Tag Archives: Spain

Cavalls del Vent Post Race Report

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Ultra? Ultra emotional…

On a day of rain, cold temperatures and intense racing, ultra running and in particular ultra Skyrunning opened a new chapter in our sport.

Despite alternativerace options available all over the world, many of the worlds best decided to head to Spain and race at the Skyrunning ‘Ultra Cavalls del Vent‘, an 84.2km race with 6098m of altitude change.

Kilian Jornet, Dakota Jones, Tony Krupicka, Tofol Castanyer, Miguel Heras, Joe Grant, Philipp Reiter, Anna Frost, Emelie Forsberg, Nuria Picas and Emma Rocca all decided to do battle in what turned out to be an incredibly testing day.

At Refugio Niu de L’Aliga the race format was starting to unfold with Kilian leading the race followed closely by Tofol and then several minutes back Miguel Heras. Dakota Jones and Philipp Reiter soon came into sight and then Tony Krupicka. Although minutes separated them all, one thing became apparent. It was cold!

 

Thick mist made visibility difficult and it was biting cold on hands. Kilian seemed in his element running in short sleeves but nearly all the other runners wore jackets. Including Tony!

Emelie Forsberg was the first lady to come into sight. Somewhat of a surprise… not because she didn’t have the ability but because the plan was to ease into her ‘first’ 50 miler. Frosty followed and then a very cool and relaxed looking Nuria Picas.

 

The cold and constant rain hit the race and the runners hard! Miguel Heras dropped, Tofol had hypothermia, Joe Grant had hypothermia and at the last count some 200+ runners have dropped from the race. Certainly those who will go into the night are in for a tough time.

Tony Krupicka moved up through the field, moved ahead of Dakota and a format was set. Kilian and Tony swapping the lead and Dakota following.

 

At Gresolet, Kiliian had a 2 min lead. As he passed me I asked how he felt?

“I am great, it was a little cold but now I am good. I am having fun!”

Tony approached “How you feeling Tony?”

“I’m good man, Kilian is just playing with me.. all good though!”

Some of the press with me at this point wondered if Tony would win? To be honest, no disrespect to Tony but Kilian seemed in control and was glad of company. Dakota was now some 30 min in arrears with Philipp Reiter in 4th. This order remained until the final climb when Kilian accelerated leaving Tony behind. Kilian crossed the line with a new CR of 8:42:22. Tony crossed the line in 2nd beating the old CR too with 8:49:56 and Dakota 9:26:25.

 

Tony was stoked at the finish and rightly so. After the best part of 2 years being out of the sport his ‘return’ now seems to be confirmed. His return is a new return with a love for Skyrunning. He said on the line “these are the races we want, vertcal gain, tough gnarly climbs and altitude. We can’t get this at home, I love it”

 

Dakota was happy with 3rd but said he had hoped for better and that he never felt quite on his game!

 

Emelie Forsberg in the ladies race pushed ahead and at one point had a 15 min lead with Frosty and Nuria chasing. However the gap was closed and over the final 2 hours a battle started. My money was on Nuria, she had told me at ‘Kima’ that this was the race she wanted and I guess it showed. In the latter stages Emelie was dropped and Nuria ran into the finish victorious in10:34:42 beating her 2011 winning time by over an hour. Frosty finished in 2nd 10:35:24 and Emelie jumped for joy in 10:39:51.

 

Frosty said “Everything hurts. I won’t be able to walk tomorrow. I dug deeper that I have ever had to go, I am happy for Nuria and I am happy for me”

 

Emelie in only her 2nd ultra and first 50 miler was elated. She told me “I felt really good and still do. My legs are not hurting but it was mind… in the latter stages when I had to fight I couldn’t focus but I am super happy”

 

Cavalls del Vent was an incredible day. It showed us all what is great about our sport. Wonderful courses, great running, new runners showing potential for the future, established runners confirming that they are the best, a return to form for Tony and of course immense comradeship. I am in the hotel ‘Press Room’ surrounded by all of them… Kilian on the sofa chatting, Tony and Dakota on the web, Frosty and Emelie giggling, Philipp and Terry discussing the next time to pose naked. All individual but all one.

