M65-69 at UTMB Ultra Trail: Vuillen Dominates a Grueling 145 km

• Loris Vuillen won the M65-69 field in 36:56:00 (24:36/mi avg) — more than 5 hours 21 minutes clear of second place.
• Bertrand Denis held off Marek Niedźwiecki for second, finishing in 42:17:46 vs. 42:56:43 — a gap of just under 39 minutes.
• Vuillen posted the 51st-fastest men's split on the Col de Tricot→Bellevue segment, a standout stretch in a field of hundreds.
• All three men finished UTMB's most technical race of the week — 145 km and 9,500 m+ of climbing from Courmayeur to Chamonix, starting at midnight.

Three men lined up for the M65-69 field at UTMB Ultra Trail, and all three made it to Chamonix — no small feat on a course regarded as the most technical race of UTMB week. The night start from Courmayeur at 23:50 means every one of these athletes ran through darkness, dawn, and deep into the following day across passes topping out near 8,500 feet, where thinner air adds a quiet but persistent tax on any runner who hasn't fully acclimatized.

Loris Vuillen, 65, was never in doubt. His gender place tells the story of a man who started conservatively among the broader men's field and then steadily hunted runners down — moving from 653rd to 712th early (a brief slip back in the pack) before a relentless climb through the standings: 559th, 363rd, 332nd, 284th at the finish. The 51st-fastest men's split on Col de Tricot→Bellevue was his sharpest move, a segment where he ran with genuine pace among the full men's field. He crossed in 36:56:00, averaging 24:36 per mile across the entire 145 km.

Behind him, Bertrand Denis and Marek Niedźwiecki, 65 and 67 respectively, waged a quieter battle. Denis ran a cleaner second half, climbing from 901st to 495th among men over the back end of the course. Niedźwiecki actually tracked Denis closely through the middle sections — both sat within a handful of gender places of each other around the Barrage de la Girotte checkpoint — but Denis had the stronger close. Denis finished in 42:17:46 (28:10/mi); Niedźwiecki crossed in 42:56:43 (28:36/mi), 39 minutes back. Three starters, three finishers, three hard-earned arrivals in Chamonix.