M35-39 at UTMB Mont-Blanc 2026: Tranchand seizes the lead and never looks back

• Frédéric Tranchand wins M35-39 in 5:10:10 (8:19/mi), posting the fastest men's split on the La Giète→Trient leg and moving to the front of the men's race by the third checkpoint — a lead he held to Chamonix.
• Dawid Malina (3rd, 5:27:00) and Robbie Simpson (2nd, 5:29:57) both flew home on the Argentière→Finish leg — Malina with the 4th-fastest men's split on that stretch, Simpson with the 3rd-fastest — but Malina's earlier pace left him 2:57 clear of Simpson at the line.
• Bogdan Damian (5th, 5:35:12) was the field's biggest mover, surging from 63rd among men at the early checkpoints all the way to 12th by Argentière before finishing 5th in M35-39 with the 7th-fastest men's closing split.
• Antonio Martinez Perez (4th, 5:33:42) quietly climbed from 42nd among men mid-race to 11th by the finish, anchored by the 6th-fastest men's split on the Trient→Col de Balme stretch.

Frédéric Tranchand ran the kind of race that looks inevitable in hindsight. Sitting 2nd among men through the early going, he made his decisive move on the La Giète→Trient leg — posting the fastest men's split on that segment — and stepped into the lead by checkpoint three. From there, he never conceded it, crossing into Chamonix in 5:10:10 to claim M35-39 in a field of 202 finishers across 60 kilometers and 3,500 meters of climbing. At 8:19 per mile on terrain that includes the course's new high point above 2,300 meters, that's a controlled, powerful effort from start to finish.

The real drama behind him unfolded in the final stretch. Malina had been the steadier presence through the middle of the race, climbing from 11th to 5th among men through the Argentière checkpoint. Simpson, meanwhile, had drifted as far back as 24th among men mid-race before engineering a sustained comeback. Both men lit up the Argentière→Finish leg — Simpson running the 3rd-fastest men's split on that segment, Malina the 4th — but Malina's earlier positioning proved decisive. He held on for 3rd in M35-39 at 5:27:00, with Simpson taking 2nd at 5:29:57, a gap of nearly three minutes that the closing surge couldn't quite close.

Damian's trajectory deserves its own mention. Starting the race buried in 63rd among men, he picked off competitors steadily through the back half, riding the 7th-fastest men's Argentière→Finish split to 5th in M35-39 at 5:35:12 — a finish that required patience, not panic. Martinez Perez told a similar story, quietly threading his way from 42nd among men to 4th at 5:33:42. Behind them, Ander Iñarra Olaziregi (6th, 5:49:33) and Andreu Blanes Reig (7th, 5:50:38) rounded out the top seven separated by just over a minute, before the field spread out across the remaining 195 finishers on the road to Chamonix.