Cloud confuses and distorts “less cloud MORE SKY”

The next event in the Ultra Skyrunning series is ‘Templiers’ in the South of France. The date is October 28th and rest assured I will be at the race to bring you images, stories and a podcast from the final race in the series.

Terry has landed ! Cavalls del Vent

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It’s a real busy weekend ahead and I have been so wrapped up in travel and prep for Cavalls del Vent that actually thinking about UROC – Ultra Race of Champions and Spartathlon hadn’t slipped my mind but finding the time to just provide an update was difficult! So I thought I would use the wee hours of the morning before breakfast to write something up.

I am in Baga with an hour or so before breakfast and the opportunity to head out on the Cavalls course at 0900 with Philipp Reiter, Emelie Forscberg, Terry Conway and maybe Kilian!

Terry and myself arrived yesterday and met Anna Frost’s sister, Sarah, at the airport to be good citizens and provide her with a lift. After a few comedy moments… the first being Terry deciding it was a good idea to rent a car from pepecar.com !

We hit the road and then ended up getting stuck at the ‘tolls’ by being completely in the wrong lane! Yeah Yeah, I know. I am used to the tolls in France but Spain is different. We finally managed to back up the traffic, ruin a toll gate by sticking Euro coins in a ‘card slot’ and then somehow managed to get in the correct lane after some subtle lane dodging.

We met Frosty, Dakota Jones, Philipp, Emelie and Tony K was hiding somewhere and had some chill time at a ‘secret’ Salomon holding camp (joke) 20 minutes away from the race village. Terry terrified Philipp telling him how good he is and how he was going to ‘take him down’ when it came to race day! (another joke)

An hour or so later Terry and myself finished off our journey providing Philipp and Emelie with a lift to our race hotel. We are at the foot of the mountains and dusk was just arriving!

Terry had some very unusual pre race prep. He laid out his Salomon Sense and then prepared dinner….. whoa! No way Terry. Not baby food tonight mate, we are going to the restaurant….

Dinner was pretty awesome. We met Philipp and then Emelie joined us with a new arrival at the hotel, Kilian Jornet. So, Terry had been in Spain approximately 3-4 hours and within that short space of time had met Frosty chatted with Dakota, missed Tony, chewed the fat with Philipp and Emelie and was now spending a couple of hours with Kilian over dinner as we discussed his ‘Summits of my Life’ project, talked about his recent Mont Blanc Crossing, his VO2 test the previous day (92 by the way… wow) and what his plans are at Cavalls, Raid de la Reunion and what 2013 has in store… pretty awesome!

So there you have it. We are in Cavalls, Terry is like a kid in a sweet shop and in an hour we will be on the Cavalls course seeing what lies in store for the race on Saturday.

Oh, UROC and Spartathlon…. I will be back later 😉

SKY HIGH for Terry Conway

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Sky High for Terry Conway

Arguably the man of the moment on the UK ultra scene is Terry Conway. His success at the Lakeland 100 in 2011 with a sub 22 hour finish and course record for what actually is 105 miles of hard running on a super tough course was seen as a break through run.

In 2012 he returned to the Lakeland course buoyant after setting a new course record on another tough course, the 95-mile West Highland Way. His CR at this event was significant as the previous course record was set by no other than Jez Bragg.

So, in late July Terry lined up on the start line in Coniston to run 105 miles of what the English Lakes had to offer. Before the race started it was all ready being touted as a potentially great race. Paul Tierney and Barry Murray would be taking part along with previous winner Stuart Mills. In addition to this was the young upstart Ed Batty who had placed 5th in the 50 mile event the previous year and was coming to the longer race with the intention of running hard.

In the early stages of the race Ed Batty pushed hard while Terry, Paul, Barry and Stuart marked each others moves. With 50 miles covered Ed had over a 30 min lead. Was this young lad going to steal the glory from the experienced guys behind?

