Spain’s Canary Islands are an absolute hotspot for path operating and ultrarunning, and this weekend’s 2026 Transvulcania Ultramarathon is taking it to a different stage.
The six-race Transvulcania competition is happening on La Palma, probably the most northwestern of the Canary Islands and the fifth-largest of the eight fundamental Canary Islands. The occasion’s Vertical Kilometer and Half Marathon races are each a part of the Mountain Operating World Cup, however the 73-kilometer (45.4 miles) extremely is the marquee distance.
The 2025 Transvulcania Ultramarathon had unusually dismal climate for the beginning on the southern finish of La Palma island. Photograph: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
The Transvulcania Ultramarathon begins on the island’s southern tip and runs north, over a string of volcanoes and over 2,420-meter (7,940-foot) Roque de los Muchachos, the island’s excessive level. It then plunges west to almost contact the ocean earlier than climbing as much as end within the metropolis of Los Llanos. The purpose-to-point route beneficial properties 4,350 meters (14,270 ft) of elevation. It’s a difficult however runnable course.
The occasion has a 39,500 Euro money purse throughout its races, with a 6,000 Euro first-place prize.
Final 12 months, the race was characterised by exceptionally dangerous climate. Regardless of this, Slovakia’s Peter Fraňo got here near Spain’s Luis Alberto Hernando’s course report of 6:52:39, which has stood since 2015. That’s a lifetime in the past within the present period of ultrarunning. Fraňo gained final 12 months in 6:55:36. France’s Anne-Lise Rousset Séguret gained the 2025 girls’s race in 8:18:17, and Kiwi Ruth Croft holds the ladies’s course report along with her 8:02:49 run from 2024.
The 2025 Transvulcania Ultramarathon girls’s podium hugs on the end. From left to proper are Martina Valmassoi, Anne-Lise Rousset Séguret, and Ekaterina Mityaeva. Photograph: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
Is that this the 12 months that the lads’s mark lastly goes down, or {that a} lady runs underneath eight hours? High males’s entrants, Ben Dhiman of the U.S. and Italy’s Andreas Reiterer, and ladies’s favorites, impartial athlete Ekaterina Mityaeva and France’s Blandine L’Hirondel, are actually able to all of that.
The Ultramarathon begins at 6 a.m. native time (Western European Summer time Time) on Saturday, Could 9. That’s 11 p.m. Friday, Could 8 Mountain Daylight Time within the U.S. iRunFar might be there offering on-site protection of this spring blockbuster.
2026 Transvulcania Ultramarathon Males’s Preview
Contenders for the Males’s Win
Ben Dhiman was world class in 2025, and he’s the most important of the race favorites. An American residing in France, Dhiman’s received a seemingly limitless ceiling. Perpetually on the up and up, final 12 months he was second at UTMB, set a brand new course report on the Lavaredo Extremely Path, and gained at Grand Raid Ventoux, too. This might be Dhiman’s first race of 2026, and his first go on the Transvulcania Ultramarathon, however he documented a giant winter of coaching on his Substack as he builds towards UTMB because the 12 months’s objective race.
Ben Dhiman ending in second on the 2025 UTMB. Photograph: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
Andreas Reiterer of Italy has already raced a handful of instances in 2026. When the close by Tenerife Bluetrail occasion was canceled in March, Reiterer shifted to the Chianti 120k in his native Italy and completed second. He’s raced twice extra in Italy in 2026, profitable a 50k and ending third in a 30k. Reiterer was second in final 12 months’s bad-weather Transvulcania race in 6:58 and was third right here in 2023 in 7:17, too.
Andreas Reiterer wanting fairly happy with second place on the 2025 Transvulcania Ultramarathon. Photograph: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
The 2022 winner of Transvulcania, Petter Engdahl of Sweden, will get lower than three weeks of restoration after operating a 2:23 on the 2026 Boston Marathon on April 20, his highway marathon debut. He cut up 1:08 by means of midway and gave a while again within the second half, pointing to blisters on social media afterward for a part of the slowdown. Earlier this 12 months, he had a shaky run on the 2026 Tarawera in New Zealand in February and didn’t end the 102k race there. Engdahl was higher by means of a busy 2025, although. His outcomes are highlighted by a fourth place at OCC and a sixth-place end on the Path World Championships Lengthy Path.
