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GRAND RAID DES PYRENEES 2024 RESULTS.
GRAND RAID DES PYRENEES 2024 RESULTS. Gold for Gillie and Champagne in the challenging Ultra 160 of the GRP 17th edition. The wild event in the central Pyrenees held six mountain races, ranging from 40k to 100 miles, with 7.780 runners registered. The main event took off at 5AM last Friday from the tiny village of Vielle-Aure. Let us kick off our race report with a 3min highlights video by Mayayo
GRAND RAID DES PYRENEES 2024 RESULTS
The penultimate event in the Gran Canaria World Trail Majors series could hardly have had a better setting. On the north side of the Pyrenees, with Vielle-Aure as the epicentre, almost 8000 runners took part in the various races that make up the Gran Raid des Pyrenees.
The longest and most demanding race at 160 km and almost 10,000 metres of elevation (plus another 10,000 metres of descent) was the one that counted towards the series that will be concluded in November in Cape Town, South Africa. Rémi Gillie and Anne Champagne took the 1500 points for victory in one of the most competitive GRP editions in its history.
GRP 2024 RACE REPORT
The race started in the early hours of Friday morning, nearly 700 competitors set off on the Ultra 160, departing Vielle-Aure shortly before the sun rose over the horizon. Ahead of them, an adventure of almost 20 hours for the first to cross the line and 49 hours for the final finishers. The feeling at the kick off was full of excitement as you may witness in our video below.
After a good warm up with not too much elevation, the runners had to face their first big challenge in the form of 1,500 metres of elevation in just over 14 kilometres. Each runner, trying not to waste energy, reached the third aid station at the base of the ski slopes of La Mongie, after 31 km and 2500 m of elevation gain, we saw Loan Le Rohellec (France, Esclops d’Azun) in the lead of the men’s race with a considerable distance of 8 minutes to Jan Gutermann (France) and Sangé Sherpa (Nepal, Kailas) in second and third almost tied. David Menanteau (France) was fourth, Rémi Gillie (France), fifth. The women’s race was led by Juliette Archambeau (France) with Anne Champagne (Canada, Salomon) close behind and Junyue Zheng (China, Kailas) in second and third, but it was a long way to go for all the runners and many things could happen before the finish.
Going through the aid stations did not significantly alter the podium places with no one taking a longer break. The weather was pleasant at altitude, mostly clear with a low risk of rain forecast on Saturday, and given that for nearly 60 km the race is at an altitude above 1500 metres, the 28°C in Vielle-Aure was not feeling much cooler at altitude with runners using streams on route to cool off and additional hydration.
By the Hautacam aid station (65 km), one of the classic passes of the Tour de France, the gradients had become less steep, sometimes the terrain was more technical, sometimes more runnable, but the descent to the town of Villelongue (73-75 km) required a descent of 1200 metres to really test the legs, this would begin to clarify the positions. Loan Le Rohellec continued leading with a 10 minute gap to Jan Gutermann and 7 more over Rémi Gillie that was steadily climbing on the rankings. These were in the podium places but with almost a hundred kilometres to go a lot could still change. Sangé Sherpa was a couple minutes behind.
SECOND HALF: Remi Gillie surges ahead
From Villelongue, a long, long climb brings the runners to the second half of the race with +1500m. Aulian, at 100 km, again offered a similar leader group: Rémi Gillie was leading at this point, followed by Jan Gutermann who was 13 minutes behind and third was Sangé Sherpa running 27 minutes further back. Still with a chance and an opportunity were Maxime Jaouen (France) and Diego Zanardo (Italy, Scuola di Maratona Vittorio Veneto).
The area also known from the Tour de France of Luz-Ardiden involved another 1000 metres of descent and then an immediate climb of 700 metres in four kilometres: the course is undoubtedly a major crusher of runners. This would be the last aid station for the lead runners in daylight, headtorches would be turned on as darkness descended.
From this point onwards, constantly above 1,400 metres, the gradients are no longer excessive but the cumulative fatigue takes its toll on the runners, all the runners would have the challenge of darkness, and for some this was their first night of 2 as they challenged themselves for over 40 hours.
At 146.2 kilometres the runners reached the highest point of the race at 2465 metres and slowly descend to the coveted finish at Vielle-Aure at 791 metres above sea level.
