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2026 CCC Race Preview · Let's Talk Trail Running

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Hello, and welcome to Let's Talk Trail Running.
0:03
SPEAKER_00: This is your host,
0:04
SPEAKER_00: Robert Prosser,
0:05
SPEAKER_00: and today we've got part two of our UTMB World Series Finals prediction shows on
0:13
SPEAKER_00: the 100K race for the finals, and that is CCC, Cormier, Champailoc, Chamonix, and...
0:21
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, this is probably one of the most exciting races,
0:25
SPEAKER_00: one of the most exciting fields for the women's side.
0:28
SPEAKER_00: Last year, it was more or less the most competitive race in the women's world.
0:33
SPEAKER_00: And on the men's side, it was also top three most competitive.
0:37
SPEAKER_00: So this is the 100K.
0:40
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of the perfect mix of people stepping it up in distance from shorter,
0:44
SPEAKER_00: faster stuff and also people stepping it down from longer, more technical stuff.
0:49
SPEAKER_00: But it's kind of a more approachable, in a lot of ways, race than UTMB.
0:53
SPEAKER_00: Which can be quite scary for the men's winners going right around 20 hours and
0:56
SPEAKER_00: the women's winners going anywhere from 22 to 23 and top 10 going as high as 25.
1:03
SPEAKER_00: So it's really kind of a more approachable race.
1:05
SPEAKER_00: It's a 100-kilometer race, 101 kilometers, with approximately 6,000 meters of elevation gain.
1:11
SPEAKER_00: Or for us non-metric folks, 62 miles and about 19,000 feet of if we're talking freedom units.
1:18
SPEAKER_00: So And I'll read the description and we'll just jump straight into it.
1:23
SPEAKER_00: There's no housekeeping items.
1:24
SPEAKER_00: I talked to you guys yesterday and not as a lot has happened since yesterday.
1:28
SPEAKER_00: So we'll just kind of jump straight into the course description per UTMB's website.
1:33
SPEAKER_00: And I quote,
1:35
SPEAKER_00: The CCC has grown from being the little sister of the UTMB to becoming one of
1:39
SPEAKER_00: the most prestigious races in the world.
1:41
SPEAKER_00: The start line in the center of Cormier overflows with an atmosphere
1:44
SPEAKER_00: that only Italians know how to create.
1:47
SPEAKER_00: After the first kilometers, you will quickly climb Thank you very much.
2:08
SPEAKER_00: Once across the border in France,
2:09
SPEAKER_00: discover the authenticity of Valorcine before climbing up to Vallon de Charest,
2:16
SPEAKER_00: a true corner of paradise with a magnificent view over the Mont Blanc chain.
2:19
SPEAKER_00: It is then time to push through and receive a hero's welcome across the finish line
2:23
SPEAKER_00: in the heart of Chamonix.
2:24
SPEAKER_00: So that is the description.
2:26
SPEAKER_00: Yes, it should go without saying that Cormier is in Italy.
2:31
SPEAKER_00: For those of you guys that don't know the course well,
2:34
SPEAKER_00: it's in the Aosta Valley,
2:35
SPEAKER_00: a really legendary valley that I have not been to yet,
2:38
SPEAKER_00: but it looks absolutely gorgeous and like a trail running paradise.
2:43
SPEAKER_00: Other things,
2:44
SPEAKER_00: looking at the race,
2:45
SPEAKER_00: a lot has been talked about,
2:46
SPEAKER_00: but basically it starts off pretty much with a climb from the jump and there's not
2:50
SPEAKER_00: a lot of time to get out and separate it like you have in UTMB where you can kind
2:56
SPEAKER_00: of It basically creates separation in the first 15K.
2:58
SPEAKER_00: It kind of just goes straight up a climb.
3:02
SPEAKER_00: 1,400 meters basically in the first 13 kilometers.
3:05
SPEAKER_00: So pretty punchy.
3:08
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, I'm trying to do mental math.
3:10
SPEAKER_00: 15K is about 9 miles.
3:11
SPEAKER_00: So we're talking about 8-ish miles.
3:15
SPEAKER_00: You're going essentially...
3:18
SPEAKER_00: Three times, essentially 5,000 feet.
3:20
SPEAKER_00: So it pretty much is a steep jump from the gun.
3:23
SPEAKER_00: And then you go to Bertone, Arnuva, that's kind of like a rolling balcony.
3:27
SPEAKER_00: And then you have another big climb up to approximately 2,500 feet beyond Arnuva.
3:34
SPEAKER_00: And then you drop down to La Fouli, which is going to be a big descent.
3:36
SPEAKER_00: That's where a lot of athletes can get in trouble.
3:38
SPEAKER_00: You pretty much have a, let's see...
3:42
SPEAKER_00: 20K Descent.
3:45
SPEAKER_00: And then you still got to climb up,
3:47
SPEAKER_00: come into Champé-Loc,
3:48
SPEAKER_00: a little bit of climb,
3:49
SPEAKER_00: and then another climb after Champé-Loc,
3:52
SPEAKER_00: just before La Gitte,
3:53
SPEAKER_00: and then down to Triant,
3:55
SPEAKER_00: and then climb right after Triant,
3:58
SPEAKER_00: and then down into Valarcene,
3:59
SPEAKER_00: and then one last climb before you come back down into Chamonix.
4:02
SPEAKER_00: So a lot of people can get in trouble with that 20 kilometer descent
4:06
SPEAKER_00: and not have legs for those last two and a half,
4:09
SPEAKER_00: three climbs more or less, I would say.
4:12
SPEAKER_00: So, and I think they've changed some of the crewing limitations.
4:14
SPEAKER_00: I think there's only one or two crewed stations.
4:18
SPEAKER_00: I know you don't get to see your crew until, like, 50K in and Champé-Loc.
4:22
SPEAKER_00: And then I think there might be one other spot at Triant or Vallecine where you can see them.
4:26
SPEAKER_00: So, definitely gear is a big consideration.
4:29
SPEAKER_00: Definitely saving your effort is a big consideration.
4:34
SPEAKER_00: Speaking of the course,
4:35
SPEAKER_00: like I said, 101 kilometers, 6,000 meters, or 62 miles, 19,000 feet of her.
4:39
SPEAKER_00: I included in the show notes links to Martino Milanovic's win last year
4:43
SPEAKER_00: and Francesco Pupi's win as well.
4:47
SPEAKER_00: The course record on the men's side is Petter Engdahl.
4:49
SPEAKER_00: He's in the 950 range.
4:52
SPEAKER_00: Low 950s, I want to say like 952 to 954 off the top of my head.
4:56
SPEAKER_00: Francesco won in about 10 hours and 6 minutes last year.
4:59
SPEAKER_00: And then the women's course record is Blondine Lea Rondel.
5:03
SPEAKER_00: When she won it,
5:04
SPEAKER_00: and Martina Malarnaschuk was just off that course record,
5:06
SPEAKER_00: she ran 11.41 high, and I think the course record's 11.40.
5:12
SPEAKER_00: So if we're talking men's and women's times, I'm expecting the men's times to be around...
5:21
SPEAKER_00: I don't know that I see Petarangdahl's course record going down,
5:24
SPEAKER_00: but I think we might get close to it.
5:26
SPEAKER_00: And then the women's winning times really have progressed a lot,
5:30
SPEAKER_00: but I would expect to see somewhere in that 11.30 to 11.45,
5:34
SPEAKER_00: and it is very possible the women's course record is going down.
5:37
SPEAKER_00: More about that in a little bit.
5:39
SPEAKER_00: We're talking course records at UTMB.
5:41
SPEAKER_00: We know it's always tricky because they're always kind of swapping things up.
5:44
SPEAKER_00: But I would say CCC,
5:45
SPEAKER_00: from my understanding,
5:46
SPEAKER_00: is probably the most comparable course to its original and has had the least amount
5:50
SPEAKER_00: of changes.
5:51
SPEAKER_00: I think the UTMB course over the years is mostly comparable.
5:54
SPEAKER_00: OCC has definitely changed the most and it's hard to compare,
5:56
SPEAKER_00: like we said in yesterday's podcast,
5:58
SPEAKER_00: kind of like apples, not exactly apples to apples.
6:01
SPEAKER_00: But CCC does feel like it carries pretty much a very similar...
6:07
SPEAKER_00: Almost the exact same route, more or less, year over year.
6:09
SPEAKER_00: And it does feel like Pettering Doll's course record in 2022 really was just that impressive.
6:15
SPEAKER_00: All right, so that's what I want to talk about.
6:23
SPEAKER_00: With regards to...
6:27
SPEAKER_00: CCC.
6:28
SPEAKER_00: So men's field, women's fields, both stacked, both looking good.
6:34
SPEAKER_00: I think the women's fields has a few more clear favorites and the men's fields has
6:38
SPEAKER_00: a lot of very, very strong athletes, but a I don't think there is a clear favorite.
7:06
SPEAKER_00: Returning Champions.
7:07
SPEAKER_00: There are some very,
7:08
SPEAKER_00: very good racers who have had very good races here,
7:11
SPEAKER_00: specifically, but I just don't think that there's a clear favorite.
7:15
SPEAKER_00: So, going into the storylines on the men's side,
7:20
SPEAKER_00: some storylines on I said the absolute flooding of this race with OCC
7:24
SPEAKER_00: and World long trail racers running it back for third insanely competitive race here
7:29
SPEAKER_00: at CCC.
7:30
SPEAKER_00: So we have a ton of guys that raced OCC last year and are stepping it up to CCC,
7:35
SPEAKER_00: but they were mainly racing OCC because they're also going to race long trail
7:39
SPEAKER_00: at Worlds.
7:39
SPEAKER_00: So we have four,
7:42
SPEAKER_00: let's see, Minogio, Andre Vitek, Adam Peterman all raced OCC and Worlds Long Trail.
7:50
SPEAKER_00: And then we also have Ben Rubial and Peter Frano who also raced Worlds Long Trail
7:55
SPEAKER_00: but didn't race OCC.
8:01
SPEAKER_00: Next storyline identified on the men's side, which country fills the top 10 with the most?
8:06
SPEAKER_00: And I think it's going to be somewhere between France, USA, and China.
8:09
SPEAKER_00: I don't think there's a clear favorite.
8:11
SPEAKER_00: I think the US has traditionally, especially on the men's side, we've had, I think, we had four.
8:16
SPEAKER_00: We're in the top ten last year.
8:17
SPEAKER_00: I think we had three each of the two years before that.
8:19
SPEAKER_00: We do, as the US, do very well.
8:22
SPEAKER_00: This is like a type of race timeframe and effort and distance that Americans tend to do well at.
8:30
SPEAKER_00: So CCC is one of the few races at UTMB finals that Americans have figured out.
8:34
SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't be surprised to see USA in that top spot this year,
8:37
SPEAKER_00: but France is bringing some really good guys as always,
8:39
SPEAKER_00: and China honestly has some really good depth and could easily go.
8:42
SPEAKER_00: They had two in the top ten last year, if I'm not mistaken.
8:46
SPEAKER_00: Let me double check that because I have the results pulled up.
8:49
SPEAKER_00: Nope.
8:50
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, I'm pretty sure they had two in the top ten last year at CCC.
8:54
SPEAKER_00: All right, let's go back over to Mensai.
9:02
SPEAKER_00: Eli.
9:06
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, I'm pulling up the results.
9:07
SPEAKER_00: I had CCC pulled up, then I removed them.
9:10
SPEAKER_00: China did have two in the top ten.
9:13
SPEAKER_00: America had four.
9:15
SPEAKER_00: And France had two.
9:17
SPEAKER_00: All right, so...
9:23
SPEAKER_00: Other storylines identified on the men's side.
9:26
SPEAKER_00: How do the Western States athletes bounce back for this double?
9:30
SPEAKER_00: We've got four of them in the men's field and only half
9:32
SPEAKER_00: of those finished Western States, so we'll talk more about that.
9:35
SPEAKER_00: Dark horses,
9:36
SPEAKER_00: I didn't really identify any super strong dark horses on the men's side,
9:42
SPEAKER_00: quite frankly.
9:43
SPEAKER_00: I think they're a little bit more noticeable on the women's side,
9:46
SPEAKER_00: but we will talk about some people who I think could fall in
9:48
SPEAKER_00: the dark horse category.
9:52
SPEAKER_00: All right, so categories identified.
9:55
SPEAKER_00: So first one I want to talk about, or no, so last thing, predictions rather.
10:01
SPEAKER_00: Predictions that I have for men's field at CCC.
10:03
SPEAKER_00: I don't think that Hans wins.
10:10
SPEAKER_00: I do think that we see very similar results to World's Long Trail last year.
10:14
SPEAKER_00: And I do think we have at least two Chinese athletes in the top 10,
10:19
SPEAKER_00: which we did have last year as well.
10:22
SPEAKER_00: And then... Let's see.
10:26
SPEAKER_00: You have to pick...
10:27
SPEAKER_00: And then I think on the men's US side,
10:29
SPEAKER_00: I think you have to pick two of the AT or US runners and one of
10:32
SPEAKER_00: the up-and-coming ones for at least three in the top ten,
10:34
SPEAKER_00: which has pretty much happened many of the last few years.
10:37
SPEAKER_00: So I think we have some clear favorites on the men's side.
10:40
SPEAKER_00: Adam Peterman, I think one of those guys is going to get in the top ten.
10:45
SPEAKER_00: We'll talk more about who's included in that list.
10:58
SPEAKER_00: Alright, first category I want to talk about on the men's side.
11:00
SPEAKER_00: The iCrushed Worlds and or CCC last year crowd winner is most likely coming from this group.
