M45-49 at UTMB 2026: Absalon Dominates Courmayeur to Chamonix

• Julien Absalon wins M45-49 in 12:50:48 (11:29/mi), finishing more than an hour ahead of runner-up Radosław Hetman (13:52:17).
• Bernhard Reiter's late surge carried him from 198th among men at the start to 90th by the finish — the biggest positional climb in the top five.
• Places 4 and 5 separated by seven seconds: Gabriel Martínez Ginard (14:34:25) edged Geir Oedegaard (14:34:32) across 108 km through three countries.
• 194 men aged 45–49 finished this point-to-point from Courmayeur to Chamonix, with 6,200 metres of climbing underfoot.

Julien Absalon, 46, simply ran a different race from everyone else in M45-49. He crossed the line in 12:50:48 — an 11:29/mi average across a course that climbs more than 20,000 feet in total gain — and was never seriously threatened. His gender place tracked consistently through the field, moving from 79th among men at the first checkpoint all the way to 52nd by the finish, including a 37th-fastest men's split on the Vallorcine Sortie–to–Finish stretch that confirmed he was still pressing hard when others were managing survival. The gap to second place: one hour, one minute, and 29 seconds.

Radosław Hetman, 45, ran a composed and progressive race to claim second in 13:52:17. He tracked from 130th among men at the opening checkpoint to 71st before the final leg, and posted the 53rd-fastest men's split on the Les Tseppes–Vallorcine Entrée segment — a sign he was genuinely racing, not just finishing. Bernhard Reiter, 46, told a different story: he was 198th among men early and looked like a back-of-field runner, but he kept moving forward all day. By Vallorcine Entrée he had cracked the top 100 among men, and his 58th-fastest men's split on the Vallorcine Entrée–Vallorcine Sortie segment helped him lock up third in 14:25:15 — a remarkable climb through the field across 12-plus hours of mountain running.

The battle for fourth was the race's tightest finish. Gabriel Martínez Ginard, 46, and Geir Oedegaard, 48, ran nearly the entire course within reach of each other — Oedegaard actually held a better gender position through the middle checkpoints — but Martínez Ginard arrived in Chamonix in 14:34:25 to Oedegaard's 14:34:32, a seven-second verdict across 108 kilometres. Jérôme Jomaron (6th, 14:51:12) and Felipe Gonzalez Carrato Soriano (7th, 14:57:06) rounded out the top seven within the hour, while Brady Liljemark, 49, was the top finisher among the oldest in the field, taking 13th in 16:20:06. All 194 finishers navigated the same thin air, warm humidity, and relentless vertical — but it was Absalon who made it look like a different race entirely.