Wrong Island, Right Result: Dauwalter Crashes Tuscany and Wins Anyway

Courtney Dauwalter had no plan to be in Tuscany this weekend.

Her original race, the Tenerife Bluetrail, was wiped out by weather warnings that turned out to be entirely justified — the island took a beating from wind, rain and snow. So Dauwalter pivoted. She booked a flight, lined up at the start of the Chianti Castles 120km, and won.

As pivots go, it was pretty tidy.

The American crossed the finish line on Saturday in 11 hours, 31 minutes and 55 seconds — good enough for the women’s title and 10th place overall. It was her first race of 2026, and by the looks of it, she’s in fine shape ahead of her main early-season goal: returning to the Cocodona 250 in May, where she suffered a rare DNF last year.

No Stroll Through the Vineyards

Anyone expecting a comfortable Dauwalter cruise through the Chianti countryside would have been disappointed. This was a genuine fight.

She spent most of the race shoulder-to-shoulder with Norway’s Yngvild Kaspersen and fellow American Rachel Entrekin — the three of them still inseparable at the Tenuta Perano checkpoint, 87km in. Then Kaspersen made a move. With 15km left, she held a two-minute gap over Entrekin, who in turn had a minute on Dauwalter.

That’s the kind of deficit that ends podium dreams. Not this time.

Dauwalter reeled both women in over the closing stretch and hit the line nearly two full minutes ahead of Kaspersen (11:33:34), with Entrekin taking third in 11:38:13.

Britain’s Gemma Hillier-Moses deserves her own mention. The 73km winner here last year was making her debut at the longer distance and handled it well, finishing fourth in 12:04:30. She’s one to watch.

The top three women also picked up Golden Tickets to Western States 100 — which, given the field, made the stakes considerably higher than a scenic run through Italian wine country.

Cardin Smiles His Way to Sub-10

The men’s race went out at 4am local time, and the early chaos of a seven-man lead pack slowly shook itself into something more manageable. By the final third, three runners remained.

Then one of them just… left.

France’s Thomas Cardin, racing this distance for the first time, opened a seven-minute gap by the 97km checkpoint at Castello di Albola. Reports from the finish line suggest he was smiling as he came in. Hard to argue with that when you’re about to break 10 hours — Cardin stopped the clock at 9:58:38.

Behind him, Italy’s Andreas Reiterer and 2024 UTMB standout Vincent Bouillard of France arrived together nearly eight minutes later, scrapping hard to the end. Reiterer got second by 36 seconds.

Full Results

Women — 120km

Men — 120km

Dauwalter heads into the spring with a win, a Western States ticket, and unfinished business at the Cocodona 250. Not a bad weekend’s work for someone who wasn’t even supposed to show up.