11:07
SPEAKER_00: And I've got five names identified.
11:09
SPEAKER_00: Christian Minogio, Benjamin Rubal, Andrzej Vitek, Adam Peterman, and Peter Frano.
11:18
SPEAKER_00: So...
11:19
SPEAKER_00: Included in that crowd, Christian Minogio.
11:21
SPEAKER_00: For a lot of people,
11:22
SPEAKER_00: I knew of him from skyrunning results
11:24
SPEAKER_00: and I knew he had some very good skyrunning results under his belt,
11:27
SPEAKER_00: but I thought his UTMB index was a little bit inflated.
11:29
SPEAKER_00: I've talked about this before on the show.
11:32
SPEAKER_00: I was definitely proven wrong and I think a lot of people He's always had a lot
11:35
SPEAKER_00: of really good results in long, hard, skyrunning-type races.
11:49
SPEAKER_00: And he was second in the Italian 75K,
11:53
SPEAKER_00: so long trail champs,
11:54
SPEAKER_00: just behind Francesco Pupi when they qualified for the Italian team.
11:58
SPEAKER_00: He was only 10 minutes off in the six-and-a-half-hour race.
12:00
SPEAKER_00: So he did have plenty of good results,
12:02
SPEAKER_00: but I feel like he just didn't kind of race UTMB finals,
12:06
SPEAKER_00: so it was kind of tough to tell where he stacked up.
12:09
SPEAKER_00: But we all...
12:10
SPEAKER_00: Came to know who he was at OCC, Amazing Race, doubled it back with a fourth place at Worlds.
12:15
SPEAKER_00: This year, he's picked right off where he left off.
12:18
SPEAKER_00: He has a third place at Marathon of Montblanc, 90K, just behind Ben Diemen and Louis-Ancalfe.
12:24
SPEAKER_00: And then he won Sky Marathon, Santiago Luglio.
12:27
SPEAKER_00: He got second at Mono Race with Volsweg, but that's also because he took a time penalty.
12:30
SPEAKER_00: He probably would have won it otherwise.
12:32
SPEAKER_00: And then he also raced European Champs, 14th place.
12:37
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so honestly, Christian Menozio got to be a favorite.
12:43
SPEAKER_00: Got to know these trails really well being an Italian guy,
12:45
SPEAKER_00: but also just super good,
12:47
SPEAKER_00: both fast,
12:48
SPEAKER_00: both probably one of the best technical descenders in the field,
12:52
SPEAKER_00: and he is the highest UTMB index in the field,
12:54
SPEAKER_00: so if that doesn't make you a favorite, I don't know what does.
12:57
SPEAKER_00: Next one in that group of Crushed It Out Worlds is going to be Benjamin Rubal,
13:02
SPEAKER_00: French athlete for A6, young guy, up and coming, just really killing it.
13:07
SPEAKER_00: So far this year,
13:08
SPEAKER_00: he's raced three times, no,
13:10
SPEAKER_00: excuse me,
13:10
SPEAKER_00: four times,
13:11
SPEAKER_00: He's raced to a win at Rastonica 100K most recently on July 11th, so 7-11.
13:18
SPEAKER_00: Not as deep of a field there.
13:20
SPEAKER_00: And then he did race Zagama to an 8th place finish in 3 hours and 55 minutes this year.
13:24
SPEAKER_00: Very impressive, very deep race there.
13:26
SPEAKER_00: He also got 5th place at Sky Race in Mathesine,
13:28
SPEAKER_00: a very, very competitive Sky Race to start off the year.
13:31
SPEAKER_00: And then he got 2nd at the French Short Trail Championships, but did not race in...
13:40
SPEAKER_00: The Euro Off-Trail Championships this year.
13:43
SPEAKER_00: Last year, we saw Ben Rubial.
13:45
SPEAKER_00: He did Race Worlds.
13:47
SPEAKER_00: He tied for second place with Louis-Anne-Coffee,
13:49
SPEAKER_00: and he also won the French Trail Qualifier High Trail of Annoy.
13:54
SPEAKER_00: So...
13:56
SPEAKER_00: We have seen Ben Rubial compete in the UTMB Finals.
14:00
SPEAKER_00: He DNF CCC way back in 2021.
14:04
SPEAKER_00: He also raced CCC in 2022 to a 14th place finish.
14:08
SPEAKER_00: And then he raced, I want to say OCC, yep, in 2024 to an 11th place finish.
14:14
SPEAKER_00: So kind of slowly and steadily moving his way up.
14:17
SPEAKER_00: Not necessarily in distance, but just getting better.
14:19
SPEAKER_00: And I think he's definitely made a leap, a big leap since then, both in his...
14:26
SPEAKER_00: He went to third at OCC, just behind that Jim Walmsley and Christian Minogio duo.
14:46
SPEAKER_00: And he followed that up with a seventh place at Worlds Long Trail.
14:52
SPEAKER_00: So really killed it.
14:53
SPEAKER_00: He's pretty much just stayed local and raced Polish races this year.
14:56
SPEAKER_00: But basically everything that he's raced in Poland, he's won.
14:59
SPEAKER_00: The only thing he didn't race in Poland was to start off the year.
15:02
SPEAKER_00: He did race Chianti.
15:03
SPEAKER_00: Ultra Trail was like the weird, I want to say 75K or something like that.
15:08
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, 75K.
15:09
SPEAKER_00: Not as competitive as the one with Vincent Bouillard.
15:16
SPEAKER_00: Who else am I thinking of?
15:18
SPEAKER_00: Tamar Cardin.
15:22
SPEAKER_00: Andres Ryder in it.
15:23
SPEAKER_00: So, Andrzej Bietek, in my mind, Andrzej Bietek, he's kind of like the Polish Dan Jones.
15:29
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know if it's just because they were both sponsored by ASICS.
15:32
SPEAKER_00: I know Dan's with Adidas now.
15:34
SPEAKER_00: But they're really good at fast races.
15:37
SPEAKER_00: They're really, really consistent and don't miss a lot.
15:39
SPEAKER_00: And they just kind of are good, flat, fast racers.
15:43
SPEAKER_00: But they also like to do racing in their home country.
15:46
SPEAKER_00: Dan always kills it at Tarawara.
15:48
SPEAKER_00: And then also...
15:49
SPEAKER_00: I know he's not from Australia, but he also does well in Australian races.
15:53
SPEAKER_00: And that's really worked out.
15:57
SPEAKER_00: He's only lost one race this year in Poland,
16:00
SPEAKER_00: and that was to Marcin Kubitschka,
16:02
SPEAKER_00: who we just talked about in OCC, and he was only seven minutes behind him.
16:07
SPEAKER_00: And that was a 38K race with 2,000 meters of vert.
16:11
SPEAKER_00: But basically everything he's raced in Poland,
16:12
SPEAKER_00: he's won,
16:13
SPEAKER_00: and he's beat guys like Bart Przewski,
16:15
SPEAKER_00: who we'll talk about, and other people like that.
16:18
SPEAKER_00: Even though Andrzej hasn't raced outside of Poland much,
16:21
SPEAKER_00: I don't think there's any reason to think that he's not going to knock it out of
16:24
SPEAKER_00: the park and have a great CCC just like he did OCC last year.
16:28
SPEAKER_00: Next athlete to talk about,
16:29
SPEAKER_00: none other than Adam Petergod, Hoka athlete, CU Boulder runner, and...
16:38
SPEAKER_00: And former Western States Champion as well.
16:41
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, I was looking.
16:44
SPEAKER_00: So Adam Peterman looking like a classic, really, really solid Adam Peterman year this year.
16:50
SPEAKER_00: We started off the season second place at Black Annie 50KHS.
16:52
SPEAKER_00: Just behind Seth Ruling, a very tight battle.
16:55
SPEAKER_00: Followed it up with a win at Canyons Endurance 100K to punch his golden ticket back
17:00
SPEAKER_00: into Western States and add to the excitement.
17:03
SPEAKER_00: Probably one of the best golden ticket fields we ever got from an exciting to add to
17:09
SPEAKER_00: the Western States lineup.
17:10
SPEAKER_00: And that was Canyons with Adam Peterman,
17:12
SPEAKER_00: Zach Miller, and Hayden Knox all punching their tickets to Western.
17:16
SPEAKER_00: At Western, Adam followed it up.
17:17
SPEAKER_00: Really, really amazing performance.
17:19
SPEAKER_00: 14.26 was his finish time, good enough for sixth place this year.
17:24
SPEAKER_00: So Adam feels like he's in a great place.
17:26
SPEAKER_00: Like we said last year, he was also in that OCC long trail double at World.
17:31
SPEAKER_00: So he went sixth at OCC.
17:33
SPEAKER_00: And really, that was in a super tight pack I talked about yesterday.
17:35
SPEAKER_00: I think it was four and a half minutes that separated second through seven or third
17:38
SPEAKER_00: through seven at OCC last year.
17:40
SPEAKER_00: So he just kind of came in the back half of that pack.
17:43
SPEAKER_00: And then he followed it up with an eighth place at Worlds for Team USA.
17:46
SPEAKER_00: So a really amazing performance for Adam.
17:48
SPEAKER_00: He's had success here at CCC before he raced to a third place in 2024,
17:54
SPEAKER_00: the year that Hayden Hawks won.
17:59
SPEAKER_00: And then...
18:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that was his only race at CCC.
18:04
SPEAKER_00: I thought he had one other one, so I was just double-checking.
18:06
SPEAKER_00: So Adam Peterman feels like he's having a classic AP type year,
18:11
SPEAKER_00: really amazing results,
18:12
SPEAKER_00: and it feels like this is the type of race that he has raced well on his debut
18:17
SPEAKER_00: and probably will race well again this year,
18:19
SPEAKER_00: assuming that he's got Western States out of his legs.
18:22
SPEAKER_00: Next athlete is Peter Frano,
18:25
SPEAKER_00: who did beat Adam Peterman,
18:26
SPEAKER_00: I'm pretty sure, in 2024 and got that second place to Hayden Hawks.
18:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, second place to Hayden Hawks in 22.4 at CCC.
18:35
SPEAKER_00: He is in the contingent.
18:36
SPEAKER_00: He did not race OCC last year, but he did race Worlds.
18:39
SPEAKER_00: Killed it at Worlds.
18:41
SPEAKER_00: Finished in fifth place in the World Long Trail Championships
18:45
SPEAKER_00: after going top 10 earlier in the year at Western States.
18:48
SPEAKER_00: This year, it's been a little bit more of a mixed bag for him.
18:51
SPEAKER_00: He did race Euro Champs in the long trail,
18:55
SPEAKER_00: but he only got 44th place, which I felt was a little bit uncharacteristic for him.
19:00
SPEAKER_00: I think he was mixing it up in the top 10 early on, but he just really fell off towards the end.
19:04
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, I was double-checking those results.
19:11
SPEAKER_00: Okay, yeah, Fred, Daniel, Anton.
19:15
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
19:16
SPEAKER_00: So, and then he did race La Verde, 120K,
19:21
SPEAKER_00: did have a very good race, fourth place, just behind guys like Hannes Namburger.
19:26
SPEAKER_00: Andreas Reiterer and Tobias Geiser when Hannes went underneath course record.
19:32
SPEAKER_00: So fourth place at Lavarado in a very good race.
19:35
SPEAKER_00: And then he did get second place at Iger 51K just behind Luke Grenfell-Shaw,
19:41
SPEAKER_00: who's also going to be racing CCC, but in front of Chris Myers.
19:45
SPEAKER_00: So Peter, probably a little bit more of a mixed bag, but...
19:53
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Peter probably a little bit more of a mixed bag,
19:57
SPEAKER_00: but definitely has the chops to do well here and has finished second place on
20:00
SPEAKER_00: the podium before.
20:01
SPEAKER_00: Alright,
20:03
SPEAKER_00: next category,
20:04
SPEAKER_00: doubling back from states and looking to make the most after their races there.
20:08
SPEAKER_00: So we already talked about Adam Peterman is also in that group,
20:11
SPEAKER_00: but we're going to talk about Tomal Cardin,
20:14
SPEAKER_00: Hans Troyer, and Dan Jones in this group.
20:18
SPEAKER_00: So next to Tomal Cardin's name,
20:20
SPEAKER_00: I just put goaded,
20:22
SPEAKER_00: Kiprun athlete, French runner, super-duper amazing debut at Western States.
20:27
SPEAKER_00: Underneath the previous course record, he ran 14.07 to come into fourth place.
20:32
SPEAKER_00: And I would say it would have been the fastest debut ever.
20:36
SPEAKER_00: And except for that, it got stolen by Francesco Pupi in his debut 100.
20:39
SPEAKER_00: So...
20:44
SPEAKER_00: Let's see.
20:46
SPEAKER_00: Thomas has not raced since Western States.
20:49
SPEAKER_00: Before that, he did 104K that he won in 9 hours and 3 minutes in France.
20:53
SPEAKER_00: And then he also won Chianti,
20:55
SPEAKER_00: where he punched his golden ticket to Western States early in the year.
21:01
SPEAKER_00: Really some amazing results for Tomocardine.
21:03
SPEAKER_00: It feels like CCC is right in his wheelhouse.
21:05
SPEAKER_00: He did race World Short Trail Tramps last year, but unfortunately DNF'd.
21:10
SPEAKER_00: It seems like he raced Western extremely intelligently.
21:13
SPEAKER_00: He's still really fresh.
21:14
SPEAKER_00: I don't think of people that could have fatigue and lingering in their legs from Western.
21:19
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't feel like he's one that's going to be affected by it.
21:22
SPEAKER_00: We've seen this guy.
