F55-59 at UTMB Ultra Trail: Quesada Corral rules the night from Courmayeur to Chamonix

• Piedad Quesada Corral won the F55-59 field in 34:12:12 (22:47/mi), finishing more than 6 hours 45 minutes clear of second place.
• Quesada Corral posted the 7th-fastest women's split on Bellevue→Les Houches, one of the sharpest single-segment efforts among all women on that stretch.
• Nathalie Bosquet ran the most relentless forward march of the four, climbing from 109th to 75th among women across every checkpoint — never once losing ground.
• All four women completed 145 km and more than 9,500 m of elevation gain across the most technical race of UTMB week — a night start from Courmayeur, a traverse of the Beaufortain, and a finish in Chamonix.

Piedad Quesada Corral, 55, turned in one of the more commanding performances in the F55-59 field. She wasn't just first to finish — she was running at a pace that left the field well behind. What makes her effort particularly striking is the trajectory: her gender standing swung from 40th to as low as 46th through the middle sections before she surged back to 26th among all women by the finish line. That late charge included the 7th-fastest women's split on Bellevue→Les Houches, a segment where she was clearly running down competitors in the broader women's field. Her 34:12:12 over 22:47/mi on a course that climbs to nearly 8,500 feet — with cool but clammy 87% humidity through the night — was a controlled, well-timed effort.

Behind her, Corinne Michaud, 56, crossed in 40:57:15 to claim second, logging the 30th-fastest women's split on Signal S→Les Contamines Montjoie. She held a relatively steady position through the women's field, moving from 75th at the first check to 60th at the finish — a quiet, consistent grind across a brutal course.

The battle for third and fourth told a different story. Nathalie Bosquet, 55, was the field's great mover — she tracked from 109th among women all the way to 75th, gaining ground at every single checkpoint without exception. She finished in 42:42:49 and recorded the 26th-fastest women's split on Remontée le Signal E→Signal S. Béatrice Romagnolo, 56, matched Bosquet on that same segment with the 41st-fastest women's split, and she too made sweeping gains — from 122nd to 82nd among women — before settling in 83rd at the line in 44:37:21. Four starters, four finishers, and a combined story of grit across one of trail running's most demanding courses.