Volta Cerdanya Ultrafons 2014

Posted on June 4, 2014 by talkultra

The Tour Cerdanya; take paths linking the towns of the region or neighboring regions, it is a wonderful environment to explore and discover… it is one of the most beautiful valleys in Europe for its breadth and its sunshine. A place where athletes such as Kilian Jornet and Emma Roca have spent hours and hours running and discovering. It is a magnificent corner of the world that is surrounded by four peaks, Carlit Puigpedrós, Tossa Plana Lles and Puigmal; they dominate the plains.

The Volta Cerdanya Ultrafons consists of four key races:

214km

Data: 6th

Start: Puigcerdà

Distance: 214 km

Elevation: +10.000 m

Elevation: -10.000 m

87km

Date: 7th

Start: Alp  Arribada: Puigcerdà

Distance: 87,5 km

Elevation: +4.410 m

Elevation: -4.365 m

37km

Date: 8th

Start: La Tor de Querol

Arrival: Puigcerdà

Distance: 37,6 km

Elevation: +2.095 m

Elevation: -2.160 m

13km

Data: 7th

Start: Bellver de Cerdanya

Arrival: Martinet

Distance: 12,8 km

Elevation: +530 m

Elevation: -617 m

Nuria Picas (Buff) has confirmed her participation in the Tour Cerdanya Trail (87 km race) this comes as a surprise after her withdrawal from Zegama-Aizkorri. However, Nuria must feel strong and will use this as preparation for the Skyrunning World Championships at the end of June.

Nuria is one of the best mountain runners in the world and currently leads the UTWT (Ultra Trail World Tour) after impressive wins at Transgrancanaria, UTMF and TNF100.

Judith Franch (inov-8), along with Berta Moreno, Djanina Freytag and Xari Adrian are strong candidates to become the new champions this weekend in Catalonia Cerdanya.

Who else should we watch out for?

VCUF

Eugeni Roselló winner of The Spine in the UK will be a strong contender
Eduardo Perez
Ganuza, David Vallverdu
Olga Manko

VCT

Almost all Spanish/Catalan, but great names indeed:

Jordi “Toti” Bes (Esports Nabes team)
Gerard “Blacky” Morales (Buff),
Pau Bartoló (Buff)

Arnau Julià (Buff) is not sure if he’ll run 87K or 37K.
Karim El Hayani (from Morocco, runs in sandals and was fourth a few weeks ago in a Spanish Cup race),
Berta Moreno,
Isaac Torija,
Ignasi Vilà
And two Tarahumara Indians from Mexico: Silvino Cuberas and Arnulfo Quimare.

CMC

Emma Roca is the best known here and hot favourite.
Kilian Jornet used to run this distance but he’s attempting Denali (McKinley) as part of his Summits project.
Pau Zamora (Buff),
Marc Pinsach
Diego Marin

CPMC

Pablo Vigil!

P in CPMC is for “popular” so there are no elite runners (apart from Pablo, of course!), some famous TV presenters, writers, doctors and so… More than 200 people take part making VCUF a big event.

The Region

The Catalan Cerdanya region is an area of natural beauty that has unique traits such as, terrain, climate and history that give a very particular character. Cerdanya is one of the widest valleys of Europe, with a minimum altitude of 1000 feet). Cerdanya’s east-west orientation provides around about 3,000 hours of sunshine a year. The mountain range consists of the Sierra del Cadi (western half) of the Sierra Moixerò and others as eastern most massifs Tossa d’Alp and Puigllançada, and the bulk of Pedraforca as Berguedá. The diversity and beauty is very clear: from the pure features of the Mediterranean to alpine levels. The area has sub-Mediterranean forests, beech forests, boreal forests of pine and sub-alpine coniferous forests, with pine and fir. The vegetation of the park is considered of special interest, because of the low temperatures and high humidity in the area and its altitude contributed to the existence of species that are not typical of the Mediterranean area, but in northern Europe and the European high mountains. Cerdanya is a great place to enjoy sport in a unique environment that offers a wide range of possibilities for any kind; mountain bike, trails, Nordic skiing, skiing, golf, horse riding, fishing, mountaineering, climbing, snowshoeing … the region has endless possibilities.

Website http://www.ultrafons.com

Uphill Secrets from the Pros – Trail Running Mag

Posted on May 15, 2014 by talkultra

Check out the latest edition of TRAIL RUNNING with an article and images by yours truly on running uphill.

