her 22:09:31 took more than 20 minutes off Dauwalter’s 2021 mark of 22:30:54, and nobody entered has run within reach of it.

CCC and OCC

The CCC, 101K on Friday morning, has lost both of its 2025 winners. Jennifer Lichter leads the women’s entries at 850, and she set the Western States course record in June on the same day Bouillard set the men’s. Miao Yao moves up from the OCC, which she won last year, having taken Val d’Aran this summer. Benjamin Roubiol and Cristian Minoggio share the top men’s figure at 943, with Daniel Jones, Nadir Maguet and Adam Peterman close behind.

The OCC, 60K from Orsières on Thursday, holds the highest-rated athletes of the week. Rémi Bonnet at 956 and Francesco Puppi at 953 are rated above everyone in the 174K field, on a course roughly a third of the length. Tove Alexandersson leads the women at 859, ahead of Judith Wyder. Molly Seidel is in the same race at 802, having taken Olympic marathon bronze in Tokyo.

Two Rule Changes for 2026

Runners will carry a headlamp they did not need before. Two lamps are mandatory, as always, but for 2026 one of them has to offer a red setting, and inside the Réserve des Contamines-Montjoie that is the setting runners have to use. UTMB gives the reserve’s nocturnal wildlife as the reason.

UTMB has also doubled its doping controls for race week, and they now reach age-group entrants rather than the elite fields alone.

Chamonix Wants It Smaller

François-Xavier Laffin became mayor of Chamonix in March and has spent the summer setting out what he wants changed. He has called for fewer competitors crossing protected ground at night, a limit on how many supporters travel with each runner, and the vendor expo confined to the Place du Mont-Blanc from this year. Speaking to L’Équipe, he put it as a question of what the valley can absorb: a race that crosses protected habitat in the dark, in a town that does not get a quiet night for a week.

Published estimates of how many people arrive for race week differ by tens of thousands, and no figure has been confirmed by the town or the organizer.

What the week pays out is on the record. The winner of the UTMB takes 20,000 euros, about $23,400 at the Aug. 21 rate of $1.17 to the euro, on a scale that pays down to 1,500 euros for 10th place. The CCC and OCC winners take 13,000 euros each, paying to 1,000 euros for 10th. Men and women are paid the same, which UTMB has committed to at every final and major since it introduced the purse in 2024.

UTMB has answered back. Isabelle Viseux Poletti, who directs the event, told Mile & Stone in an interview published on July 23 that the method had surprised her. “It is not in our values to settle our business in the press,” she said, speaking in French. The expo has been under discussion since April, she said, and one zone will go unoccupied this year. On spectators her answer was that the streets are public, so the race has no power to ban anyone from them.

Chamonix is not the only council writing rules the races have to live with. In Alsace, Mayor Claude Hauller signed an order in early July, after a unanimous council vote, closing Dambach-la-Ville’s communal forest between sunset and sunrise from May 1 to Oct. 31 and limiting it to three events a year with local activities given priority. On July 21 the neighboring commune of Ottrott refused the race its forest altogether, unanimously, and Mayor Catherine Zeller said the vote carried the opposition, the ecologists and the hunters with it. Trail Alsace by UTMB now needs a 2027 route around both.

The PTL starts on Monday morning with 151 hours allowed, and that limit expires at around 3 p.m. on Sunday. The closing ceremony opens at 4 p.m.