Petter Engdahl, 2022 CCC males’s champion. Photograph: UTMB
Dmitry Mityaev missed final 12 months’s race with an harm, however he’s completed second right here in 2018, 2019, and 2024. Competing as a impartial athlete, this would be the first time we’ve seen Mityaev race in 2026. After 4 DNFs by means of the center of 2025, Mityaev closed the 12 months nicely with a second-place end within the Extremely-Path Cape City 100k and a third-place end on the Chiangmai Thailand 100k solely two weeks later. If Mityaev will get to the end, it’s often on the rostrum.
Dmitry Mityaev on his approach to profitable the 2023 Extremely-Path Cape City 100k. Photograph: iRunFar/Neville Sharwood
David Sinclair of the U.S. was at Transvulcania final 12 months, however didn’t end. Sinclair rebounded from that early season drop to complete second on the 2025 Damaged Arrow Skyrace 46k, second at CCC, and second on the JFK 50 Mile, too. Sinclair has competed in ski mountaineering this winter, as per his typical wintertime coaching, however was on close by Gran Canaria in February for a Craft model operating group camp. Nevertheless, that week of coaching was restricted by sickness. He did simply win the Canyons 25k and is ramping towards his 100-mile debut on the Western States 100 in June.
David Sinclair finishes in second place on the 2025 CCC. Photograph: UTMB
Extra Quick Males
France’s Gautier Bonnecarrère is coming into this occasion off a seventh-place end on the Penyagolosa MiM earlier this 12 months. Whereas he didn’t end OCC in 2025, the identical 12 months he was fourth on the Lavaredo Extremely Path 50k and gained the Madeira Island 40k. He was ninth on the 2024 UTMB.
Romanian runner Raul Butaci gained this 12 months’s Penyagolosa CSP race in Spain in April, ending about six minutes again of Ben Dhiman’s 2023 course report. Butaci was second, and 13 minutes behind Dhiman, on the 2025 Lavaredo Extremely Path, too. In 2024, he completed sixteenth at Transvulcania and was nineteenth in 2018.
Raul Butaci wins the 2024 Transgrancanaria Basic. Photograph: Transgrancanaria/Miguel Travieso
Whereas Mexico’s Jupiter Carera has had years of high performances in his dwelling nation, he broke out internationally on the 2024 Black Canyon 100k, the place he took second. Since then, his performances have been sturdy, however maybe to not the identical stage. Simply a few weeks in the past, he took second on the 2026 Canyons 50k behind the winner, Matt Daniels, who can be on this race.
Australian Billy Curtis was simply second on the latest Madeira Island Extremely-Path 56k race. In each 2024 and 2023, he was third on the Extremely-Path Australia 22k.
Matt Daniels of the U.S. didn’t have one of the best 12 months of racing in 2025. He ran a fast 3:27 for second eventually 12 months’s Canyons 50k, however didn’t end an extremely the remainder of the 12 months and dropped within the dangerous climate at Transvulcania. Daniels is best, thus far, in 2026. He gained the Canyons 50k in 3:21, setting a brand new course report.
Matt Daniels earlier than the 2021 Western States 100. Photograph: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
France’s Théo Detienne noticed a 2025 that included the highs of a win on the Mont Blanc 90k and the lows of a DNF at UTMB. With a former give attention to skyrunning, he’s stepped up in distance lately and completed fifth at Les Templiers 80k in 2024.
Tobias Geiser of Italy completed simply off the 2026 Chianti 120k podium. It was end, however he was over quarter-hour behind second-place Reiterer there. He was again from Dhiman and Butaci eventually 12 months’s Lavaredo Extremely Path, too, when he once more completed fourth.
Luís Alberto Hernando is the course report holder, however that was in 2015. The Spanish star, who’s a three-time path world champion, is 48 years previous now. In more moderen years, he was twelfth on the 2024 Transvulcania and 14th on the 2024 Penyagolosa MiM.
Luis Alberto Hernando on his approach to his third-straight Path World Championships win in 2018. Photograph: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
Damien Humbert from France was second on the 2023 Transvulcania. Within the years since, he hasn’t completed a race longer than 56k.