21:23
SPEAKER_00: He's very, very good at fast and runnable 100Ks.
21:25
SPEAKER_00: I know CCC is mountainous per se,
21:29
SPEAKER_00: but we have seen really good results with fast,
21:32
SPEAKER_00: flat athletes at CCC, including Americans, which we can't always say.
21:38
SPEAKER_00: Other results for Tamar,
21:40
SPEAKER_00: he has gone,
21:42
SPEAKER_00: let's see,
21:42
SPEAKER_00: so that's everything he did in 2026,
21:44
SPEAKER_00: but in 2025 he did have a top 10 at Zagama,
21:46
SPEAKER_00: he raced to a 6th place,
21:48
SPEAKER_00: 3rd place at Marathon de Montblanc,
21:50
SPEAKER_00: and then he has previously won ASIC Saint-Leon,
21:54
SPEAKER_00: and he has also run Templier as well.
21:58
SPEAKER_00: So, and he was a European champion in 2024.
22:02
SPEAKER_00: He has not raced, I assume he's CCC before, but he has raced OCC and gone top five.
22:08
SPEAKER_00: He got fourth place in 2021.
22:09
SPEAKER_00: And...
22:10
SPEAKER_00: I thought he had one other one.
22:16
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, fourth place in 2021 is the main one.
22:19
SPEAKER_00: So...
22:21
SPEAKER_00: That is Tamal Cardin.
22:22
SPEAKER_00: I think he's got to be a favorite.
22:24
SPEAKER_00: I think he very well has the chops to win here,
22:26
SPEAKER_00: and I would not be surprised to see him win here.
22:29
SPEAKER_00: And I'm surprised that he just hasn't raced CCC yet.
22:32
SPEAKER_00: Next athlete, talking about doubling back from states.
22:34
SPEAKER_00: A lot of hype around this guy.
22:35
SPEAKER_00: A lot of love for him.
22:37
SPEAKER_00: Hans Troyer, Hoka athlete, young and fit, the kid.
22:43
SPEAKER_00: He, I put tongue-in-cheek wise, he was the winner of the Western Championship.
22:47
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he was definitely racing to win,
22:49
SPEAKER_00: and it could have worked, but I don't think it was necessarily...
23:12
SPEAKER_00: I think Vincent didn't race as aggressively and still won the race despite Hans doing that.
23:21
SPEAKER_00: Hans is looking to bounce back.
23:22
SPEAKER_00: He's probably looking to get a golden ticket,
23:24
SPEAKER_00: which we haven't even really talked about,
23:25
SPEAKER_00: but this is a golden ticket race, three deep.
23:27
SPEAKER_00: If it rolls two Hans or if he goes top three,
23:30
SPEAKER_00: I definitely think he will take it because he wants to go back to Western States.
23:33
SPEAKER_00: I see Hans coming out hard and fading,
23:37
SPEAKER_00: and I think he'll be somewhere between Eli last year,
23:40
SPEAKER_00: Eli Hemming,
23:41
SPEAKER_00: who finished seventh at CCC,
23:42
SPEAKER_00: but he really was out there with the lead pack and I think was even leading the race
23:46
SPEAKER_00: or top three at times and just faded back into seventh.
23:49
SPEAKER_00: Or somebody like Seth Ruling,
23:50
SPEAKER_00: who we have seen top five at CCC,
23:53
SPEAKER_00: but we also saw him come out with the lead pack with Hayden.
23:56
SPEAKER_00: And Adam Peterman one year, and then he just didn't stick the landing.
23:59
SPEAKER_00: So Hans is definitely going to stick his nose in it.
24:02
SPEAKER_00: He's definitely going to race up front.
24:03
SPEAKER_00: He's definitely going to go out aggressive.
24:05
SPEAKER_00: He's definitely going to bomb that half-marathon descent super-duper fast
24:10
SPEAKER_00: or 20K descent, whatever it is.
24:12
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to see if he's got the legs full of the climbing light on.
24:15
SPEAKER_00: He's been over in Europe for a while.
24:16
SPEAKER_00: He's got tons of support from Hoka, and they had a Hoka training camp.
24:20
SPEAKER_00: So it would not surprise me to see him go top 10.
24:23
SPEAKER_00: I think he is going to mix it up with the lead for a long time.
24:27
SPEAKER_00: I don't think he's going to be able to hold on to it,
24:29
SPEAKER_00: but I wouldn't be surprised to see him go anywhere 4-10 if he finishes.
24:32
SPEAKER_00: So I wouldn't be surprised to see him do enough.
24:34
SPEAKER_00: I don't want him to, but I wouldn't be surprised if it happened.
24:39
SPEAKER_00: Next athlete is Dan Jones.
24:41
SPEAKER_00: We talked about the Polish Dan Jones on JV Tech.
24:43
SPEAKER_00: Now we're going to talk about Dan Jones, Dan Jones.
24:47
SPEAKER_00: Dan Jones looked like he was having a textbook Dan Jones year,
24:50
SPEAKER_00: starting off the year with a win at Terrowero 100 yet again,
24:54
SPEAKER_00: followed it up with a win at Ultra Trail Australia 50K.
24:57
SPEAKER_00: I want to say yet again,
25:02
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
25:03
SPEAKER_00: Also, yet again.
25:03
SPEAKER_00: So, just kind of textbook Dan years.
25:06
SPEAKER_00: So, 401, 404.
25:07
SPEAKER_00: So, more or less the same time.
25:10
SPEAKER_00: Everything looked good to go, but he finally had a better race at Western.
25:13
SPEAKER_00: We haven't seen that before.
25:14
SPEAKER_00: We've seen him, you know, pretty much be a lock for either We have seen him race at CCC before.
25:34
SPEAKER_00: In 2024, he got a fourth place after getting a fourth place at Western States.
25:37
SPEAKER_00: That just seems to be his number.
25:39
SPEAKER_00: And then I thought he had raced it more than once,
25:40
SPEAKER_00: but I forgot he had raced UTMB the full loop and gone 12th,
25:44
SPEAKER_00: which is really impressive, bouncing off Western.
25:46
SPEAKER_00: So Dan Jones probably hungry,
25:49
SPEAKER_00: looking to get back after it,
25:51
SPEAKER_00: and definitely think the Kiwi's going to probably lace one and have
25:54
SPEAKER_00: a good race out here.
25:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
25:58
SPEAKER_00: Alright,
25:59
SPEAKER_00: next athlete to look out for,
26:03
SPEAKER_00: or next group of athletes to look out for,
26:04
SPEAKER_00: Chinese athletes, we've got Meng Guangfu Meng, Zhiduo Kanhao Luo,
26:15
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so let's start off with Guangfu Meng,
26:22
SPEAKER_00: Hoka athlete,
26:23
SPEAKER_00: highest UTB index of all the Chinese males in the field,
26:26
SPEAKER_00: just between Nadir McGuay and Tomal Cardi.
26:29
SPEAKER_00: And above guys like Eli Hemming, Adam Peterman, Peter Frano.
26:33
SPEAKER_00: So that means, you know, that's legit.
26:36
SPEAKER_00: Meng Fu Meng, he has raced a super stacked field last year to a sixth place finish.
26:42
SPEAKER_00: So he did finish sixth at the CCC last year.
26:44
SPEAKER_00: And looking at his races all the way back to April this year,
26:48
SPEAKER_00: they're all Windsor podiums, so that is also legit.
26:51
SPEAKER_00: Surprisingly,
26:52
SPEAKER_00: he has not raced anything longer than four and a half hours since his second place
26:55
SPEAKER_00: at Hong Kong 100K to start the year in January or February.
27:00
SPEAKER_00: He also has a seventh place at OCC under his belt in 2023 and a win at Hong Kong 100K in 2025.
27:07
SPEAKER_00: So he is very good at this distance and time frame of race,
27:11
SPEAKER_00: and I expect him to be up there battling with the top leaders.
27:15
SPEAKER_00: Next Chinese athlete, talk about G-Duo, another Hoka athlete from China.
27:19
SPEAKER_00: He has not finished anything longer than 4 hours and 45 minutes this year,
27:22
SPEAKER_00: although he did line up and DNF, Teraware, in February.
27:26
SPEAKER_00: Gidua's best results last year included fourth place at UTMB,
27:31
SPEAKER_00: so he is stepping down in distance.
27:33
SPEAKER_00: He also raced his second at Swiss Canyon 100K last year and a win at...
27:37
SPEAKER_00: The Ultra Trail Xiamen in February,
27:40
SPEAKER_00: which scored him a 926 UTMB index and was a race with 107 kilometers and 5600 meters
27:46
SPEAKER_00: of elevation gain.
27:48
SPEAKER_00: Zhiduo raced Western in 2024 to a 1535,
27:51
SPEAKER_00: so we know he's got good leg speed
27:53
SPEAKER_00: and it seems like CCC would suit him despite only having raced UTMB before.
27:59
SPEAKER_00: Next athlete,
27:59
SPEAKER_00: talk about Ken Hua Lau,
28:02
SPEAKER_00: Calus Fuga athlete,
28:04
SPEAKER_00: but a very near miss of getting a golden ticket this year when raced to
28:06
SPEAKER_00: a fourth place at Cannons 100K.
28:08
SPEAKER_00: He was less than two minutes behind Hayden Hawks.
28:12
SPEAKER_00: We have seen him.
28:14
SPEAKER_00: Last year,
28:14
SPEAKER_00: he raced to a third place at Ultra Trail Ninghai 105K,
28:18
SPEAKER_00: which is a similar finish time to CCC.
28:20
SPEAKER_00: He also did race CCC to a 12th place last year as well and was fifth place at Black Canyon 100K.
28:27
SPEAKER_00: So it feels like Ken Huo Lao, it feels like that distance and time range suits him.
28:32
SPEAKER_00: It feels like he's got really good light speed.
28:34
SPEAKER_00: I think Ken Huo Lao and Guangfu Meng are probably my top two picks
28:38
SPEAKER_00: for Chinese athletes in the top ten.
28:41
SPEAKER_00: But we still got a couple more to talk about.
28:43
SPEAKER_00: So Jian Jian Yang,
28:45
SPEAKER_00: another K-less athlete who it seems like is making his debut racing at UTMB week.
28:50
SPEAKER_00: And he's only raced in China so far other than the result at Swiss Canyon 53K last year.
28:58
SPEAKER_00: I say only raced in China, he's only raced in Asia.
29:00
SPEAKER_00: So his best results include a win at Trans Jeju 0100K by UTMB.
29:04
SPEAKER_00: He did win the Vietnam Mountain Marathon.
29:07
SPEAKER_00: And then, like I said, he got second at Swiss Canyon 53K last year and won the Hong Kong 57K.
29:11
SPEAKER_00: So that's Jian Jian Yang.
29:15
SPEAKER_00: And the next Chinese athlete to talk about Hua Hua Zhang.
29:20
SPEAKER_00: Chinese athlete for Solomon who raced CCC last year to a DNF,
29:23
SPEAKER_00: but he followed it up with a win at Saigu 105K, which is a deep Chinese race.
29:28
SPEAKER_00: And he also won the Chongli 70 race over Guangfu Meng this year.
29:33
SPEAKER_00: Hua Hua Zhang does DNF a non-trivial amount, but when he's on, it seems like he's very on.
29:38
SPEAKER_00: So it could be a bit of a toying cost.
29:40
SPEAKER_00: He could be a winter blow-up type guy.
29:43
SPEAKER_00: All right, Cao Luo, Adidas Terex athlete with third at UTMB Amazonian Jungle 50K this year.
29:50
SPEAKER_00: It's in Thailand,
29:51
SPEAKER_00: and he has also raced to eighth place at OCC as recently as 2024 and ninth in 2023.
29:57
SPEAKER_00: He does seem to be a bit of an up-and-down racer and did have a DNF
30:00
SPEAKER_00: at Chongqing 168K most recently in July.
30:05
SPEAKER_00: So those are the Chinese athletes to look out for.
30:15
SPEAKER_00: Alright,
30:17
SPEAKER_00: next category
30:31
SPEAKER_00: is the Stars and Stripes boys
30:35
SPEAKER_00: who will be making strong pushes
30:38
SPEAKER_00: for wins or high finishes in the top ten.
30:41
SPEAKER_00: We already talked about Hans Troyer, so I'm not going to say any more about him.
30:45
SPEAKER_00: But Eli Hemming, we have not really talked about too much.
30:48
SPEAKER_00: Eli Hemming,
30:49
SPEAKER_00: one of the best 50K athletes in the world,
30:51
SPEAKER_00: still trying to get the hang of the longer races.
30:53
SPEAKER_00: He did race Never Summer 60K to a really big course record.
30:56
SPEAKER_00: Not a super competitive race, but he did smash it.
30:59
SPEAKER_00: He also won Broken Arrow 46K earlier this year and Rothrock 50K,
31:03
SPEAKER_00: so he's on a bit of a winning streak.
31:05
SPEAKER_00: He did have a DNF at Deserets 50K, which was kind of surprising.
31:09
SPEAKER_00: And then he had a bad day at Black Canyon 100K, where he finished 21st.
31:15
SPEAKER_00: I forget how quickly he faded this year, quite frankly.
31:17
SPEAKER_00: I'm pretty sure he was in it for a while.
31:20
SPEAKER_00: And yeah,
31:22
SPEAKER_00: I think he was in it for a while,
31:23
SPEAKER_00: and I don't remember when he faded exactly this year, quite frankly.
31:27
SPEAKER_00: But Eli Hemming,
31:27
SPEAKER_00: with that being said,
31:28
SPEAKER_00: is the top returning American to this field because we don't have Drew Holman
31:34
SPEAKER_00: or Josh Small or David Sinclair returning.