It features Emelie Forsberg, Antonella Confortola, Erik Haugsnes, Florian Reichert, Tessa Hill and Stevie Kremer

www.trailrunningmag.co.uk

You can subscribe HERE

Great Lakeland 3 Day™ – Day 1

Posted on May 3, 2014 by talkultra

Days on the mountains and fells don’t get any better… May Day bank holiday, 200 competitors embracing a relaxed and casual approach to racing and 3-days on the iconic Lakeland fells and mountains.

Shane Ohly, race director for the GL3D ™ provides a selection of courses to suit every runner’s ability or competitive edge – Elite, A, B or the newly introduced C class for walkers. In conjunction with great planning and organization, a friendly atmosphere and believe it or not, good weather, day-1 proved to be an incredible start for the 2014 edition.

In the best traditions of the Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon, the competitors were promised a surprise on the first morning. Race Director, Shane Ohly explained, ‘The LAMM has a deserved reputation for surprising competitors on the first day with an unexpected change of venue or logistic and I wanted to embrace this idea for the GL3D™.’

The day kicked off with a steamer cruise across Ullswater from the race HQ at Pooley Bridge to Howtown and then a rolling start as runners ‘dibbed-in’ to commence the day.

Although very few glimpses of sun were sighted, the whole day remained dry and calm with constant cloud. Each and every participant stated, ‘Perfect running conditions.’

Despite the relaxed atmosphere the Great Lakeland 3Day™ remains a formidable challenge with the Elite runners covering 46.2km on day-1, the A class, 40km, B class, 31.3km and the new C course 24.1km.

It was grand tour of some of the best Lakeland ridges, summits and valleys with an optimal altitude gain of 1,183m for the C-class and 2,738m for the Elites. The A and B courses had 2,373 and 1,590m respectively.

A huge slice of cake, unlimited tea or coffee and of course the famous (or infamous) free beer or cider ensured that the aches and pains of a first tough day in the mountains would soon be forgotten.

Results:

Elite – 46.2km

Jim Mallin 5:19:56

Tim Laney 5:57:54

Chris Warner 5:58:12

1st lady – Kerstin Rosenqvist 6:44:44

A – 40k

Simon Harper 5:14:42

Jim Trueman 5:49:48

Adrian Chewter 5:50:50

1^st lady – Sally Ann Spencer 6:27:18

B – 31.3k

Eddy Charlton-Weedy 3:31:20

Alexander Beaven 4:04:23

David Neill 4:21:05

1^st lady – Christine Waller 4:44:49

C – 24.1k

Stephen Burt 4:03:42

Jaqueline Cooper 5:07:03

Martin & Nicola Kirkman 5:39:20

Ourea Events HERE

Great Lakeland 3 Day™ HERE

RAB MOUNTAIN MOUNTAIN™ – NEW ORGANISING TEAM FOR 2014!

Posted on February 17, 2014 by talkultra

©johnbrooke

The popular Rab Mountain Marathon™ has new owners after a transfer of ownership by Peak District based Dark and White, to Ourea Events. The event is a two-day fell running and navigation challenge for solos and pairs with an overnight camp, which moves to a new location each year.

With events like the Dragon’s Back Race™, the Great Lakeland 3Day™ and Marmot Dark Mountains™, Shane Ohly and his team from Ourea Events have been steadily building a reputation for delivering high quality mountain running events in recent years and this move puts the iconic Rab Mountain Marathon™ in safe hands. A self confessed mountain marathon addict, Ohly, was clearly delighted with the move, “Since its launch in 2007, the Rab Mountain Marathon™ has proved a firm favourite with the mountain marathon community and we have no intention of changing the event format in any way, which I know is excellent having taken part myself”.

The Rab Mountain Marathon™ has a score only format, which minimises the chance of ‘snakes’ of runners all heading to the same control, maximises route choice and offers a more personal mountain marathon experience. Over the years the event has built up a deserved reputation for being relaxed and welcoming with a fun and friendly atmosphere. The lack of prescribed start times, the wide spread of prize categories (including Veteran and Super Veteran) and the opportunity for younger competitors (aged 14+) to participate have all helped to cultivate this unique mountain marathon experience.

©johnbrooke

Ohly continued, “The Long Score and Short Score options put the competitors in control of how long they spend out each day, and also provide an almost unlimited challenge for the leading elite runners. It is a great format that Dark and White have devised and I would like to thank Adrian Boyes and his team for all their hard work over the years”.

