M45-49 at UTMB Ultra Trail: Eckenfelder Runs Down the Field to Take the Crown

• Laurent Eckenfelder, 26:12:49 — winner of the M45-49 field, climbing from 49th to 27th among the men by the finish and posting the fastest men's split on the Remontée le Signal E→Signal S segment.
• Guillaume Barry closed in 26:47:58 — 35 minutes back — after a relentless charge from 130th among the men at the first checkpoint all the way to 34th by the finish.
• Jean-Francois Padovani completed the podium in 27:42:28, making up more than 160 places among the men across 145 km of mountain terrain.
• Valentin Perez Cuadrado and Antonio de la Fuente de la Fuente both clocked 30:59:30 for 7th and 8th — separated by timing finer than the displayed second.

Laurent Eckenfelder did not lead from the front. He started the night out of Courmayeur in 49th among the men, drifted back to 57th, and then methodically dismantled the field — moving to 37th, 34th, 28th, and 27th by the finish. The decisive flourish came on the Remontée le Signal climb, where Eckenfelder posted the fastest men's split of anyone in the race on that segment. Across 9,500 meters of elevation gain and 145 kilometers of the most technical course on UTMB week, the 46-year-old ran a 17:27/mi average and finished in 26:12:49 — a clear and earned victory in the M45-49 field.

The real charging story of the race, though, might belong to Guillaume Barry. The 45-year-old was 130th among the men through the opening checkpoint and looked like a mid-pack finisher. He wasn't. Barry reeled in runner after runner across the Beaufortain and through Bourg-Saint-Maurice, eventually landing 34th among the men and 2nd in the M45-49 field in 26:47:58. Jean-Francois Padovani, 48, ran a similarly aggressive back half — entering the race's middle sections around 162nd among the men and finishing 47th — to claim 3rd in 27:42:28.

Further down, Romuald Colineau and Gian Carlo Clerici each made strong runs to the finish. Colineau posted the 38th-fastest men's split on the Les Houches→Finish leg to come home 4th in 29:02:46; Clerici went one better on that same closing stretch with the 13th-fastest men's split to finish 5th in 29:24:56 — a closing surge that nearly caught Colineau but fell just under 22 minutes short. All 106 finishers in this field crossed the line having navigated the same cool, humid night — 61°F, 87% humidity — from Courmayeur to Chamonix, and every one of them earned it.