31:36
SPEAKER_00: So he is the top returning American in seventh place.
31:40
SPEAKER_00: He was up there with the lead pack for a lot of it and flirting anywhere
31:43
SPEAKER_00: between first and third and then just kind of fell off I think the last 20K
31:46
SPEAKER_00: if I remember correctly.
31:48
SPEAKER_00: So he's still looking to nail this distance.
31:53
SPEAKER_00: And I think he will do well.
31:55
SPEAKER_00: I don't know that he wins.
31:57
SPEAKER_00: I think he's going to be up there mixing up with the lead pack.
31:59
SPEAKER_00: But I could see him anywhere in that like three through six,
32:03
SPEAKER_00: maybe even as high as a silver medal.
32:05
SPEAKER_00: But I don't know that I see him owning this.
32:06
SPEAKER_00: I think I see somebody like Tamal Cardin.
32:08
SPEAKER_00: Ben Rubio, I think I can see Dan Jones winning.
32:13
SPEAKER_00: Even someone like Adam Peterman, I don't know.
32:15
SPEAKER_00: It's tough to say.
32:17
SPEAKER_00: That is Eli Hemming.
32:20
SPEAKER_00: Next athlete that I'm really curious about for the US Men's is going to be Dakota Jones.
32:25
SPEAKER_00: We've seen Dakota Jones race well here before,
32:29
SPEAKER_00: and it does feel like he's having a bit of a resurgent year.
32:32
SPEAKER_00: He did win Quebec Megatrail 80K,
32:35
SPEAKER_00: second at Pena Galusa,
32:37
SPEAKER_00: and then he also did the Ragged 50K and got second place behind Eric Lapuma
32:42
SPEAKER_00: on some very human trails.
32:46
SPEAKER_00: So top five at Hong Kong 100K earlier this year to a fourth place finish.
32:50
SPEAKER_00: So we have seen him line up at CCC.
32:52
SPEAKER_00: We have seen him have success at CCC.
32:55
SPEAKER_00: He raced here in 2023 to a third place finish.
32:59
SPEAKER_00: And he raced in 2024 to a ninth place finish.
33:01
SPEAKER_00: So not that long ago, he raced UTMB last year instead.
33:05
SPEAKER_00: And it seems like he's got CCC figured out.
33:08
SPEAKER_00: This is his type of course.
33:10
SPEAKER_00: I would not be surprised to see Dakota Jones in the top ten.
33:14
SPEAKER_00: I haven't heard a lot of his media leading up to it,
33:16
SPEAKER_00: so I don't know what his motivation is for racing and how seriously he's taking it.
33:19
SPEAKER_00: But he definitely has the talent to go top 10 here.
33:22
SPEAKER_00: Other Americans you still got to look out for.
33:25
SPEAKER_00: So Adam Loomis, Zach Perrin, Coleman Kragen.
33:29
SPEAKER_00: Kellen Bloomberg, Anthony Williams is an interesting one, and Ryan Becker.
33:34
SPEAKER_00: So just real quick over those guys,
33:35
SPEAKER_00: Adam Loomis,
33:36
SPEAKER_00: Dina Fit athlete,
33:37
SPEAKER_00: or assuming now he's an Arc'teryx athlete,
33:39
SPEAKER_00: really good mountain racer,
33:40
SPEAKER_00: only result so far this year is Kane is 100K,
33:44
SPEAKER_00: got seventh place at,
33:45
SPEAKER_00: hasn't really raced much since then,
33:46
SPEAKER_00: so I don't know if there's an injury concern, if he just hasn't.
33:49
SPEAKER_00: He decided to race as much.
33:51
SPEAKER_00: He did DNF Ultra Trail Cape Town last year, which I thought he was going to do quite good at.
33:55
SPEAKER_00: And he has had good results.
33:56
SPEAKER_00: I think second at Run the Rut just behind Zach Perrin.
34:00
SPEAKER_00: Or excuse me, one Run the Rut just in front of Zach Perrin.
34:03
SPEAKER_00: And then he does get at technical stuff like CB8 Goat and things like that.
34:07
SPEAKER_00: He's a very good climber.
34:08
SPEAKER_00: Speaking of Zach Perrin,
34:09
SPEAKER_00: I think Zach Perrin is another American that could make his way into the top ten.
34:14
SPEAKER_00: Missoula athlete, also ran at CU Boulder with Adam Peterman.
34:21
SPEAKER_00: Just looking to get that big breakout.
34:25
SPEAKER_00: So far, last year, he did run, or excuse me, like I said, he got second at Run the Rut.
34:29
SPEAKER_00: This year, he has raced to Black Cannon.
34:31
SPEAKER_00: He got a ninth-place finish and then hasn't really done anything too competitive since then.
34:37
SPEAKER_00: So this is going to be his UTMB debut.
34:42
SPEAKER_00: But I think that out of these guys,
34:45
SPEAKER_00: like I said, I think we're for sure going to see Adam Peterman and...
34:50
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, I'm scrolling.
34:52
SPEAKER_00: I think Adam Peterman and either Eli, Hans, or Dakota are a lock for going top 10.
35:01
SPEAKER_00: So two of those four guys.
35:03
SPEAKER_00: And then I think of the rest of the guys I just mentioned, Zach Perrin, Cole McCregan.
35:09
SPEAKER_00: Uh, Anthony Williams,
35:10
SPEAKER_00: Kellan Bloomberg,
35:11
SPEAKER_00: Ryan Becker,
35:11
SPEAKER_00: if he's racing,
35:12
SPEAKER_00: I think that we'll probably see one of those guys to make our top three,
35:15
SPEAKER_00: maybe even two.
35:16
SPEAKER_00: Um, but I think we'll see, like, you kind of got to pick and choose.
35:18
SPEAKER_00: So, um, Coleman Craggin, uh, young,
35:22
SPEAKER_00: talented athlete,
35:24
SPEAKER_00: ran for So then Utah University,
35:25
SPEAKER_00: kind of learning from Hayden, works at a shoe store.
35:28
SPEAKER_00: He raced to 8th place at Black Canyon 100K earlier in the year,
35:31
SPEAKER_00: and then we haven't really seen him race much since then.
35:33
SPEAKER_00: But he did get a good bit of UTMB racing in last year.
35:35
SPEAKER_00: 5th place at Speedgoat, 8th place at Broken Arrow 46K.
35:39
SPEAKER_00: He raced Chiang Mai, Thailand early in the year, 4th place.
35:43
SPEAKER_00: Canyon's 50K, 4th place.
35:46
SPEAKER_00: So definitely not a stranger to lining up to some of these international UTMB races,
35:50
SPEAKER_00: just not a final yet.
35:52
SPEAKER_00: And then Kellen Bloomberg we saw have good results at,
35:57
SPEAKER_00: he won Kodiak 100k last year which was really unexpected and
36:01
SPEAKER_00: then he went fifth place at Lavarado 80k in his first international race
36:04
SPEAKER_00: and won Big Alto 100k as well.
36:07
SPEAKER_00: Haven't seen him on more technical stuff like this, so that's a big question mark.
36:10
SPEAKER_00: Next athlete, Anthony Williams.
36:12
SPEAKER_00: I'm really excited.
36:12
SPEAKER_00: He's further down if you scroll,
36:14
SPEAKER_00: but he's gotten second at Speed Goat,
36:16
SPEAKER_00: and he got third the year before,
36:18
SPEAKER_00: so we have seen him run kind of technical altitude stuff.
36:21
SPEAKER_00: Speed Goat is a good proxy for The best of the rest, guys, that we are missing in this field.
36:47
SPEAKER_00: All right,
36:47
SPEAKER_00: so best of the rest on the men's field that we are missing includes Nadir McGuay,
36:51
SPEAKER_00: Bart P.,
36:52
SPEAKER_00: Miguel Arsenio,
36:54
SPEAKER_00: Damian Humbert, Luke Grenfell-Shaw, Dimitri Mityev, and Anthony Felber.
36:59
SPEAKER_00: Starting off with Nadir,
37:01
SPEAKER_00: Italian athlete for Lost Sports Cortiva,
37:03
SPEAKER_00: really, really good Skyrunner, really, really good technical runner.
37:08
SPEAKER_00: I think he just took the Ascent record for Matterhorn and just missed it from Manu Marias.
37:13
SPEAKER_00: There's different approaches, and I don't keep up with them super closely.
37:16
SPEAKER_00: But he has had a good year of racing so far.
37:19
SPEAKER_00: He got second at Laboreto 50K, behind only Danny Pattis in a course record time.
37:23
SPEAKER_00: And then he raced to third place,
37:26
SPEAKER_00: very impressively,
37:26
SPEAKER_00: at Transvalcania,
37:27
SPEAKER_00: also under the previous course record, only behind David Sinclair and...
37:32
SPEAKER_00: Petter Engel.
37:33
SPEAKER_00: So most recently, he did have a DNF at UTMB-Volzerweg, which is unfortunate.
37:39
SPEAKER_00: And then he has been slowly kind of stepping it up in distance.
37:43
SPEAKER_00: I follow him in Strava.
37:43
SPEAKER_00: He's been doing his training runs at CCC.
37:46
SPEAKER_00: This is a little bit of a question mark because this will be his longest race by a good margin.
37:50
SPEAKER_00: And earlier in the year, Transvalkan was his longest race in 6 hours and 42 minutes.
37:54
SPEAKER_00: So we haven't seen him have quite the success in the longer races so far.
38:01
SPEAKER_00: He did race OCC to a DNF in 2023, and
38:07
SPEAKER_00: he DNF'd Chianti Marathon earlier this year.
38:10
SPEAKER_00: So he can be kind of like a show-up or blow-up type of guy,
38:12
SPEAKER_00: but he definitely has the talent to go top five in this field, I think.
38:17
SPEAKER_00: Next athlete,
38:18
SPEAKER_00: Polish favorite Bart Przewski,
38:21
SPEAKER_00: Solomon athlete, long time Golden Trail Series circuit racer.
38:25
SPEAKER_00: He has been stepping up in distance kind of the past two years.
38:29
SPEAKER_00: He's decided to leave Golden Trail and kind of come into this longer.
38:32
SPEAKER_00: Ultra World, he's kind of had mixed results, a couple of D-NFs, a couple of good results.
38:36
SPEAKER_00: So he did race Transvalcani this year, seventh place finished in six hours, 53 minutes.
38:41
SPEAKER_00: I think that was also under the previous course record.
38:44
SPEAKER_00: It was either top six or seven that went under it.
38:47
SPEAKER_00: He did follow that up with winning Laverito 80K, which was a very impressive showing.
38:51
SPEAKER_00: And then it looks like he did a Polish mountain race,
38:54
SPEAKER_00: the lower Salesian runs, and he was second just behind on JV Tech.
38:59
SPEAKER_00: And that was only by about six minutes.
39:02
SPEAKER_00: So tough to say where Bart's at.
39:07
SPEAKER_00: I definitely think he has the chops to go top 10,
39:09
SPEAKER_00: but he has kind of had a bumpy learning curve for these longer races.
39:14
SPEAKER_00: Next athlete, Debian Humbert.
39:17
SPEAKER_00: Keyless Fuga athlete, French.
39:18
SPEAKER_00: Kind of had written him off until he got fourth place at...
39:22
SPEAKER_00: He had good results, but he hadn't had a lot of good results recently.
39:25
SPEAKER_00: And then really impressed me with the fourth place at Transvolcania this year.
39:29
SPEAKER_00: So under that previous course record.
39:31
SPEAKER_00: And I think he could have a good race at CCC.
39:36
SPEAKER_00: Most recently, he raced CCC in 2024 to a DNF.
39:39
SPEAKER_00: And then... That is it, I believe.
39:45
SPEAKER_00: He has not raced it any other times.
39:47
SPEAKER_00: So that's Damien Humber.
39:49
SPEAKER_00: Last couple of guys to talk about, Luke Grenfell-Shaw, British athlete for Brooks.
39:56
SPEAKER_00: He's got a win at Iger 51k,
39:58
SPEAKER_00: 8th at World, or excuse me, European Off-Road Championships, the 50k race.
40:02
SPEAKER_00: And then...
40:05
SPEAKER_00: He started off the season with a 5th place at Hong Kong 50K.
40:08
SPEAKER_00: He did race CCC last year, did not have a good day.
40:11
SPEAKER_00: He finished in 51st place, but he has gone top 10 at CCC as recently as 2023.
40:16
SPEAKER_00: He raced to an 8th place finish.
40:20
SPEAKER_00: All right, last two guys to talk about Dmitry Mityev being the first one.
40:24
SPEAKER_00: Dima, Adidas Terex athlete, Russian guy who lives in Andorra, I want to say, with his wife.
40:31
SPEAKER_00: Some of the craziest quads you'll ever see.
40:34
SPEAKER_00: And he also is a very good racer.
40:37
SPEAKER_00: He has certain races he does really well at, and then certain he doesn't do very well at.
40:40
SPEAKER_00: He's never had success at UTMB.
40:42
SPEAKER_00: He's DNFed it a ton of times.
40:44
SPEAKER_00: But he's always done really good at races.
40:47
SPEAKER_00: Like Ultra Trail Cape Town,
40:50
SPEAKER_00: Marathon de Mont Blanc 90K,
40:52
SPEAKER_00: he's had a lot of history at, and Solomon Ultra Pirineau.
40:55
SPEAKER_00: This year, he didn't have a good day at Marathon de Mont Blanc 90K, he got 13th place.
40:59
SPEAKER_00: Trans Volcani got 18th place.