In Terry’s words “I needed the loo and didn’t want to go ‘al fresco’ and with the next checkpoint not too far away I upped my pace a little”. This upping of the pace quickly eradicated 20-mins of Ed’s lead and with the blink of an eye a 20 min deficit became a 20 min lead. Running on the terrain that Terry calls ‘home’ he left the chasers behind and in the words of Race Director, Marc Laithwaite, “Terry ran into the finish line at Coniston as though he was finishing a 5k”. Not only did Terry win the race but he annihilated his own course record by 2 hours crossing the line in 19:51 for the 105 mile route.

Nobody doubted Terry’s ability as a runner but this win in that time confirmed for me that he was now at the pinnacle of UK ultra running. I had discussed with Terry what his dream scenario would be. His answer I guess was somewhat predictable;

“To race the best! to take part in Western States, to run UTMB and to take on the Skyrunning ultra series”

This is a dream that we as runners and more importantly as ultra runners all have. However, for pretty much all of us this will always be a dream. In Terry’s case he has the ability to potentially ‘race’ in this environment and therefore if the ability is there then surely a chance should be created…

Making dreams happen

I sent an email and contacted a couple of close friends in the business. I was well aware of an opportunity available for the right person! In actual fact I had personally been asked to ‘look out for’ a possible contender.

An introduction was made, emails were exchanged and I am pleased to say that Terry Conway will now be taking part in the next Ultra Skyrunning race at Cavalls de Vent in the Pyrenees in late September 2012. He will be representing Canadian company Arc’teryx who are slowly progressing into the ultra scene with a new clothing range called Endorphin.

This is incredible news for Terry but it’s also incredible news for the UK ultra community. Terry is a popular guy and I know this news will be welcomed with open arms.

Of course Terry now has some pressure on his shoulders. Not only is he getting the opportunity to race on a wonderful and tough course but he will be going head to head with the likes of Anton Krupicka and Anna Frost. It’s an incredible opportunity.

Following in the foot steps of Jez Bragg, Ian Sharman, Ellie Greenwood, Tom Owens, Andy Symonds, Joe Grant, Lizzy Hawker and Nick Clarke to name but a few of the Brits who are currently dishing it out on the world ultra stage, Terry now has an opportunity to announce himself and hopefully fulfil some of those dreams he has told me about.

He will need some adjustment to this style of racing and of course he will be looking to find his feet at the Cavalls de Vent event.

If he finds his feet, the SKY may very will be the start and not the limit of what he can offer the ultra world!

The Arc’teryx Advantage

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The Arc’teryx advantage

Published in RUN247
Wednesday 8th August 2012
Tags Arcteryxs   |   TalkUltra   |   Ian Corless

TalkUltra’s Ian Corless reports back from the Arc’teryx Media Camp in the Pyrenees, and explains why Arc’teryx’s North American manufacturing facility gives them the edge when it comes to incorporating athlete feedback into their designs

The Arc’teryx advantage

About Arc’teryx

Mention the word Arc’teryx to any outdoor lover and you will typically get a one word answer that is drawn out as though the word is made of too many letters;  N  I  C  E  !
And they would be correct. Arc’teryx make nice kit. Just like Stellar Artois, it is reassuringly expensive.

The first big question is the name… explanation please! Named for ARCHAEOPTERYX LITHOGRAPHICA, the first reptile to develop the feather for flight, freeing itself from the constraints of the horizontal world.

Arc’teryx achieves an advantage with its products by merging un-rivaled designs with the highest quality and highest performing materials. They use innovation and unique assembling techniques to make durable products that perform in the intended environment for the intended sport. The Endorphin range is the epitome of this ethos.

I was very fortunate to be invited to the Pyrenees in July for a ‘media camp’ to review and test the new Endorphin running range for 2013. This media camp was arranged in conjunction with Skyrunning and the Skygames of which Arc’teryx are a partner and as such they had several Arc’teryx sponsored athletes taking part, Adam Campbell, Murray Strain and Nicola Gollinelli to name just a few who participated in the events.

