MDS Legendary 2026 – The 40th Edition – Stage 5

The penultimate stage of the 40th edition of MDS Legendary and after the excitement of the 100km long stage, what surprises would this day bring? Tired bodies and tired minds, especially after relentless sand storms the previous day, did not stop the enthusiasm for the classic marathon stage.

Pierre Meslet pushed the early pace opening a gap and retaining the lead well beyond CP1. Michael Gras also pushed hard along with Ludovic Pommeret. Could this french trio break the Moroccan duo?

Quite simply, no!

Mohammed El Morabity took over after CP3 on a key section of the route and then pushed all the way to the line.

Behind, the pace of the Moroccan could be felt and the rest had to respond or surrender.

Rachid and Ludovic did respond and the gaps started to open, eventually the top 10 men separated by 34-minutes at the finish line.

Mohammed concluded the marathon in 03:08:07 and behind, his brother, Rachid secured 2nd in 3:12:24. Ludovic just 1-minute back in 3:13:23.

Maryline for the women continued the winning form and once again ripped apart the women ranking with a 4:03:03 finish.

Magdalena Boulet, MDS Legendary 2018 champion, today found the form of old and finished 2nd ahead of Aziza El Amrany, 4:28:18 and 4:36:52 respectively.

Mohamed leads the race with 19:11:02 and Rachid is 2nd with 19:33:44, Ludovic is third in 19:41:57 – on paper, these results should not change with a 21km last stage – however, history shows, anything can happen.

For the women, Maryline is unstoppable and barring a disaster, is the 2026 champion. Aziza El Amrany is 2nd, and Desiree Linden is 3rd, the gap between the duo is over 30-minutes.