41:02
SPEAKER_00: Last year,
41:02
SPEAKER_00: he did kind of salvage his season with a second place at Ultra Trail Cape Town,
41:05
SPEAKER_00: only four minutes behind Jeff McAvro.
41:08
SPEAKER_00: But he had a bunch of DNFs and had stuff going wrong with him, couldn't figure it out.
41:15
SPEAKER_00: So we'll see what kind of demo we get this year.
41:17
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, it was interesting to see him going over to CCC after not having success at UTMB.
41:23
SPEAKER_00: And he tried a good number of years.
41:25
SPEAKER_00: He DNF'd in 2025 at UTMB.
41:26
SPEAKER_00: He DNF'd at 2024.
41:27
SPEAKER_00: And he DNF'd in... Not in 2023.
41:39
SPEAKER_00: But in 2021.
41:40
SPEAKER_00: So that's Dimitri Mantiev.
41:42
SPEAKER_00: Last guy I want to talk about, Anthony Felber.
41:44
SPEAKER_00: Probably a little bit under the radar.
41:46
SPEAKER_00: Another Brooks French athlete.
41:48
SPEAKER_00: Just coming off at 18th at zero and all in 238.
41:50
SPEAKER_00: That's the time that what I got him, I think, either 10th or 11th place last year.
41:53
SPEAKER_00: That's how fast.
41:55
SPEAKER_00: He's slowly kind of been making his way up.
41:57
SPEAKER_00: He got third place in the Hoka Valderan 50K, which is that Euro championship.
42:03
SPEAKER_00: And he was just behind Luca Delpero by about six minutes in a five and a half hour race.
42:08
SPEAKER_00: So that's always a really good sign.
42:10
SPEAKER_00: He's kind of slowly stepping up in distance.
42:12
SPEAKER_00: Last year, he got second at World Tribal 50K.
42:15
SPEAKER_00: He also was top 22 at Sears and All last year.
42:19
SPEAKER_00: And then he did race Marathon of Mont Blanc, 10th place.
42:22
SPEAKER_00: So we've kind of seen him slowly stepping up in distance.
42:24
SPEAKER_00: But he's got tons of leg speed, hence his 18th place at Sears and All.
42:28
SPEAKER_00: I think he could be a guy that could do well in his CCC debut.
42:33
SPEAKER_00: All right,
42:33
SPEAKER_00: so with that being said,
42:35
SPEAKER_00: give me,
42:36
SPEAKER_00: I realized I didn't make my picks coming into this,
42:38
SPEAKER_00: so I'm going to make them really quickly.
42:40
SPEAKER_00: And I would say just give me 35 seconds as I make them.
44:38
SPEAKER_00: All right.
44:47
SPEAKER_00: I think I like these picks.
44:49
SPEAKER_00: OK. Usual caveats with picks.
44:53
SPEAKER_00: Subject to change,
44:53
SPEAKER_00: definitely going to change them a couple times in the next however many days before
44:57
SPEAKER_00: the race drops, four days.
45:00
SPEAKER_00: I pick people because I think they're going to finish.
45:03
SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to start off with my 10th place finish.
45:09
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to go Hans-Troy at 10th place.
45:16
SPEAKER_00: Not because I don't think he's stuck his nose in it, just because I think he'll fade.
45:20
SPEAKER_00: I don't think he's going to DNF, though.
45:21
SPEAKER_00: I think he's hungry.
45:23
SPEAKER_00: It's pretty unlikely he DNFs coming off a Western DNF,
45:27
SPEAKER_00: and I think he's just going to fade in the back of the field.
45:33
SPEAKER_00: All right.
45:34
SPEAKER_00: Ninth place, I'm going to go Guangfu, Meng.
45:38
SPEAKER_00: Eighth place, Kenhua, Lao.
45:40
SPEAKER_00: I'm probably going to swap those guys up.
45:41
SPEAKER_00: I think Guangfu might go a little bit higher,
45:44
SPEAKER_00: but I just made these picks, so I'm still kind of wandering through my head.
45:48
SPEAKER_00: Seventh place, Tied again, I guess, Eli Hemming.
45:52
SPEAKER_00: I do think Eli can go top five,
45:53
SPEAKER_00: and I might move him up into my top five, but right now I've got him seventh.
45:56
SPEAKER_00: Probably a little bit biased because he got seventh last year.
45:59
SPEAKER_00: I probably need to move him to a different position because I don't think he's going
46:01
SPEAKER_00: to finish the same thing.
46:03
SPEAKER_00: Sixth place I'm going to go, Andrzej Vitek.
46:04
SPEAKER_00: Had a really solid year.
46:06
SPEAKER_00: Mostly raced Polish races, but no reason to think that he won't be in prime form.
46:09
SPEAKER_00: I could see him going under my podium as well.
46:12
SPEAKER_00: Fifth place, I'm going to go Dan Jones, bouncing back from Disappointing Western.
46:15
SPEAKER_00: Fourth place,
46:16
SPEAKER_00: Adam Peterman,
46:18
SPEAKER_00: one place back from his previous finish here, but still an amazing year.
46:22
SPEAKER_00: Third place, Christian Minogio.
46:24
SPEAKER_00: And then we're going to go top two French athletes at CCC and top two overall.
46:31
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to go Tamak Radin, second place, Benjamin Rubial in first place.
46:35
SPEAKER_00: I might swap that up, though.
46:37
SPEAKER_00: I really think Tamak has got amazing foot speed.
46:39
SPEAKER_00: I think he's probably recovering very well from Western.
46:43
SPEAKER_00: But I also do think Ben just steps it up with some of these races that are championship races.
46:47
SPEAKER_00: So those are my picks right now.
46:49
SPEAKER_00: I'm liable to swap in Nadir Brunque,
46:54
SPEAKER_00: although I'm just a little bit hesitant that he's going to DNF.
46:56
SPEAKER_00: Peter Frano could easily go in my top 10.
46:59
SPEAKER_00: Bart P could easily go in my top 10.
47:01
SPEAKER_00: And I honestly got a good feeling about Dakota Jones.
47:03
SPEAKER_00: I think Dakota's having a good season of racing.
47:05
SPEAKER_00: So...
47:06
SPEAKER_00: That's my top 10 right now on the men's side.
47:08
SPEAKER_00: Let's get over to the women's side already.
47:10
SPEAKER_00: It's only taken me, what, like 45 minutes to get over there.
47:13
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, we're almost an hour into this bad boy.
47:15
SPEAKER_00: Let's get on the women's side.
47:16
SPEAKER_00: So women's field, super duper exciting.
47:19
SPEAKER_00: Storylines identified.
47:20
SPEAKER_00: We've got Golden Ticket Hunt.
47:22
SPEAKER_00: Like I said, it's a super golden ticket race.
47:23
SPEAKER_00: So we've got three people that are going to win golden tickets potentially.
47:28
SPEAKER_00: We have three previous winners in the field,
47:30
SPEAKER_00: and none of them is probably even the favorites, which is nuts.
47:35
SPEAKER_00: And actually, going back real quick, just to my picks on the men's side, sorry.
47:38
SPEAKER_00: Golden ticket-wise, that would mean, yeah, Dan Jones, I think it rolls down.
47:44
SPEAKER_00: I don't think Benjamin Rubel takes it.
47:46
SPEAKER_00: Thomas Carden doesn't need one.
47:47
SPEAKER_00: Christian Minogia doesn't take it.
47:49
SPEAKER_00: Adam Peterman doesn't need one.
47:50
SPEAKER_00: So I think Dan Jones, Andre Vitek, and potentially EI Hamlin could take it.
47:56
SPEAKER_00: All right, so women's side.
47:57
SPEAKER_00: Other storylines identified.
48:00
SPEAKER_00: Three previous winners in the women's field,
48:02
SPEAKER_00: and none of them is probably even the favorite, which is kind of nuts.
48:05
SPEAKER_00: Because if you had to pick one of them to be the favorite,
48:08
SPEAKER_00: you'd probably pick,
48:09
SPEAKER_00: in my opinion, the person who won it eight years ago of the three.
48:12
SPEAKER_00: So we'll talk more about that.
48:13
SPEAKER_00: But previous favorites, I think probably only one of them might be the favorites.
48:21
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they're obviously favorites, but who I think legitimately is going to win this race.
48:24
SPEAKER_00: I think it's either going to be Mao Yao or Jen Linkter, and we'll talk more about that.
48:28
SPEAKER_00: Two of the three highest ranked racers on the women's side are Chinese athletes,
48:33
SPEAKER_00: which is awesome,
48:33
SPEAKER_00: and that's definitely different than we're used to seeing, but amazing.
48:42
SPEAKER_00: And then I think we do see a minimum three Americans in the top ten on
48:48
SPEAKER_00: the female side, which isn't as much of a guarantee.
48:50
SPEAKER_00: There's only...
48:52
SPEAKER_00: Two Americans in the top ten,
48:54
SPEAKER_00: Robin Lesch and Alison Baca, in seventh and tenth place last year.
48:56
SPEAKER_00: But the men tend to race this race really well.
48:59
SPEAKER_00: CCC, usually we have a little bit more international women's fields.
49:02
SPEAKER_00: All right, dark horses.
49:03
SPEAKER_00: I do think there are some dark horses on the women's side.
49:06
SPEAKER_00: I think Adeline Martin from France is one of those.
49:09
SPEAKER_00: I think Varvara Shikanova is also one of those,
49:13
SPEAKER_00: representing Montenegro, but probably a Russian.
49:16
SPEAKER_00: And then Veronica Lange, I think, is also one of those.
49:20
SPEAKER_00: I know you're like, oh, she got fit last year.
49:22
SPEAKER_00: It's not much of a dark horse, but I think most people...
49:25
SPEAKER_00: Don't know Veronica Lange very well because she's so Lockean and she mostly races
49:29
SPEAKER_00: in Asia, it seems like.
49:31
SPEAKER_00: So I still think she's a dark horse.
49:34
SPEAKER_00: And then last two females I have as dark horses,
49:36
SPEAKER_00: Eliza, Kristen's daughter, who we'll talk more about, and Marie Gonsalves.
49:41
SPEAKER_00: Sounds like a Portuguese name, but she's got a French flag next to her name.
49:45
SPEAKER_00: My predictions on a women's race,
49:47
SPEAKER_00: I think it's entirely possible that Jen runs out of gas,
49:50
SPEAKER_00: like runs out of steam from having such a good season.
49:53
SPEAKER_00: I don't want that to happen,
49:54
SPEAKER_00: and I don't necessarily think it's going to happen,
49:56
SPEAKER_00: but I do think it's very,
49:57
SPEAKER_00: very possible that we see Jen not win this race and kind of break that streak.
50:02
SPEAKER_00: I think Miaoyao is probably my favorite returning winner despite winning CCC
50:07
SPEAKER_00: the longest at go of any of the returners.
50:09
SPEAKER_00: So between her, Tony McCann, and Ingveld, and we'll talk more about that.
50:14
SPEAKER_00: Other predictions,
50:15
SPEAKER_00: I think the field actually feels really open for making top 10 compared to
50:18
SPEAKER_00: the women's CCC, well,
50:22
SPEAKER_00: OCC field this year,
50:23
SPEAKER_00: which is just filthy deep with household crushing names, and it was hard to fit.
50:29
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you heard my picks yesterday.
50:31
SPEAKER_00: They all felt kind of predictable because that's how good the OCC women's field was.
50:36
SPEAKER_00: CCC does feel deep on the women's side,
50:38
SPEAKER_00: but it also just feels like there's a good chance for you to get into the top 10
50:45
SPEAKER_00: and kind of make your name.
50:46
SPEAKER_00: So...
50:48
SPEAKER_00: Categories identified,
50:49
SPEAKER_00: first one I'm going to talk about is Western States athletes that are doubling back.
50:53
SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to include Jen Lichter, Caitlin Fielder, Hanoka Akiyama, and Emily Hallgood.
50:59
SPEAKER_00: And I know Ingviel Kasperson is also doubling,
51:01
SPEAKER_00: but I'm going to talk about her in the previous Champions Returning.
51:04
SPEAKER_00: So we'll talk about her after this category.
51:06
SPEAKER_00: First one, Jen Lichter, probably a frontrunner for trailrunner of the year on the women's side.
51:12
SPEAKER_00: Just having a banner freaking year.
51:14
SPEAKER_00: You know,
51:15
SPEAKER_00: win course record at Western States breaking Courtney DeWalter course record in
51:18
SPEAKER_00: the deepest Western States field and toughest top ten ever.
51:22
SPEAKER_00: Win course record at Course Waterfalls 50K and win course record at Black Canyon 100K.
51:29
SPEAKER_00: I mean just deep, deep, deep, deep.
51:32
SPEAKER_00: So Jen's looking to wrap up the season of all seasons.
51:36
SPEAKER_00: Definitely feels like this race suits her.
51:38
SPEAKER_00: She's no stranger to tons of hilly technical races.
51:41
SPEAKER_00: She won Run the Rut a ton of times, had a course record there.
51:44
SPEAKER_00: Won Speed Goat,
51:45
SPEAKER_00: still has the course record there,
51:47
SPEAKER_00: has won Broken Arrow, and probably even has the course record there.
51:52
SPEAKER_00: Definitely no stranger with that.
51:53
SPEAKER_00: Those are shorter races, and this is a little bit longer.
51:55
SPEAKER_00: You know, this is going to be up there with one of the longest races.
51:59
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, second longest race she's ever done behind only Speedgoat,
52:02
SPEAKER_00: or assuming not Speedgoat, but behind rather Western states this year.