Adrian Boyes, the owner of Dark and White explained his decision for the change, “Due to personal/family circumstances I am unfortunately no longer able to devote the necessary time to organising and controlling the Rab MM. The event has been very successful over the past 7 years and it was not an easy decision to relinquish control. After lengthy discussions with Shane Ohly I am 100% confident that the event is in very safe hands and that the spirit and ethos of the event will continue for many years to come.”

Rab Marketing Manager, Dan Thompson said, “Rab would like to thank to Adrian Boyes and the whole team at Dark and White for building the Rab Mountain Marathon™ into a popular and important event in the mountain running calendar. All of us at Rab are excited about working with Shane and his team at Ourea Events in the future – they have lots of experience of participating in and delivering these type of events, and they have no plans to make changes to what is a popular event format. We’re looking forward to an exciting future for the Rab Mountain Marathon™.”

The 8th Rab Mountain Marathon™ will be held on the 27th and 28th September 2014 and entries have opened today.

For further Information about:

Rab Mountain Marathon, please visit www.RabMountainMarathon.com or contact Shane Ohly on 07771516962 or info@RabMountainMarathon.com

Key Event Information

Website: www.RabMountainMarathon.com

Date: 27th & 28th September 2014

Venue: Northern England

Entry: from £47.50

Courses: Long Score and Short Score

SANTA HAD HELP! – Breaking News

Gallery

Posted on December 25, 2013 by talkultra

This gallery contains 20 photos.

International Mountain Day

Posted on December 11, 2013 by talkultra

December 11th is International Mountain Day

The theme for 2013? “Mountains: Key to a Sustainable Future”

Covering around 27 percent of the earth’s land surface, mountains play a critical role in moving the world towards sustainable economic growth. They not only provide sustenance and wellbeing to 720 million mountain people around the world, but indirectly benefit billions more living downstream.

In particular, mountains provide freshwater, energy and food – resources that will be increasingly scarce in coming decades. However, mountains also have a high incidence of poverty and are extremely vulnerable to climate change, deforestation, land degradation and natural disasters.

The challenge is to identify new and sustainable opportunities that can bring benefits to both highland and lowland communities and help to eradicate poverty without contributing to the degradation of fragile mountain ecosystems .

Commitment and will to advance this cause were strengthened during the International Year of Mountains in 2002, and mountains have gained an increasingly high profile on agendas at all levels.

The Year also led to the adoption of resolution 57/245, in which the General Assembly designated 11 December as International Mountain Day, and encouraged the international community to organize events at all levels on that day to highlight the importance of sustainable mountain development. Content ©un.org link here

In the words of Marino Giacometti, president of the ISF, “today the World celebrates the International Mountain Day, but we all know that everyday must be the day of the mountains, the wonderful arena for our sport that we love and respect.”

It is a pleasure for me to go back to one day last in August on the Matterhorn, the place of the first skyrunning competitions and of the first World Championship in 1998. That day, August 21, 2013 Kilian Jornet united 20 years of our history by challenging the mythical record for the ascent and descent of Matterhorn established by Bruno Brunod in 1995 with the time of 3.14.44. With an extraordinary time of 2.52.02 Kilian celebrated the mountain and to our first skyrunning world championship title.

On the mountains of truth you can never climb in vain: either you will reach a point higher up today, or you will be training your powers so that you will be able to climb higher tomorrow.
Friedrich Nietzsche

Nepal & Everest Trail Race – IMAGES

Posted on November 17, 2013 by talkultra

ALL IMAGES AVAILABLE TO PURCHASE FOR PERSONAL OR COMMERCIAL USE

HERE

Grand to Grand Ultra 2013

Posted on September 24, 2013 by talkultra

Not much opportunity to upload images from the trail, so apologies. Here are a few images in the build up to the race. More to follow as and when possible.

Red Bull Extreme, Lake Annecy 2013 w/ Kilian Jornet

Posted on September 12, 2013 by talkultra

Extreme by name, extreme by nature, the names of Red Bull and Kilian Jornet are almost a match made in heaven, equally renowned for pursuing the extreme.

Red Bull pursue the extreme in everything that they do… skateboarding with Ryan Scheckler, Ryan Doyle with Parkour, Travis Rice on a snowboard and so on, irrespective of the athlete or the sport, Red Bull push the boundaries.

View a video of the 2012 Red Bull Extreme

HERE

It seems appropriate that the third edition of the Red Bull Elements, located at Talloires on the shores of Lake Annecy should once again have the presence of Salomon sponsored athlete, Kilian Jornet.

