With their respective wins at the 2014 The North Face Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc, Rory Bosio double-peated and François D’Haene (post-race interview) added yet another notch to his growing list of major international ultramarathon wins.
In addition to this article, you can find our full play-by-play of the race as well as a collection of our pre-race interviews and preview on our 2014 TNF UTMB Live Coverage page.
As usual, we’ll be updating this article with additional results as well as links to UTMB-related articles, photo galleries, and race reports.
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2014 The North Face Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc starting line. Photo: iRunFar/Kirsten Kortebein
2014 TNF Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc Men’s Race
Front start to finish, the men’s race seemed to run like a master class put on by winner François D’Haene. At every glimpse we had of him between the start and La Fouly at 108k, François led or shared the lead with other men, with what seemed like almost no effort, physical or emotional. Then, between La Fouly and Champex-Lac and 122k, he acted quickly and decisively, putting a more-than-10-minute gap on the rest of the men’s field in only 14 kilometers. In doing so, François literally and figuratively slammed the textbook shut and schooled every other dude in the race. In the race’s final 40-odd kilometers, François built an additional lead on the field and a buffer on the previous course record held by last year’s champ Xavier Thevenard. In the end, his 20:11:44 was a new record by 22-ish minutes and a gap of almost 45 minutes to any other runner. If there was any doubt as to François’s ability with longer, mountainous ultras, there should be no more. He is among the world’s best in this realm.
Francois D’Haene, 2014 The North Face Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc champion. Photo: iRunFar/Kirsten Kortebein
Tòfol Castanyer ran the race with what looked like a plan: go out aggressively and stay aggressive all race long. He was among the leaders as early as Les Houches at 8k and as late as La Fouly at 122k. In fact, it was he, François, eventual third place Iker Karrera, and eventual DNF Luis Alberto Hernando who ran together as a group for the race’s first two thirds. All four men took turns leading and following within the group, and it seemed like all the men had highs and lows through which they worked together. Eventually Luis fell from the back of the group and François went off the front and it was Tòfol and Iker left together.
Tòfol and Iker sharing the race. Photo: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
In an awesome example of teammate-ship and friendship, the pair ran pretty much together all the way to the finish. At times, one would pull ahead or the other would drop behind, but always they met up again. They crossed the line together as well in 20:55:42, declaring for themselves a tie for second place.
Tòfol Castanyer and Iker Karrera tying for second place. Photo: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
Fourth-place finisher Jason Schlarb had one hell of a race, totally textbook for how an American runner could do this race right. He started easy, seemingly unconcerned about the wild, fast, early-race antics, running close to 20th place. Slowly , surely he moved up until he was 12th place at Lac Combal at 64k and fourth place when he arrived to Champex-Lac at 122k. Jason finished with some challenge, namely pressure from behind from fifth-place finisher and strong closer Gediminas Grinius and his own body wearing out.
Sixth place as well as eighth through 10th places are occupied by individuals who started the race way outside the top 10 and who finished within it. This includes sixth place Andrew Tuckey, Carlos Sá in eighth, Bertrand Collomb-Patton in ninth, and Stéphane Brogniart in 10th. On the other end of the racing-style spectrum was Sondre Amdahl’s race story. He didn’t start near the front but it was only a few kilometers into the race that he made it there, and stayed there.
2014 TNF Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc Men’s Results
François D’Haene (Salomon) - 20:11:44 (pre-race and post-race interviews)
Tòfol Castanyer (Salomon) – 20:55:42
Iker Karrera (Salomon) – 20:55:42
Jason Schlarb (Altra) – 21:39:44
Gediminas Grinius (Inov-8) – 21:50:04
Andrew Tuckey (The North Face) – 22:40:26
Sondre Amdahl – 22:42:37
Carlos Sá (Berg) – 22:50:07
Bertrand Collomb-Patton - 22:51:54
Stéphane Brogniart (The North Face) -22:57:05
Full results.
2014 TNF Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc Women’s Race
Rory Bosio, oh Rory, what can we say about you except thank you for kicking the pants off a European race for the rest of us who haven’t figured out how to do these kinds of things just right. Rory didn’t lead from the get go; she instead let the early pushers of eventual second place Núria Picas and third place Nathalie Mauclair do the heavy lifting. At every point in which we saw Rory in the race’s beginning third, she seemed content to hang on the proverbial shoulders of someone in front of her. Then, it seemed that her party line switched, and she put herself in the leadership position such that she was in it by several minutes already at Courmayeur at 77k. Never did she relinquish her lead either, though she did have at least a couple rough patches along the way that slowed her from the record pace she was pushing for a while. Rory already won the hearts of the Euro endurance world with her first UTMB win last year, and this time she has sealed the deal on their love with her second UTMB win in a row.
Rory Bosio, 2014 The North Face Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc champion. Photo: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
I can’t help but think that Núria Picas really wanted the UTMB win after playing bridesmaid last year. Though Nathalie Mauclair did much of the actual early leading, it wasn’t long before Núria found her way into the lead, which she would hold onto for the race’s second third. When we saw her in early aid stations, such as Lac Combal at 64k, she was real, real serious, instead of the calm casual she usually runs with. It seemed she was in a serious-work mindset even early on. After the race’s first third, Rory took her lead back and kept it. It should be noted that, while Núria couldn’t compete with Rory’s talent and drive on the day, she did set herself apart from the rest of the field, finishing close to an hour in front of all the other women. She is an UTMB bridesmaid once more, still an awesome position to be in.
Núria at La Floria just before finishing the 2014 TNF UTMB. Photo: iRunFar/Kirsten Kortebein
Nathalie Mauclair is always a pleasure to watch race. She usually starts aggressively and stays there as long as she can. Today was no different. Though Nathalie ran in the lead or in second place for a portion of the race, she eventually slid into third place where she would stay until the race’s end.
Nathalie Maulcair, 2014 The North Face Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc third place. Photo: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
With strong performances, Fernanda Maciel and Uxue Fraile rounded out the top five. Sixth place through 10th place were Ildiko Wermescher, Andrea Huser, Ester Alves, Emily Richards-Chisolm, and Shona Stephenson.
2014 TNF Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc Women’s Results
Rory Bosio (The North Face) - 23:23:20 (pre-race interview)
Núria Picas (Buff) - 24:54:29 (pre-race interview)
Nathalie Mauclair (La Fuma) - 25:47:35 (pre-race interview)
Fernanda Maciel (The North Face) - 26:05:47 (pre-race interview)
Uxue Fraile (Vibram) – 26:22:19
Ildiko Wermescher (Mammut) – 27:47:52
Andrea Huser – 28:20:24
Ester Alves – 28:39:01
Emily Richards-Chisolm – 29:11:29
Shona Stephenson (Inov-8) – 30:04:21
Full results.
2014 TNF Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc Articles, Race Reports, and More
Articles and Photo Galleries
Salomon Running’s first and second photo albums from during the race, as well as their pre-race photo gallery
Post-Race Interviews
François D’Haene (iRunFar video interview)
Race Reports
Coming soon
Thank You
A massive team of people helped bring you live coverage of the 2014 UTMB! Thanks so much to Kirsten Kortebein, Tim Peeters, Ian Campbell, Donielle Wolfe, Chris Wolfe, Francois Tornier, Ashok Daniel, Moses Lovstad, Ellie Greenwood, Travis Liles, Andy Jones-Wilkins, Aliza Lapierre, Kim Wrinkle, Ran Katzman, Travis Liles, Leon Lutz, and Nick Pedatella.
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