52:06
SPEAKER_00: So Jen, and also probably gunning for a course record,
52:10
SPEAKER_00: she probably very much,
52:12
SPEAKER_00: she doesn't run with splits in mine,
52:13
SPEAKER_00: but I think she will be running and running on track.
52:17
SPEAKER_00: Course record type pace.
52:18
SPEAKER_00: So that low 11.40 wouldn't be surprised to see it go in the 11.30s on
52:23
SPEAKER_00: the women's side this year for the winner.
52:25
SPEAKER_00: Next athlete to talk about doubling back from Western States is going to be Caitlin Fielder.
52:29
SPEAKER_00: Really came on strong second half of Western.
52:32
SPEAKER_00: Moved up, I want to say, from like eighth or ninth into fourth place.
52:35
SPEAKER_00: Crushed the back half of the race.
52:37
SPEAKER_00: 15.57, so sub 16 hours.
52:40
SPEAKER_00: Crazy fast time.
52:41
SPEAKER_00: Poor Caitlin Fielder kind of nailed it.
52:43
SPEAKER_00: And then has just laid low since then.
52:46
SPEAKER_00: We have seen Caitlin race OCC a number of times.
52:50
SPEAKER_00: She got 5th in 2024.
52:52
SPEAKER_00: She got 4th in 2023.
52:55
SPEAKER_00: And then she also, let's see, she did, and she got 18th in 2022.
53:03
SPEAKER_00: And then once more, 3rd in 2021.
53:06
SPEAKER_00: So we've seen her race OCC, but we haven't, I think we might have seen her DNF CCC one year.
53:15
SPEAKER_00: No, we have not seen her race CCC.
53:20
SPEAKER_00: So, with that being said, it feels like Caitlin's kind of heading her stride.
53:25
SPEAKER_00: She's definitely going to be,
53:26
SPEAKER_00: even though she's one of the top UTME indexes,
53:28
SPEAKER_00: I do think she's going to be slept on.
53:29
SPEAKER_00: She doesn't, per se, win a lot of races outright.
53:32
SPEAKER_00: She did win Tompe last year.
53:34
SPEAKER_00: But it feels like she's a very, very strong pick for the top 10 in this field.
53:39
SPEAKER_00: Next athlete coming back from Western, Hanoka Akiyama.
53:42
SPEAKER_00: And at first I thought that her, she's a Hoka athlete, Japanese.
53:47
SPEAKER_00: At first I thought her results,
53:49
SPEAKER_00: I thought, I was like, I didn't know if it warranted her UTMB index.
53:53
SPEAKER_00: And then I started looking into them and I was actually really impressed.
53:55
SPEAKER_00: You know,
53:55
SPEAKER_00: she got 11th at Western States this year,
53:57
SPEAKER_00: but 1657, fastest 11th place ever in Western States history on the women's side.
54:02
SPEAKER_00: She won her golden ticket at TerraWare, got third place there this year.
54:06
SPEAKER_00: And then last year in one of the deepest women's races all in the year,
54:10
SPEAKER_00: In the World Championships Long Trail,
54:12
SPEAKER_00: she got 12th place,
54:13
SPEAKER_00: so in a very tough technical course, which is very, very impressive.
54:17
SPEAKER_00: So we know she's got leg speed because of TerraWire and Western.
54:19
SPEAKER_00: We know she can do technical stuff because of Worlds last year.
54:22
SPEAKER_00: But then she also has raced other Worlds races, including the one in 2023.
54:30
SPEAKER_00: She got 9th place in the Long Trail Championship at Innsbruck,
54:33
SPEAKER_00: and then she got 14th in the one at Thailand as well.
54:35
SPEAKER_00: So Hanoga Akiyama seems like she actually doesn't She does really good
54:38
SPEAKER_00: on these mountainous courses and has a lot of respect for the races.
54:42
SPEAKER_00: She does not have any DNFs that I can see, so she doesn't miss.
54:46
SPEAKER_00: And I think she's probably a safe pick for at least going top 15
54:49
SPEAKER_00: and getting new points because she doesn't DNF based off her race history.
54:53
SPEAKER_00: I mean, obviously, there's no guarantees, but that's Noka Akiyama.
54:59
SPEAKER_00: Next athlete to talk about Emily Hallgood,
55:02
SPEAKER_00: Zimbabwean perennial doubling back,
55:06
SPEAKER_00: going back from Western States to UTMB or Western States to CCC and having really,
55:10
SPEAKER_00: really amazing results doing it.
55:12
SPEAKER_00: She finally had a miss at Western States.
55:13
SPEAKER_00: Western States is here for the first time in five years.
55:17
SPEAKER_00: 17th place in 18 hours and 10 minutes.
55:21
SPEAKER_00: Last year, we did see her go race to a 10th place, interestingly, in 18 hours and 11 minutes.
55:28
SPEAKER_00: So she basically ran the same time, two years in a row.
55:31
SPEAKER_00: And then we did see her Double back to UTMB and finished in 38 hours and kind
55:37
SPEAKER_00: of has Spirit Quest out there.
55:38
SPEAKER_00: But we have seen her successfully do the UTMB Western Double in 2024.
55:42
SPEAKER_00: She got fourth at Western and sixth at UTMB.
55:46
SPEAKER_00: 2023, she got fifth at Western and second at CCC, which is really impressive.
55:53
SPEAKER_00: So she has raced to a second at CCC before.
55:55
SPEAKER_00: Tough to know what Emily Hallgood we're going to get.
55:57
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I know we're going to get a smiling Emily Hallgood because she's like one of
56:00
SPEAKER_00: the most positive people in the world.
56:02
SPEAKER_00: But I don't know that I see her having that kind of success that she had to race
56:07
SPEAKER_00: to second place.
56:09
SPEAKER_00: Because even that time that she ran in 2020...
56:12
SPEAKER_00: Let's see, what did I say she got second place in?
56:17
SPEAKER_00: 2023?
56:17
SPEAKER_00: 2022, 12, 28.
56:17
SPEAKER_00: If we look at CCC last year, I'm pretty sure...
56:30
SPEAKER_00: Alright, 5th place.
56:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that would have got her like...
56:43
SPEAKER_00: Ninth place?
56:45
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we got our ninth place.
56:46
SPEAKER_00: So CCC has really, really improved and gotten fast.
56:51
SPEAKER_00: So anyways, that's Emily Hallgood.
56:54
SPEAKER_00: And then in the next category,
56:55
SPEAKER_00: previous champions returning to CCC,
56:57
SPEAKER_00: we got three in that category, Ingveld Kaspersen, Tony McCann, and Meow Yao.
57:03
SPEAKER_00: First and foremost, Ingveld Kaspersen, Race Western, in the top ten all day.
57:08
SPEAKER_00: Tragically late pole in like the 90 something mile range.
57:14
SPEAKER_00: And so that was a bummer to see.
57:15
SPEAKER_00: We did see her race in a Western with a sick place at Chianti just
57:19
SPEAKER_00: behind Courtney DeWalter where she took her golden ticket.
57:23
SPEAKER_00: And then she did race CCC last year,
57:26
SPEAKER_00: but unfortunately DNF,
57:27
SPEAKER_00: I think she's finishing up med school or actively practicing as a doctor right now.
57:31
SPEAKER_00: Also raced Labarado ADK.
57:33
SPEAKER_00: The year that she won CCC was 2023.
57:36
SPEAKER_00: She won it in 11 hours and 51 minutes.
57:40
SPEAKER_00: Ingvild's one of those interesting ones.
57:41
SPEAKER_00: She's kind of like Petter, where she started off doing a lot of sky racing type stuff.
57:45
SPEAKER_00: Faster, shorter, more technical stuff.
57:47
SPEAKER_00: And then kind of...
57:49
SPEAKER_00: Next returning champion is...
58:14
SPEAKER_00: That we're going to talk about is going to be Tony McCann, South African.
58:17
SPEAKER_00: Won it in 2024.
58:20
SPEAKER_00: Came back with the pressure of being the returning champion last year
58:23
SPEAKER_00: and unfortunately had a DNF.
58:25
SPEAKER_00: So far, she's only raced Maxi Race this year in Annecy,
58:28
SPEAKER_00: which is where she lives, I think, with her partner.
58:31
SPEAKER_00: And she did get a win there in 11 hours and 25 minutes.
58:36
SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't much competition there.
58:38
SPEAKER_00: So that's the only race she's done so far, and that was in May.
58:43
SPEAKER_00: Last year on top of DNF and CCC, she won Labrado 50K and then did some other shorter races.
58:50
SPEAKER_00: We have seen her win both OCC and CCC, which is very impressive.
58:53
SPEAKER_00: And the year that she won CCC, she ran 11 hours and 57 minutes, and it was her first ever 100K.
58:58
SPEAKER_00: So listen to her interview on Singletrack.
59:02
SPEAKER_00: It seems like she's in a much better headspace,
59:04
SPEAKER_00: like not really coming at it from the I have to win because I'm
59:06
SPEAKER_00: a returning champion,
59:07
SPEAKER_00: but more racing because she's excited and curious about what she could do here
59:11
SPEAKER_00: because last time she raced was her first 100K.
59:13
SPEAKER_00: So there's a lot to learn and a lot of things that she thinks she could improve upon.
59:23
SPEAKER_00: Alright,
59:23
SPEAKER_00: so last returning champion that I want to talk about is Mao Yao,
59:26
SPEAKER_00: Chinese athlete for Nike ACG after being with Solomon for such a long time.
59:31
SPEAKER_00: She's coming fresh off of 15th place at Sears and All in 3 hours and 5 minutes.
59:35
SPEAKER_00: That's the time that would have got her top 10,
59:36
SPEAKER_00: I think, 8th place last year if she ran that time.
59:39
SPEAKER_00: So that's just how deep Sears and All was this year.
59:42
SPEAKER_00: But I think that was really without doing any speed work and other results this year.
59:45
SPEAKER_00: She's been very impressive.
59:47
SPEAKER_00: Include Wayne at the Valderan 100K,
59:51
SPEAKER_00: that was the Euro major for UTMB, 110 kilometers, 6,400 feet of elevation gain.
59:58
SPEAKER_00: And she raced that in 13 hours and 4 minutes in one race.
1:00:03
SPEAKER_00: Pretty handily over the field.
1:00:05
SPEAKER_00: So very, very impressive there.
1:00:07
SPEAKER_00: She also won Ultra Trail Australia 50K.
1:00:10
SPEAKER_00: So she's just racking up wins at the regional UTMB majors because that was the Oceania one.
1:00:16
SPEAKER_00: And then she got second place at Gorge 50K just behind Jen Lichter.
1:00:20
SPEAKER_00: It was kind of a late announcement.
1:00:21
SPEAKER_00: And it was also coincided with her joining ACG.
1:00:27
SPEAKER_00: Mao Yao won CCC in 2018,
1:00:30
SPEAKER_00: which you would think that she's like,
1:00:32
SPEAKER_00: that was so long ago that,
1:00:33
SPEAKER_00: you know, yeah,
1:00:35
SPEAKER_00: basically,
1:00:36
SPEAKER_00: you know, it's just so long ago that you're like, well, is she still relevant?
1:00:40
SPEAKER_00: And interestingly,
1:00:40
SPEAKER_00: Mao Yao is kind of like one of those ones that started off racing longer,
1:00:43
SPEAKER_00: doing a lot of 100Ks.
1:00:44
SPEAKER_00: Her first ever result on this free trail graphic is Vibram 100K in 2018, which she won.
1:00:51
SPEAKER_00: And then won some other Chinese races anywhere from the three and a half to
1:01:00
SPEAKER_00: three and a half.
1:01:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, three to six hour range basically.
1:01:03
SPEAKER_00: She also got second at Lavarado.
1:01:06
SPEAKER_00: And then she won CCC in 2018.
1:01:09
SPEAKER_00: And then she basically stepped down to like faster Golden Trail World Series type stuff.
1:01:13
SPEAKER_00: She did race UTMB and DNF in 2019.
1:01:16
SPEAKER_00: And she's had insane success at this Golden Trail World Series stuff.
1:01:18
SPEAKER_00: And then now she's kind of stepping it back up to longer distance stuff.
1:01:21
SPEAKER_00: So she's two-time OCC champion, including last year.
1:01:25
SPEAKER_00: And she decided to step up to CCC and see if she can win it eight years later.
1:01:31
SPEAKER_00: You know,
1:01:32
SPEAKER_00: I think that there's pretty much a very,
1:01:34
SPEAKER_00: very strong chance that if Jen doesn't win it, Mao does or vice versa.
1:01:39
SPEAKER_00: I think they're like between the two of them.
1:01:41
SPEAKER_00: The chances that one of the two of them win is probably like 85% in my mind.
1:01:45
SPEAKER_00: All right, so that's Meow Yao.
1:01:47
SPEAKER_00: Dark horses.
1:01:48
SPEAKER_00: You're sleeping on them, and you probably shouldn't be.
1:01:50
SPEAKER_00: And in this list,
1:01:51
SPEAKER_00: I have all the women I mentioned earlier,
1:01:53
SPEAKER_00: Veronica Lange,
1:01:54
SPEAKER_00: Eliza Kristen's daughter, Marie Gonsalves, Adeline Martin, and Varvara Shikanova.
1:02:01
SPEAKER_00: So Veronica Link starting off with her Slovakian athlete,
1:02:06
SPEAKER_00: 5th place returning,
1:02:07
SPEAKER_00: she runs for ANTA,
1:02:08
SPEAKER_00: which is the Chinese shoe brand,
1:02:12
SPEAKER_00: and 5th place, returning 5th place athlete from CCC.