REMI GILLIE CHAMPION
Rémi Gillie arrived euphoric at the finish in a time of 24:39:12 A huge effort for Rémi who was rewarded with the victory in one of the favourite races of French trail/ultra runners and gets the 1500 points in the Gran Canaria World Trail Majors series. Declared that “I’m very tired, I have a bit of pain everywhere but I’m delighted and I’m super surprised by the result and it’s a bit of a dream come true. In the last kilometer I thought about my family I thought about everything we put in place and then here it is”.
After 64 minutes, Jan Gutermann crossed the finish line for second, exhausted, and Maxime Jaouen came through in third. Sangé Sherpa was fourth followed by Frenchmen Laurent Mendez, Guillaume Chaignon, Patxi Etcheverrigarray, Yves-Loup Fanton, Nicolas Firmin and David Leveille for the top 10.
GRAND RAID DES PYRENEES – WOMEN´S RACE REPORT
With 75 km on their legs Juliette Archambeau remained leading with a considerable gap to Anne Champagne. Although Junyue Zheng and Aurélie Morisaux (France, Millet) may have looked like rivals for the win now they seem far from it. At the Luz Saunt Sauveur aid station (113 km) the gap was 37 minutes between Archembeau and Champagne. Was enough to Vielle-Aure?
It wasn’t. Only 13 km later the gap was down to 24. One aid station later Anne Champagne was more than an hour and a half ahead Archambeau that finally dropped out. The competitiviness between Champagne and Archambeau, and when this DNFed let the Canadian alone with more than two hours ahead the second, a comfortable lead but still many kilometres ahead, a fight with herself. Aurélie Morisaux took the third, far from Zheng and with some differences with the French Raxanne Auge and Yanid Arango. For the podium finishers was a huge time trail against themselves.
Anne Champagne was unopposed. With a solid performance, with no apparent signs of weakness, controlling rivals and her own strength, Champagne won the Grand Raid des Pyrenees 2024 with a time of 31:23:35 in an incredible effort that took its price as she had to be attended by doctors just after the race. But her performance in GRP and Quebec Mega Trail where she won, ties her to Courtney Dauwalter in the provisional ranking!
Following Champagne, the Chinese Junyue Zheng crossing the line 144 minutes behind grabbing important points that will make her climb to the third-fourth position overall tied with Kelsey Hogan. And third place went to Aurelie Morisaux
GRAND RAID DES PYRENEES Other GRP results
Of note are the victories of Tiago Vieira (Portugal, BigK) and Mylene da Cosra Reis (France) in Tour du Néouvielle (43 km, +2400 m). In the Tour de la Géla (45 km, +3400 m) won Rachid El Morabity (Morocco, Raidlight) and Emilie Laboyrie (France, Lurbel). Emeline Oudet (France, Wise) and Alex Molin Pradel (France, Marmot Trail Running) in the Tour de Moudang (63 km, +3600 m). Marion Boudé (France) and Mathieu Colzato (France) were the winner in Tour des Lacs (planned 80 km, +5200 m) and, finally, the Tour des Cirques (121 km, +7400 m) were won by Quentin Camou Juncas (France) and Angélique Plaire (France). The Tour des Lacs had to be shortened to 60 km due to adverse weather conditions.
TOUR DE LA GELA START FROM PIAU ENGALY
Arguably, the most interesting “short course in the event with it 45k 3700m won by the trail running legend Raid el Morabity, who was coming right from a recent win. Check out the start from the mountain station of Piau Engaly at 1865m.
GRAND RAID DES PYRENEES 2024
Photogallery by Mayayo
GRAND RAID DES PYRENEES
Gran Canaria World Trail Majors
Gran Canaria World Trail Majors is a non-profit association formed by ten independent trail running races with the aim of promoting the sport in a diverse, sustainable, and respectful way that aims to safeguard the original spirit of Trail/Ultra running. The association is formed by Anta Hong Kong 100 Ultramarathon, Black Canyon Ultras, The North Face Transgrancanaria, Mt. Fuji 100, MIUT – Madeira Island Ultra-Trail, Swiss Canyon Trail, South Downs Way 100, Quebec Mega Trail, Grand Raid des Pyrenees and RMB Ultra-Trail Cape Town. 2024 is the inaugural year for this race series.
Next race: RMB Ultra-Trail Cape Town
The final event that closes the first year of the Gran Canaria World Trail Majors series takes place from the 22nd to the 24th of November in South Africa. The flagship race of the event is 100 kilometres and almost 5000 metres of elevation gain. Putting the finishing touches to an amazing year with a top-class field. It will be an excellent end of season race in an adventure that has taken us to some of the most beautiful destinations for trail running.
