The Erciyes Ultra Skytrail was a seriously tough and challenging 64km race with 3000m of vertical gain held under an incredible hot and sunny Turkish day. A high altitude race, it starts and concludes at 2200m. Over the 64km it reaches 2600m on two occasions but it rolls along repeatedly dropping and rising. With over 40km covered, the route drops to just over 1600m and then once again climbs back to 2600m over 10km – it is tough! HERE

The men’s race had a triple whammy of Kemal Kukul, Cevdet Alyilmaz and Mehmet Zahir Kul who ran within minutes of each other all day, they crossed the line in 8:38:12. In the ladies’ race it was Aylin Savaci Armador who took top honours in 11:50:52 ahead of Sevil Toker and Deniz Berke, their times 12:02 and 14:40.

60km results HERE

The 25km goes around high plateau, often higher than 2000mt. Occasionally, the trail runs over eroded lava rock surfaces, the event is a point-to-point and concludes at the ski centre. HERE

The event was a result repeat from the previous day’s VK (here) with Ahmet Arslan taking victory over Pau Capell. The duo ran close together in the early stages but Capell was feeling some soreness in his thigh and took and extended break to ease it off. Arslan pulled away and at the line the gap was 4-minutes, 2:13:37 and 2:17:06 – the duo obliterating the old course record. Serdar Unalan placed 3rd in 2:52:31 after Ahmet Bayram holding that position for most of the day.

As in the VK, Elena Polyakova once again took victory, her time 3:12:53 which was good enough for 7th overall. Bike Geckinli and Esther Koopmanschap were 2nd and 3rd.

25km results HERE

The 10km is trail run that takes places along the eastern hills of the Erciyes Volcano in Kayseri. The distance is about 12 km with an elavation loss of 830 m+. HERE

10km results HERE

Mount Erciyes is the highest mountain in Central Anatolia, the mountain has a radius of 18 km and covers and area of 1100 km2. The race hub for the weekend was the Ericyes Ski Resort, near the city of Kayseri. For many centuries Kayseri has been an important hub on the silk road. In ancient times the city was famous for the fast horses bred in her stables. throughout history it took different names under different kingdoms, consecutively, Mazaka in Tabal kingdom period, Eusebia during Capadyoccian Kingdom, Caeseria in Roman period and Kayseri in under Turkih reigns of Karamanoglu, Selçuk and Ottoman Kingdoms.

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