1:02:16
SPEAKER_00: So far she's only raced twice this year, but she...
1:02:20
SPEAKER_00: So she hasn't raced since then.
1:02:21
SPEAKER_00: Hopefully nothing injury-related.
1:02:37
SPEAKER_00: But she just doesn't miss.
1:02:39
SPEAKER_00: She basically, she only has one DNF in all of her results.
1:02:42
SPEAKER_00: She mostly just races in Asia.
1:02:45
SPEAKER_00: She did race CCC in 2024 to an 11th place in 2022 to the DNF.
1:02:49
SPEAKER_00: So she's progressed from DNF to 11th to 5th.
1:02:52
SPEAKER_00: And her 5th place finish last year was an insanely fast 12 hours and 27 minutes
1:02:58
SPEAKER_00: that would have won it probably in the past.
1:02:59
SPEAKER_00: So Veronica Ling...
1:03:02
SPEAKER_00: Not necessarily a dark horse, but somebody that you're sleeping on, you probably shouldn't be.
1:03:05
SPEAKER_00: Next athlete, Eliza, Kristen's daughter from Iceland.
1:03:13
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, I'm pulling it up.
1:03:15
SPEAKER_00: So Eliza, Kristen's daughter, win at Laboreto 80K this year.
1:03:21
SPEAKER_00: And then she also raced the Euro Tramps 52K, 9th place, so top 10 at Euros.
1:03:28
SPEAKER_00: And then she ran Transvolcania to a 4th place finish.
1:03:31
SPEAKER_00: Excuse me, that was the marathon, though.
1:03:34
SPEAKER_00: And then she also raced Chianti 75K to a win.
1:03:38
SPEAKER_00: Last year at Worlds Long Trail, she raced to 11th place.
1:03:42
SPEAKER_00: And then she also got a fourth at Tenerife Blue Trail.
1:03:45
SPEAKER_00: So definitely get at these long, grindy races.
1:03:50
SPEAKER_00: She's raced plenty of competitive fields, just hasn't raced a UTMB final yet.
1:03:53
SPEAKER_00: But racing a big race like Labarado 80K, she won.
1:03:57
SPEAKER_00: Racing Euro Champs and going top 10.
1:03:59
SPEAKER_00: And then racing Worlds and going 11.
1:04:01
SPEAKER_00: I think she's definitely a strong pick for being up there.
1:04:05
SPEAKER_00: Next athlete, talk about Marie Gonsalves.
1:04:09
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure I'm butchering that, but a French athlete.
1:04:13
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, let me get to her.
1:04:15
SPEAKER_00: All right, here she is.
1:04:17
SPEAKER_00: French athlete for ASICS.
1:04:19
SPEAKER_00: We've seen her around...
1:04:20
SPEAKER_00: She was second place at Labarito,
1:04:21
SPEAKER_00: ADK, so behind Eliza Kristen's Daughter, who we just talked about.
1:04:26
SPEAKER_00: She got 10th at Euro Champs, 50K,
1:04:30
SPEAKER_00: so also just behind Eliza Kristen's Daughter, so she keeps finishing behind her.
1:04:35
SPEAKER_00: She raced OCC to 17th place.
1:04:37
SPEAKER_00: So I think she's on the up-and-up young French talent.
1:04:41
SPEAKER_00: She has raced OCC to 16th place as well in 2022.
1:04:47
SPEAKER_00: But I think that her results look good this year and in this field.
1:04:50
SPEAKER_00: I think she's definitely capable of going top 10.
1:04:54
SPEAKER_00: All right, last to talk about Adeline Martin being the first one.
1:04:57
SPEAKER_00: So Adeline Martin, French athlete.
1:04:58
SPEAKER_00: She's been on the Kiprun team for a while, I'm pretty sure.
1:05:02
SPEAKER_00: She is coming off of a seventh place at the Euro Champs Long Trail.
1:05:07
SPEAKER_00: They're 52K.
1:05:09
SPEAKER_00: Fourth at Championship French Race, I'm pretty sure.
1:05:16
SPEAKER_00: Champion at De France.
1:05:18
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
1:05:20
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, behind Marie Gonsalves and Audrey Tenge.
1:05:23
SPEAKER_00: And then other stuff she's done.
1:05:26
SPEAKER_00: She raced Worlds short trail last year to 20th place.
1:05:29
SPEAKER_00: And then she is the previous ASICS St.
1:05:33
SPEAKER_00: Leon runner-up in 2024, which is the very fast and runnable race.
1:05:38
SPEAKER_00: She's also got an eighth at Templier in 2024.
1:05:40
SPEAKER_00: And then third at Eurochamps in 2024, the long trail race there.
1:05:49
SPEAKER_00: And then second at Tompe in 2023.
1:05:51
SPEAKER_00: So she's got tons of like speed.
1:05:53
SPEAKER_00: I don't know as much on this more technical longer trail course,
1:05:58
SPEAKER_00: but I definitely think she's fast enough to go into the top ten.
1:06:01
SPEAKER_00: Last one, talk about Varvara Shikanova on the top ten.
1:06:04
SPEAKER_00: Last year, she won the Saigu 50K in China.
1:06:06
SPEAKER_00: Fourth at Ultra Trail Ninghai 105K last year.
1:06:09
SPEAKER_00: She DNF CCC last year.
1:06:26
SPEAKER_00: And she does DNF a non-trivial amount of times,
1:06:29
SPEAKER_00: but she has some very, very good results at some very competitive races in China.
1:06:33
SPEAKER_00: She also raced to fourth at Ultra Trail Cape Town in 2023.
1:06:38
SPEAKER_00: Most recent race being a DNF kind of has me nervous,
1:06:41
SPEAKER_00: but everything else that she's done in 2026, she has won.
1:06:45
SPEAKER_00: So definitely somebody to look out for, but also definitely somebody with DNF potential.
1:06:51
SPEAKER_00: All right, next group of athletes to talk about, top Chinese athletes not named Yao Yao.
1:06:56
SPEAKER_00: And the first one we're going to talk about is Ling Ji Qi.
1:06:59
SPEAKER_00: This is the third.
1:07:01
SPEAKER_00: So two of the top three women in the UTMB index are Chinese,
1:07:05
SPEAKER_00: one being Yao and the next one being Ling Ji Qi.
1:07:08
SPEAKER_00: Solomon athlete, she basically, let's see.
1:07:15
SPEAKER_00: She's done a lot of racing in 2026.
1:07:19
SPEAKER_00: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.
1:07:26
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, she's probably raced like 12 plus times.
1:07:30
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, I'm losing count.
1:07:32
SPEAKER_00: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.
1:07:37
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think 12 times.
1:07:40
SPEAKER_00: And that's ranging anywhere from four and a half hours to 14 and a half hours
1:07:43
SPEAKER_00: to two hours and a half to 24 hours.
1:07:48
SPEAKER_00: So lots of crazy results or lots of racing for Lingji Qi.
1:07:56
SPEAKER_00: Get rid of this result.
1:07:56
SPEAKER_00: All right.
1:07:59
SPEAKER_00: Her top UTMB index races from this year.
1:08:03
SPEAKER_00: Let's see.
1:08:06
SPEAKER_00: Hong Kong 100K, she did get third place at.
1:08:08
SPEAKER_00: So that's a pretty good fact.
1:08:11
SPEAKER_00: Last year Saigu 105k, she got third place at.
1:08:15
SPEAKER_00: Last year she did race CCC, she got 18th place at.
1:08:18
SPEAKER_00: So just outside, inside the top 20.
1:08:20
SPEAKER_00: And she also had fifth place at Hong Kong 100k.
1:08:23
SPEAKER_00: So hopefully looking to learn from last year's race and come back to it.
1:08:30
SPEAKER_00: Tough to tell where should be at.
1:08:31
SPEAKER_00: She races a ton and it is pretty consistent.
1:08:35
SPEAKER_00: I think I could see her going anywhere from five through nine in this field.
1:08:42
SPEAKER_00: Next Chinese athlete, talk about Jingyan Tang.
1:08:46
SPEAKER_00: Jingyan Tang is another Solomon athlete from China,
1:08:51
SPEAKER_00: coming fresh off 61st place at Sierra's and all.
1:08:53
SPEAKER_00: She won the Changli 100K earlier this year in July.
1:09:01
SPEAKER_00: Let's see.
1:09:02
SPEAKER_00: She raced Black Canyon earlier this year as well to a 15th place.
1:09:06
SPEAKER_00: Last year, she got fourth place at Saigu 105K.
1:09:09
SPEAKER_00: She did race CCC to a top 10 last year as well, ninth place.
1:09:14
SPEAKER_00: So does have some good Euro racing under her belt.
1:09:17
SPEAKER_00: Has a top 10 here.
1:09:18
SPEAKER_00: Definitely has the ability to go top 10 again.
1:09:23
SPEAKER_00: Alright, last Chinese athlete to talk about, Wen Li Jiang.
1:09:29
SPEAKER_00: Keyless Fuga athlete.
1:09:33
SPEAKER_00: Let's see.
1:09:42
SPEAKER_00: All right.
1:09:43
SPEAKER_00: Top UTV index races this year include a Wayne at Ultra Trail Xiaomin.
1:09:49
SPEAKER_00: 100K looks like a kind of similar race on paper.
1:09:52
SPEAKER_00: 97 kilometers, 5,200 meters of vert.
1:09:56
SPEAKER_00: She won an 11.57.
1:09:57
SPEAKER_00: She also raced Hong Kong 100K to a fifth place.
1:10:00
SPEAKER_00: She also raced CCC last year to a 32nd place.
1:10:04
SPEAKER_00: So not quite as good of a showing.
1:10:05
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:10:08
SPEAKER_00: And so that is Wenli Zhang.
1:10:13
SPEAKER_00: Alright, next group of athletes, I want to talk about genuine threats in this CCC field.
1:10:18
SPEAKER_00: Not that other people we haven't talked about, but just ones that I haven't talked about yet.
1:10:21
SPEAKER_00: Fabiola Conti.
1:10:24
SPEAKER_00: We already talked about Emily Hall good.
1:10:25
SPEAKER_00: So, whoops.
1:10:29
SPEAKER_00: Where did we go?
1:10:30
SPEAKER_00: All right, sorry.
1:10:31
SPEAKER_00: Fabiola Conti, Therese LaBeouf, and Anastina Urcola.
1:10:35
SPEAKER_00: So first one being Fabiola Conti, Italian athlete.
1:10:38
SPEAKER_00: Really good versatility.
1:10:40
SPEAKER_00: Can mix it up anywhere between skyrunning distances to World Long Trail last year.
1:10:45
SPEAKER_00: She did finish third at World's Long Trail last year.
1:10:48
SPEAKER_00: But we do see her.
1:10:50
SPEAKER_00: She won Monterosso-Valzerweg the 53, excuse me, 43K this year over Emily Schmitz.
1:10:58
SPEAKER_00: And then...
1:10:59
SPEAKER_00: We did see her DNF, though,
1:11:01
SPEAKER_00: at both Eurochamps and Marathon of Mont Blanc,
1:11:04
SPEAKER_00: so I'm not sure what was going on there.
1:11:06
SPEAKER_00: But last year, she had a really impressive showing.
1:11:08
SPEAKER_00: And even this year,
1:11:09
SPEAKER_00: she got 7th place at Golden Tour World Series Leeds Road to
1:11:11
SPEAKER_00: the Sky Chirantino earlier this year.
1:11:13
SPEAKER_00: She got 3rd place at Sky Race in Mathesine, a very competitive Sky Running World Series race.
1:11:17
SPEAKER_00: And then, like we said, we saw her go...
1:11:19
SPEAKER_00: 3rd at Worlds Long Trail, but also go top 5 at Marathon of Mont Blanc last year.
1:11:24
SPEAKER_00: So she's got tons of versatility.
1:11:26
SPEAKER_00: She can race long and hard, but she can also race short and fast.
1:11:28
SPEAKER_00: We have not seen her race at CCC before.
1:11:33
SPEAKER_00: Double checking.
1:11:35
SPEAKER_00: No, we have not seen her race at CCC before.
1:11:38
SPEAKER_00: So it is going to be interesting to see...
1:11:42
SPEAKER_00: She's done a lot of Worlds,
1:11:44
SPEAKER_00: she's done a lot of Skyrunning, and she's done a lot of stuff in Italy.
1:11:47
SPEAKER_00: It's going to be interesting to see her set up up to a UTMB Final.
1:11:51
SPEAKER_00: The only thing that's got me nervous is the two DNFs earlier this year
1:11:54
SPEAKER_00: at both European Champs and Marathon of Malbonk 42K,
1:11:57
SPEAKER_00: but it seems like she's bounced back from it.
1:11:59
SPEAKER_00: So Fabio Alcanti definitely has a chops to go top five here.
1:12:03
SPEAKER_00: Next athlete, Swiss runner Therese LaBeouf for Compress Sport, I want to say.
1:12:08
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
1:12:09
SPEAKER_00: And she's coming off the 21st place at Sears in all 313.
1:12:13
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't sound as fast as it really is.
1:12:15
SPEAKER_00: It is very, very fast.
1:12:16
SPEAKER_00: She also got 10th place at PT.
1:12:17
SPEAKER_00: It's Alpine Glacier Golden Trail World Series.
1:12:20
SPEAKER_00: So leg speed's there.
1:12:22
SPEAKER_00: She got fifth at European Champs, the 50K race.
1:12:25
SPEAKER_00: So distance is there.
1:12:27
SPEAKER_00: And 11th at Zagama.
1:12:28
SPEAKER_00: So she's still looking good.