The media camp assembled journalists from Italy, France, UK, Germany, Spain and Sweden and we all congregated after a lengthy transfer from Barcelona in Ribagossa. Nestled in a mountain hotel we spent a superb three days learning about the Arc’teryx brand, running in the mountains testing the Endorphin range and of course we had some wonderful relaxation time with great food and great company.

The Arc’teryx advantage

Photos: Departing for VerticalK. Arc’teryx athlete Adam Campbell

The Arc’teryx advantage

Arc’teryx have an advantage! They are one of only a few major outdoor industry outerwear brands to have its own domestic North American manufacturing facility. This allows them to readily develop proprietary manufacturing processes, enabling them to efficiently create superior features that other manufacturers simply cannot build. They are able to design a product one day, manufacture it the next day and then by the third day the product is being tested out on the trail or in the mountains. It is this level of immediate feedback that enables Arc’teryx to select the right fabrics, construction and weight to ensure that not only the garment performs to the best of it’s ability but importantly, so that you perform to the best of your ability! It’s a synergy of design, fabric, manufacturing and performance.

Adam Campbell explained in detail how he had specific demands for the Ultra Trail Mt Fuji in which he placed second overall.  A tough 100-mile run that had very specific equipment requirements.

Adam needed a lightweight race pack that could hold mandatory equipment and allow him to hydrate easily while on the move. He needed a lightweight waterproof jacket with hood and over trousers. All these items were manufactured to Adam’s exacting needs, all within one week. It is this on site facility of design, manufacture and immediate testing that allows these new innovations to transfer down to us, the consumer.

Working in conjunction with textile manufacturers, Arc’teryx are able to select and develop the highest performing and most durable materials that are specific to the demands of the sport in which the garment will be worn. It’s about finding that balance between weight, breathability, waterproofness and durability.

  1. GORE-TEX® Pro Shell
  2. WINDSTOPPER®
  3. Coreloft™ & Thermatek™ Insulation
  4. Fortius™ & Polartec® Softshell
  5. Phasic™ base layer fabrics
  6. MAPP Merino Wool
  7. 420ACT™ AC² pack materials
  8. Watertight™ zippers

Engineered to meet the needs of the most demanding athlete. Activity-specific patterning ensures complete freedom of movement, and each product is critically scrutinized and detailed for the intended end use.

  1. e3D patterning for enhanced range-of-motion
  2. Snowsports specific outerwear features
  3. Hoods with quick, one-hand adjustment
  4. Tri-Dex glove patterning
  5. Packs with articulated & breathable components

All these elements combine to ensure that Arc’teryx maintain an advantage over its competition. The synergy may make the products a little more expensive but believe me, when you see the difference; it is a price worth paying!

The Arc’teryx advantage

Photos: The author Ian Corless and the group at the top of the VerticalK

Testing in the Pyrenees

I can’t think of a better way to test a product than to put the stuff on and go and run it. Luckily the Arc’teryx staff very kindly provided all of us with the opportunity to run (walk) the VerticalK course as used in the Skygames. If you are new to Skyrunning and the races that they have, the VerticalK goes up 1000m with a typical gradient of some 30+% so effectively you cover a distance of around 3.5km and ascend 1000m. They are tough to do, particularly if you race them!

We congregated in the car park and with the help of Arc’teryx athletes as guides, we started on our way. A promise of a sumptuous picnic and cold drinks on our return was surely just a ploy to get us up the mountain…

Like a flock of canaries we took flight. Our citrus Motus SS shirts made us look like a professional team out on a training camp. Unfortunately the reality was quite different. No sooner had we crossed the main road, gone up a small alleyway, that the climb started. The laughter and chat soon subsided as, one by one, everyone started to power walk.

Steep climbing and rutted technical trail underfoot made the 1000m ascent good fun. We had great company, beautiful weather, stunning views and incredible scenery. Overhead birds soared. Giant birds, eagle like in groups of 3’s and 4’s. It was incredible.

In our own time we each made our ascent to the imaginary finish line. Several of us ascended higher to get a panoramic vista of the whole mountain range, it was an incredible view.

