Masters Women at UTMB: Adeline Martin Runs Down the Field

• Adeline Martin won the Masters Women race in 12:45:43 (11:25/mi), posting the 4th-fastest women's split on the Champex-Lac Sortie→Trient segment.
• Theres Leboeuf finished 2nd in 12:58:52 — just 13:09 back — with the 5th-fastest women's split on Grand Col Ferret→La Fouly.
• Ying Li made one of the most dramatic moves in the field: from 73rd among women at the first checkpoint all the way to 23rd by the finish, fueled by the 8th-fastest women's split on Vallorcine Entrée→Vallorcine Sortie.
• Ana Cervan, at 54, finished 16th among the Masters Women in 17:00:09 — the oldest athlete in the top 20 of this group.

Adeline Martin, 42, controlled this race with quiet authority. She entered the women's field in 11th place at the first checkpoint and had climbed to 8th by the second — and then simply held that position across every remaining segment, never fading, never surging wildly, just sustaining a pace that nobody in the Masters Women field could match. Her 11:25/mi average across 108 kilometers of Italian, Swiss, and French mountain terrain — over 6,200 meters of climbing, with temperatures pushing into the low 70s and humidity near 75% — reflects a performance built on discipline. Theres Leboeuf, 41, ran her own strong race and was genuinely in the hunt, posting the 5th-fastest women's split on the Grand Col Ferret→La Fouly stretch, but the 13-minute gap at the line tells the real story.

The mid-field subplot belonged entirely to Ying Li. Starting the race in 73rd among women, Li spent the entire course moving forward — to 54th, then 38th, then 34th, then 30th, then 24th, landing at 23rd by the finish in 13:56:49. That relentless progression, capped by the 8th-fastest women's split through Vallorcine, earned her 3rd in the Masters Women. Lina Broström, 43, made a similar story of forward motion — from 65th among women early to 33rd at the finish in 14:49:09 — while Katie Kaars Sijpesteijn, 42, clocked the 22nd-fastest women's split through Vallorcine to close in 15:03:34 for 5th.

Back in the top 20, the race tightened considerably. Guida Fontes (15th, 17:00:06) and Ana Cervan (16th, 17:00:09) finished just three seconds apart, with Cervan — at 54 the oldest athlete in the listed top 20 — making that gap feel all the more remarkable. Leire Martinez, 48, rounded out the top 14 in 17:13:56, while Stacey Armijo, 50, took 20th in 17:39:27. All told, 197 Masters Women finished this point-to-point epic from Courmayeur to Chamonix — and Martin led every one of them home.