1:12:30
SPEAKER_00: She did DNF OCC last year.
1:12:33
SPEAKER_00: And we haven't seen her and she got 11th OCC in 2024.
1:12:36
SPEAKER_00: We haven't really seen her race stuff this long.
1:12:39
SPEAKER_00: Usually the longest things that she races are like close to the five hour range.
1:12:43
SPEAKER_00: So this is going to be a step up in time for her and in distance.
1:12:48
SPEAKER_00: But she definitely has the like speed to do well here and keep up with some of
1:12:51
SPEAKER_00: the faster females.
1:12:52
SPEAKER_00: So that's Therese LaBeouf.
1:12:55
SPEAKER_00: Next up, let's talk about Anastina Urkula.
1:12:58
SPEAKER_00: She is a Finnish athlete for ASICS.
1:13:01
SPEAKER_00: She's coming off of a 16th place at Eurochamps win at Istria 110K this year.
1:13:09
SPEAKER_00: Last year,
1:13:09
SPEAKER_00: she raced to 22nd at Worlds,
1:13:12
SPEAKER_00: 2nd at Cat Marathon, and year before that, 6th at Templier, 10th at OCC.
1:13:19
SPEAKER_00: So we have, let's see, the longest race that I can tell she's done is in the 6-hour range.
1:13:26
SPEAKER_00: So it's going to be kind of a step up for her on that front.
1:13:31
SPEAKER_00: But she is definitely somebody to look out for.
1:13:35
SPEAKER_00: Alright, next category.
1:13:36
SPEAKER_00: Americans not named Jen to look out for.
1:13:39
SPEAKER_00: Danny Marino,
1:13:40
SPEAKER_00: Robin Lesch,
1:13:41
SPEAKER_00: Claire Rhodes, Helen Mina Faulkner, Claire DeVoe, Lindsey Allison, Sarah Albin.
1:13:46
SPEAKER_00: So the top four being the strongest ones to look out for,
1:13:50
SPEAKER_00: Dani Marino, Robyn Lesch, Claire Rhodes, Helmino Faulkner.
1:13:54
SPEAKER_00: Starting off with Dani Marino, she's coming off a win at Broken Arrow 46K.
1:13:58
SPEAKER_00: She did race this race last year and unfortunately had a DNF.
1:14:00
SPEAKER_00: This is going to be her longest race ever.
1:14:03
SPEAKER_00: Didis Tarek's athlete,
1:14:04
SPEAKER_00: longtime Golden Trail Series participant,
1:14:06
SPEAKER_00: and then kind of stepping up a distance like OCC and things like that.
1:14:09
SPEAKER_00: She has finished as high as...
1:14:13
SPEAKER_00: I thought she's podium.
1:14:14
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, she has podium OCC in 2023.
1:14:17
SPEAKER_00: And then more recently, she finished sixth in 2024.
1:14:20
SPEAKER_00: And then basically, last year when she DNF, CCC kind of ended her season.
1:14:27
SPEAKER_00: And she had to come back from that.
1:14:30
SPEAKER_00: And then even OCC the year before that, I think kind of ended her season.
1:14:33
SPEAKER_00: She had to come back from that.
1:14:34
SPEAKER_00: So a string of injuries she's had going on.
1:14:39
SPEAKER_00: But she was looking to get her Broken Arrow.
1:14:41
SPEAKER_00: I'm curious.
1:14:42
SPEAKER_00: Danny is an athlete that can definitely go top 10 here.
1:14:44
SPEAKER_00: Definitely can close super strong.
1:14:46
SPEAKER_00: Definitely is somebody that you have to worry about.
1:14:48
SPEAKER_00: If Danny finishes, he's going to finish top 15.
1:14:51
SPEAKER_00: The big question is if she finishes.
1:14:53
SPEAKER_00: Next athlete is the returning top American from CCC,
1:14:56
SPEAKER_00: Robyn Lesch, ultra-athlete from Durango, Colorado.
1:15:00
SPEAKER_00: She's coming off of a—she just won North Face Grossglockner.
1:15:07
SPEAKER_00: The—what distance is this?
1:15:09
SPEAKER_00: It says Grossglockner Trail.
1:15:13
SPEAKER_00: This isn't 110K, though.
1:15:18
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I can't tell what distance it is, but she got, like, fourth overall, and she won.
1:15:22
SPEAKER_00: She got fifth at Broken Arrow Sky Race earlier this year,
1:15:25
SPEAKER_00: and then she also won Big Alts at 100K and won Terawire at 50K.
1:15:29
SPEAKER_00: So she's had a really good year so far, really consistent, hasn't missed.
1:15:32
SPEAKER_00: CCC last year was really good for her as well.
1:15:37
SPEAKER_00: Definitely, I think, is going to repeat and has the ability to likely go faster.
1:15:45
SPEAKER_00: Big question mark around Claire Rhodes.
1:15:47
SPEAKER_00: She did survive a bear attack in Alaska, which is super scary.
1:15:51
SPEAKER_00: North Face athlete from Anchorage.
1:15:53
SPEAKER_00: Has had a really good year this year.
1:15:54
SPEAKER_00: Second place at Speedgoat.
1:15:56
SPEAKER_00: Behind only Lauren Gregory.
1:15:58
SPEAKER_00: Win at Mt.
1:15:58
SPEAKER_00: Fuji Kai 70K.
1:16:00
SPEAKER_00: Win at Big Alta to start off the season.
1:16:03
SPEAKER_00: We have seen her win,
1:16:04
SPEAKER_00: run the rut,
1:16:05
SPEAKER_00: 50k before, and set the course record there, breaking a Jen Lecter course record.
1:16:10
SPEAKER_00: And it does feel like she would do very good at CCC.
1:16:12
SPEAKER_00: I think she's raced at OCC before in DNF'd.
1:16:16
SPEAKER_00: So question mark wrong.
1:16:17
SPEAKER_00: But if she lines up and is feeling mentally confident,
1:16:20
SPEAKER_00: she's definitely somebody to look out for.
1:16:21
SPEAKER_00: Next up,
1:16:23
SPEAKER_00: let me talk about how Amino Faulkner has finished as high as third at CCC
1:16:28
SPEAKER_00: as recently as 2023.
1:16:32
SPEAKER_00: Really feels like she was kind of on that trajectory to do...
1:16:38
SPEAKER_00: Kind of similar to Jen Lecter, honestly.
1:16:41
SPEAKER_00: And then this year,
1:16:42
SPEAKER_00: she's got second at Big Alta 50K,
1:16:45
SPEAKER_00: second at Madeira Island Ultra Trail,
1:16:48
SPEAKER_00: the long-distance one, behind, I want to say, behind...
1:16:57
SPEAKER_00: What's her name?
1:17:00
SPEAKER_00: And
1:17:03
SPEAKER_00: then she got sixth at the 50K Valderan race.
1:17:09
SPEAKER_00: So hasn't raced as much this year.
1:17:10
SPEAKER_00: Not really sure where she's at.
1:17:13
SPEAKER_00: But Helen, if she is fit, she's one of the best to do it and could definitely go top ten here.
1:17:19
SPEAKER_00: All right, last three Americans to look out for.
1:17:20
SPEAKER_00: Claire DeVoe was the top American female at OCC last year in 11th place,
1:17:24
SPEAKER_00: just in front of Hannah Allgood.
1:17:26
SPEAKER_00: Lindsay Allison,
1:17:27
SPEAKER_00: ultra-athlete,
1:17:29
SPEAKER_00: like ultra-footwear,
1:17:30
SPEAKER_00: does a good amount in running races in the States,
1:17:33
SPEAKER_00: could put together a good race here.
1:17:36
SPEAKER_00: And then Sarah Alabin,
1:17:39
SPEAKER_00: From Trout Lake,
1:17:39
SPEAKER_00: Washington,
1:17:40
SPEAKER_00: Saragnota athlete,
1:17:42
SPEAKER_00: she did win,
1:17:43
SPEAKER_00: let's see,
1:17:44
SPEAKER_00: she got third at Cannons 100k and denied the ticket so she could focus on CCC
1:17:49
SPEAKER_00: and got fifth at Gorge Waterfalls 30k.
1:17:52
SPEAKER_00: So definitely somebody to look out for and could have a good race out here.
1:17:58
SPEAKER_00: All right.
1:17:59
SPEAKER_00: So that is the women's field.
1:18:03
SPEAKER_00: Going to do the picks.
1:18:04
SPEAKER_00: Same thing as before.
1:18:05
SPEAKER_00: I had not made my picks.
1:18:06
SPEAKER_00: I didn't realize it because it's almost midnight as I'm recording this podcast.
1:18:10
SPEAKER_00: So I'm burning the midnight oil.
1:18:12
SPEAKER_00: But let me...
1:18:14
SPEAKER_00: I'm making my picks.
1:18:15
SPEAKER_00: So just give me 35 seconds and I will release them to you.
1:19:59
SPEAKER_00: All right.
1:19:59
SPEAKER_00: So women's picks.
1:20:01
SPEAKER_00: Same capacity as before.
1:20:02
SPEAKER_00: Definitely going to change this.
1:20:03
SPEAKER_00: Definitely going to shuffle these around.
1:20:05
SPEAKER_00: People can only get points if they finish the race.
1:20:07
SPEAKER_00: So 10th place, I'm going to go Honoka Akiyama.
1:20:11
SPEAKER_00: I think that she's super consistent.
1:20:12
SPEAKER_00: She doesn't DNF.
1:20:13
SPEAKER_00: I think she's a safe pick.
1:20:14
SPEAKER_00: Even if she's not going to go top five,
1:20:17
SPEAKER_00: I think she could go as high as seventh or eighth in this field.
1:20:21
SPEAKER_00: But I think she's a very safe pick.
1:20:23
SPEAKER_00: 9th place, I'm going to go Ingville Casperson, probably lower than some of you expect.
1:20:29
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think she has the chops to go higher.
1:20:34
SPEAKER_00: I know she has the chops to go higher.
1:20:36
SPEAKER_00: I just don't know how she recovered coming out of Western because I know she was pretty beat.
1:20:40
SPEAKER_00: And then I think she's also working full time as a doctor these days.
1:20:45
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I just have question marks around her return from Western.
1:20:48
SPEAKER_00: Eighth place, I'm going to go Veronica Lang, Slovakian athlete, got fifth place last year.
1:20:52
SPEAKER_00: Seventh place, I'm going to go Eliza, Kristen's daughter, on the rise, Icelandic athlete.
1:20:57
SPEAKER_00: I think her results are looking really good.
1:20:58
SPEAKER_00: She's trending in the correct direction this year.
1:21:00
SPEAKER_00: Sixth place, I'll go Robin Lesch, improving her position one place from last year.
1:21:05
SPEAKER_00: Fifth place,
1:21:06
SPEAKER_00: Fabiola Conti,
1:21:07
SPEAKER_00: Italian athlete, top three at Worlds, long trail in a deep, deep field last year.
1:21:13
SPEAKER_00: Fourth place,
1:21:13
SPEAKER_00: I'll go Toni McCann,
1:21:15
SPEAKER_00: returning champion, coming back and racing from a place of curiosity.
1:21:19
SPEAKER_00: Third place, Caitlin Fielder.
1:21:20
SPEAKER_00: Really impressed with her Western.
1:21:22
SPEAKER_00: I think she's kind of putting together the pieces and is going to finish really strong.
1:21:25
SPEAKER_00: She has the like speed to do very well in this field.
1:21:27
SPEAKER_00: Second place, I will go Jen Lichter, not winning this race.
1:21:32
SPEAKER_00: And first place, I'll go Meow Yeah.
1:21:34
SPEAKER_00: I am liable to swap Jen Lichter in or out based off interviews and any other number of things.
1:21:40
SPEAKER_00: But I do think it is possible she breaks her streak here.
1:21:43
SPEAKER_00: Women that I left out that I would consider adding,
1:21:46
SPEAKER_00: Emily Hallgood, I think is a very safe pick, who will likely go top 10.
1:21:51
SPEAKER_00: Therese LaBeouf,
1:21:52
SPEAKER_00: I think even though she's stepping up a distance,
1:21:53
SPEAKER_00: is one of the most consistent racers on the circuit.
1:21:55
SPEAKER_00: I don't think she'll have any problems stepping up.
1:21:58
SPEAKER_00: Anastina Urkula is a good choice.
1:22:00
SPEAKER_00: Danny Moreno would not be surprised to see in this top 10.
1:22:03
SPEAKER_00: Marie Gonsalves and Adeline Martin and Varvara Shackanova.
1:22:08
SPEAKER_00: Those are my picks.
1:22:10
SPEAKER_00: And sorry that I hadn't made them before I came to this podcast.
1:22:13
SPEAKER_00: I made you just kind of sit around and listen.
1:22:14
SPEAKER_00: But that's just where my mind is at right now.
1:22:16
SPEAKER_00: And I want to make sure I got this podcast out tonight.
1:22:19
SPEAKER_00: So that was your CCC preview.
1:22:21
SPEAKER_00: Going to try to do the same thing tomorrow and get that UTMB preview out.
1:22:24
SPEAKER_00: I hope this was helpful.
1:22:25
SPEAKER_00: I hope it gave you some insight.
1:22:27
SPEAKER_00: I hope it introduced you to some new trail runners.
1:22:29
SPEAKER_00: I haven't been saying that,
1:22:30
SPEAKER_00: but the goal of this podcast This podcast is to build fans in the sport
1:22:33
SPEAKER_00: and let you guys know about the athletes and how freaking cool they are.
1:22:36
SPEAKER_00: So I hope this was helpful and happy UTMB week everyone.