The 1000 m drop back down to the car park offered a different test. Not a demand on aerobic ability and fitness, but a test of technique, nerve and confidence. As promised, cold drinks and a picnic awaited!

Taking a break S2 E05

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Gathered for Kilian’s Classik in the Pyrenees, the team takes time out together on Kilian’s home turf. They run and they have fun! What if that’s their secret…?

Once again another great Salomon Running video filmed by The African Attachment.

If you ever wonder why you run or wonder why you perform well, surely the secret must be because you love what you do. This movie for me sums up that enjoyment, the pleasure of running and enjoying the trails with like minded people.

ULTRArunning Magazine – Transvulcania

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Really pleased today to finally get some proofs from ULTRARUNNING magazine on my article on the Transvulcania La Palma which I attended earlier this year as part of Skyrunning’s new ultra series of races.

Ultra SkyMarathon® Series

*SPAIN:  TRANSVULCANIA ULTRA MARATHON – La Palma – May 12 
USA:  Speedgoat 50K – Snowbird, Utah – July 28
ITALY:  Trofeo Kima UltraSkyMarathon® – Valmasino, Sondrio – August 26
SPAIN:  Cavalls del Vent – Cadi-Moixeró Natural Park – Pyrenees – September 29
FRANCE:  La Course des Templiers – Millau, Grands Causses – October 28

This article is in the July issue. You may download the article HERE

Please go to the website to view and subscribe to the magazine HERE

SkyGames – 2012 summary

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July 8, 2012

Skyrunners worldwide celebrated their own games today with the final events of the 2012 SkyGames®.  Six skyrunning disciplines stretching over two weekends had 1,300 participants and twenty nations competing for the forty medals and 14 world titles at stake.

Host country Spain dominated throughout with a formidable contingent including no less than three skyrunning world champions in their ranks.  Luis Alberto Hernando and Nuria Picas were crowned 2012 SkyGames® World Champions in the combined category.  The title was based on the highest points scored in the SkySpeed® (100m ascent), the Vertical Kilometer® (1,000m ascent) and the SkyMarathon®.

Both champions clinched the title by winning the compulsory SkyMarathon® outright today – a tough, 42 km race with a punishing 3,000m vertical climb.

The final medal count had Spain soaring ahead with 7 gold medals, 6 silver and 4 bronze, followed by France, Italy, Japan, Andorra and Venezuela.

Japan's Dai MatsumotoThe ranking points, based on the best results of three men and one woman per nation, read as follows:  Spain, Italy, France, Holland, Greece, Andorra, USA, Great Britain, Poland and Switzerland.

New entries we’ll no doubt be seeing more of were Alex Nichols (USA) who, in his first SkyMarathon®, placed an excellent 6th, and Japan’s Dai Matsumoto(6th in the 2006 Andorra SkyGames®) placed 2nd in today’s SkyRace®.  Look out for him in the World Series’ races coming up soon.

The six SkyGames® disciplines: SkySpeed, 100 metres vertical climb with a 45% incline; Vertical Kilometer, the universally popular formula, here a mere 3.5 km with a 30% incline;  SkyBike – a duathlon combining mtb and skyrunning to 2,000m altitude;  SkyRaid – a multi-discipline team relay; the 21 km SkyRace with 1,350m vertical climb, reserved for runners aged 16-21.  The events concluded with an epic SkyMarathon reaching 3,100m altitude – valid for the combined points title.

Medal count

  • Spain – 7 gold, 6 silver, 4 bronze
  • France – 1 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze
  • Italy – 1 gold, 1 bronze
  • Japan – 1 gold
  • Andorra – 1 silver
  • Venezuela – 1 silver

After months of preparation, an invasion of thousands, and the spectacular week-long celebrations, the people of the small towns scattered around Ribagorza Románica will return to their quiet ways, welcoming tourists to the Romanic Churches for which they are famed and, possibly, feel just a little nostalgia for the stirring sports events that have touched citizens and participants alike.

The event was sanctioned by FEDME, the Spanish Federation for Mountain Sports.

Follow the events on twitter and Facebook.  Official website: www.ocisport.net for details.