Germany’s Janosch Kowalczyk was fifth at this 12 months’s Tarawera 102k. Wanting additional again, he was third on the 2023 Black Canyon 100k and Tenth on the 2023 Western States 100.
Nadir Maguet of Italy has extra usually raced shorter distances. He dropped from this 12 months’s Chianti Marathon, and he’s seemingly by no means raced longer than a 60k. Whereas success at longer distances has eluded him thus far, he’s been profitable within the Skyrunner World Sequence.
Nadir Maguet, the 2024 Maga Skymarathon males’s winner. Photograph: Skyrunner World Sequence
The Moroccan runner residing in Spain, Zaid Ait Malek has extra generally raced shorter distances. He’s conversant in La Palma, although, and was fifth on the Transvulcania Marathon in 2024, and third on the lengthy course in 2017. Malek’s greatest 2025 end was a win on the Reventón El Paso Marathon, additionally on La Palma.
Zaid Ait Malek wins the 2021 Gorbeia Suzien. Photograph: Chris Alonzo
Ionel Manole is a Romanian based mostly in Spain, and he was fifth at this race in 2024, fourth on the Transgrancanaria Basic in 2025, and gained the Extremely-Path Xiamen 100k in China in March 2026.
Spain’s Mario Olmedo was fourth on the 2025 Transvulcania Marathon, and whereas he typically races shorter distances, he was third on the 60-kilometer Penyagolosa MiM in 2026 and ninth at CCC in 2025.
Poland’s Bartłomiej Przedwojewski was an early Golden Path World Sequence runner and has stepped up in distance lately, however he hasn’t discovered the identical success he did as a podium common at races just like the Zegama Marathon. Przedwojewski’s extremely report has a win on the 2025 Restonica Path 60k, however drops on greater phases at CCC and Grand Raid Ventoux 100k in that very same 12 months.
Bartłomiej Przedwojewski wanting contemporary after taking third on the 2024 Zegama Marathon. Photograph: Zegama Marathon/Roger Salanova
Jia-Sheng Shen was solely sixth at this 12 months’s Tarawera 102k. That was maybe a lower-than-expected end for the Chinese language runner after an eighth-place run on the 2025 UTMB and wins on the 2025 Mt. Fuji 70k and Extremely-Path Australia 100k, in addition to a fourth-place end on the 2023 Western States 100.
Jia-Sheng Shen operating to fourth place on the 2023 Western States 100. Photograph: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
The U.Okay.’s Robbie Simpson is a prolific 50k racer however has solely performed a handful of races longer than that. Simpson gained the January 2026 Arc of Attrition Marathon and April 2026 Lake Sonoma 50k. Between Europe and South Africa, he was on the rostrum of some half dozen different races in 2025, too.
Robbie Simpson crosses the road in second place on the 2021 Sierre-Zinal race. Photograph: World Mountain Operating Affiliation
Like a number of others on this group, Japan’s Ruy Ueda is greatest generally known as a shorter-course path runner. He gained and positioned second on the Chiangmai Thailand 56k in 2024 and 2025. He did win the 2023 Extremely-Path Kosciuszko 106k in Australia, however hasn’t landed different massive aggressive ultras. Ueda dropped eventually 12 months’s OCC and was forty sixth on the 2025 Path World Championships Quick Path race. To date this 12 months Ueda was second on the Mt. Fuji 40k.
Ruy Ueda, the Chiangmai Thailand 50k males’s winner. Photograph: Chiangmai Thailand by UTMB
Pablo Villa from Spain has an extremely historical past going again to 2010. Not too long ago, he was eighth at Transvulcania in 2025, and he gained the Mozart 100k in Austria final 12 months, too.
Pablo Villa, the 2025 Mozart 120k males’s winner. Photograph: Birgit Kramer
2026 Transvulcania Ultramarathon Girls’s Preview
Favorites for the Girls’s Win
The ladies’s elite entrant record is basically Spanish, however a handful of worldwide runners are anticipated to run on the entrance of the sphere.
