M70-74: Pierre David completes the Dukes' trail at 72

• Sole finisher: Pierre David, 72, crossed from Courmayeur to Chamonix in 44:02:05 — the only M70-74 finisher on the day.
• Strong mid-race climb: David posted the 267th-fastest men's split on the Beaufort entrée→Beaufort sortie segment, a notable show of strength deep into the race.
• Surging through the field: His men's standing improved from 927th to 555th across the middle stages of the race before a modest settle to 579th at the finish.

Pierre David didn't just finish the CCC's toughest sibling — he finished it alone, as the only man in the M70-74 field to cross the line on this 145-kilometer traverse from Courmayeur to Chamonix. At 72, completing a course that piles on more than 9,500 meters of elevation gain — including technical terrain through the Beaufortain region toward Bourg-Saint-Maurice — at a 29:19-per-mile average is a genuine feat of endurance.

What makes David's run more than a survival story is the arc of his race. He started conservatively, sitting 927th among men at the opening checkpoint, but he was moving. By the middle stages he had climbed all the way to 555th — a swing of nearly 370 places through the men's field — before settling at 579th at the finish. That kind of sustained, progressive movement through a field this size speaks to a well-managed effort rather than an early blowout.

The Beaufort entrée→Beaufort sortie segment tells a similar story: his 267th-fastest men's split there, tucked in a race of this scale, signals that David was genuinely racing that stretch, not merely enduring it. The cool, overcast conditions — 61°F with high humidity — were about as kind as this course offers, and David made the most of them. He followed the footprints of the Dukes of Savoie to the finish line in Chamonix, and did it entirely on his own terms.