M55-59 at UTMB 2026: Mongay Monteso Conquers the Massif

• Pere Mongay Monteso (age 56) won M55-59 in 30:18:08 — a 16:49/mi average across 174 km and 9,700+ meters of climbing through France, Italy, and Switzerland.
• The winning margin was decisive: Matevz Slapnicar finished 2nd in 31:54:26 — 1 hour, 36 minutes back — with Steve Rowbury 3rd in 32:54:53, another hour behind that.
• Lammert Vrieling (4th, 33:04:57) and Salim Mohamed (5th, 34:07:16) were the only other finishers inside 34:08, completing a top five spread across nearly four hours.
• 73 men finished in M55-59, with the 20th finisher, Paolo Prompicai, crossing in 38:29:16 — still well inside the 45h 30min cutoff.

Pere Mongay Monteso didn't just win M55-59 — he carved through the men's field like a runner getting stronger as the race wore on. Starting somewhere around 591st among men, he climbed steadily through every checkpoint: 516th, 436th, 378th, 319th, and ultimately 272nd among all male finishers by the finish. That's a relentless, patient advance across the better part of 30 hours on a course that winds through three countries and punishes anyone who goes out too hard. His 109th-fastest men's split on the La Giète→Trient segment was a quiet statement of late-race strength.

Matevz Slapnicar told a similarly aggressive story from the other direction. He was 822nd among men at one point — deep in the field — and clawed his way to 330th by the finish, a recovery arc that earned him 2nd in M55-59 at 31:54:26. Steve Rowbury (3rd, 32:54:53) and Lammert Vrieling (4th, 33:04:57) were separated by just over ten minutes at the line, a meaningful gap after 30-plus hours of racing but tight enough to suggest a genuine battle through the final stages. Vrieling's 174th-fastest men's split through the Champex-Lac aid station segment hints at where he found his legs.

Salim Mohamed (5th, 34:07:16) made one of the more dramatic positional swings in the group, at one point sitting 899th among men before surging through the field — his 244th-fastest men's split on the Col de la Seigne→Lac Combal leg doing real work in that climb. Behind the top five, a cluster of seven runners finished between 34:45 and 35:30, with Patrick Schryburt (6th, 34:45:58) through Gregory Larson (10th, 35:27:55) and Vitor Diniz (11th, 35:29:10) packed tightly across fewer than 45 minutes. At 97% humidity and moderate altitude, finishing this race at any pace is a serious achievement — 73 men in M55-59 did exactly that.