Final 12 months’s runner-up, Ekaterina Mityaeva, who races as a impartial athlete, is the highest returning finisher from 2025. She completed final 12 months’s race in 8:36, 18 minutes behind the race winner. Mityaeva’s received a protracted historical past right here. She was third in 2021, fourth in 2024 and 2019, fifth in 2018, and seventh in 2017. Would possibly this be her 12 months to complete first? Extra not too long ago, she was second on the Chiangmai Thailand 100k on the finish of 2025, and third on the 2025 Mont Blanc 90k. We’ve but to see her on a race course in 2026.
Ekaterina Mityaeva ending second on the 2025 Transvulcania Ultramarathon. Photograph: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
It’s fairly uncommon for France’s Blandine L’Hirondel to complete off the rostrum. She was fourth on the 2025 CCC, gained the 2025 Diagonale des Fous, and gained the 2025 Mont Blanc 90k. Additional again, she gained the 2022 Path World Championships Lengthy Path in Thailand.
Blandine L’Hirondel, the 2025 Diagonale des Fous girls’s winner. Photograph courtesy of the race.
Two-time Transvulcania winner Emelie Forsberg is coming again. Swedish however residing in Norway, Forsberg gained in 2013 in 8:13 and once more in 2015 in 8:32. Although not racing usually lately, she tied for the win in a 33k race in Mallorca, Spain, in March 2026, and in 2025 she was third on the Mallorca 50k. How near her decade-plus-ago end instances can she get?
Emelie Forsberg operating within the mountains. Photograph: Philipp Reiter
Fan favourite Lucy Bartholomew from Australia was Tenth at this 12 months’s Tarawera 102k and twelfth there in 2025. Her massive efficiency final 12 months was a seventh-place end at UTMB, however she did so with a bum knee from a fall early within the race. The 12 months earlier than at UTMB, she snuck into the highest 10 with a Tenth-place end. A steadfast performer, Bartholomew must be in all of it race.
Lucy Bartholomew through the 2025 UTMB. Photograph: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
Sarah Biehl broke a longstanding JFK 50 Mile course report in 2022, and it’s nonetheless the race’s third-fastest time ever, however the American hasn’t adopted it up with a lot different breakout extremely success. Biehl was sixth on the 2025 Canyons 100k, however has had fairly a number of drops lately, too, together with at this 12 months’s Chuckanut 50k. She was sixth on the Canyons 50k in late April 2026.
Sarah Biehl setting a course report on the 2022 JFK 50 Mile. Photograph: Daniel Kauffman/Herald-Mail Media
Extra Quick Girls
Impartial runner Anastasia Davydova will go up in distance after final 12 months’s fourth-place run on the Transvulcania Marathon. She’s raced lengthy programs earlier than, although, and gained final 12 months’s Puglia 140k and was fourth on the Mont Blanc 90k.
France’s Céline Finas was third on the 2024 TDS, eighth on the occasion in 2022, and gained it in 2021. She raced Transvulcania again in 2019.
Céline Finas, the 2025 Path Verbeier St. Bernard 87 Mile girls’s winner. Photograph: UTMB World Sequence
Spain’s Azara García is a veteran of the sport. She dropped right here final 12 months, was eighth in 2024, and was second on the occasion’s Half Marathon means again in 2014. She most not too long ago dropped on the Penyagolosa MiM race in Spain in April.
Azara García, on her approach to profitable the 2023 Marathon del Meridiano. Photograph: Marathon del Meridiano
Julie Lesage of Canada has raced principally in her dwelling nation however was third on the Istria 110k in 2025.
In 2023, Daniela Oemus from Germany gained the Zegama Marathon. She was sixth on the Path Operating World Championships Quick Path and fifth at OCC that very same 12 months. A 12 months later, she was seventh at Zegama and dropped at OCC.
Virginia Perez from Spain dropped on the massive CCC stage in each 2025 and 2024 however was fourth on the Extremely Pirineu 100k in 2024 and second on the Lavaredo Extremely Path 80k that very same 12 months.
Virginia Perez, 2018 Matterhorn Ultraks champion. Photograph: Skyrunner World Sequence
Mireia Pons has raced throughout her Spanish dwelling nation. She was second on the 2026 Marathon Costa Brava race, third on the 2025 Penyagolosa Path MiM, and fifth on the 2025 Tenerife Bluetrail 47k.
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