It’s not the first time for Kilian to experience a Red Bull Extreme event. He is a two-time winner after participating in Red Bull Elements with his Font Romeu Team. However, he can’t win single-handed. Red Bull Elements is a one-day multi-sport adventure race. Competing as a team relay, the race celebrates three elements – air, earth and water – through four sports,

Rowers, runners, paragliders and mountain bikers join forces to compete in the same outdoor world! The race is a pure concentration of endurance sports. Uniting all those involved. It creates a dramatic and extreme event.

On Saturday, September 14th, 216 athletes grouped together in 56 teams will start an adventure with rowers covering 14km in Talloires bay.

Handing over to the trail runners, Kilian Jornet and his adversaries (such as Salomon teammate, Michel Lanne) will then climb eleven kilometers covering a vertical gain of 1914m with only 25m of negative gain!

At the summit, paragliders take over and they descend to a rendezvous with the final discipline; mountain biking. A final breakneck descent to Talloires village culminates the event.

Of course, this event is not about Kilian Jornet. On the contrary, he is very much just one cog in a very important four-person team. However, my emphasis and sport is running and in particular mountain and trail running, so, the question remains; can Kilian improve on his extraordinary performance from 2012? Last year, Kilian Jornet completed the 11 km of ascent in less than 1h: 20m. For sure, Michel Lanne will push him all the way to the summit. I just wish I was in Annecy to watch the action unfold… it really looks quite an incredible event!

Links:

Race Website HERE

Race Information HERE

For more information and inspiration, take a look at:

The Toughest Team Race in the World – Red Bull Dolomitenmann 2013

Thule 4 Peaks Mountain Challenge – South Africa

Posted on August 16, 2013 by talkultra

The 11^th THULE 4 Peaks Mountain Challenge in Association with SALOMON takes place on the weekend of the 23^rd / 25^th August 2013. The 24km mountain run is through the beautiful and challenging Witteberg mountain range near Ficksburg in the Eastern Free State. Last year saw the introduction of the ‘Pyramid Challenge’ where athletes have the chance to take on the ‘beast’ 40 % gradient vertical ascent and descent of the first pyramid at Moolmashoek Nature Reserve. The THULE 4 Peaks Mountain Challenge provides a weekend festival of Free State hospitality and an introduction to ‘mountain-running’ where both the accomplished trail runners and weekend warriors get to challenge themselves. The hospitality is rooted in the management of the Moolmanshoek Guest Lodge and the beautiful private nature reserve serves as HQ for the weekend activities.

Moolmanshoek Private Nature Reserve is situated 360km from Johannesburg and 230km from Bloemfontein and the unique scenery with mountain peaks such as Visierskerf, the highest in the Witteberg mountain range, provides a perfect venue to run, to explore and to challenge yourself against the elements. The 24km mountain run is a great introduction to the ultimate running challenge – mountain -running, with the 24km distance being the equivalent of a road ultra-marathon. The THULE 4 Peaks Mountain Challenge is an un-supported off road run, the concept derived from British ‘fell running’ whereby runners will conquer slopes to then enjoy superb vistas that the Witteberg mountain range ridgelines provide. The course is not marked but follows a circular route starting at 1460m, with a total vertical ascent over the race of 1420m to the highest point at 2312m. The concept of mountain running is one of expedition and adventure, where crossing the finish line is about conquering the elements, navigating your way through the rough terrain the course provides and feeling a sense of achivement not matched by any traditional running event. Participants must be totally self sustainable carrying their own fluids and nutrition for the entire race. The top competitors usually complete the race in 3 hours or less with some runners taking up to 9 hours, the cut off, to receive the revered Four Peaks medal.

The weekend see’s the main event, the THULE 4 Peaks Mountain Challenge kicking off at 6am on Saturday the 24^th. Entries received already include Salomon runners such as Thabang Madiba, Ryno Griesel, Jock Green and Matt Kretzmann against the local knowledge of multiple winner Isaac Mazibuko . In the ladies race we expect to see Salomon’s Jackie Moore racing with Takalani Ndandani and Megan Mackensie. This front pack of runners will be followed by the weekend warriors challenging themselves to the next level of running – building some bravery for ‘the ultimate’ the Salomon Skyrun hosted in November each year. After Saturday’s nights festivities, we kick off Sunday morning with the Red Bull Pyramid Challenge which will see runners tackle a net altitude gain of 850m over 3km ascent and descent of the first pyramid.

More details from: HERE