The story of the 2025 UTMB is one we’ll all keep in mind, the place Tom Evans (pre-race interview) and Ruth Croft (pre-race interview) weathered each stormy situations and deep competitors to develop into this 12 months’s champions.
When it had all performed out within the males’s race, Evans took off his sun shades, raised his proper hand for his signature salute, and yanked the end line tape, roaring. With that gesture, it was official: Evans, the British runner returning after two straight DNFs, had gained the 2025 UTMB in 19:18:58, overcoming among the wettest and coldest situations the race has seen because it started greater than 20 years in the past.
“I’ve had two DNFs within the final two years, after which to take the victory right now, hoping it proves to everybody that should you put your thoughts to it, then something is achievable,” Evans stated within the post-race interview over the loudspeaker close to the end line, minutes after he had gained. The group cheered.
Tom Evans, 2025 UTMB champion. Photograph: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
The group was nonetheless cheering about half-hour later when Ben Dhiman (pre-race interview), an American residing in France, capped his personal signature efficiency with a second-place end in 19:51:37. The U.Ok.’s Josh Wade used a powerful second half of the race to return by way of in third in 20:05:06 to place two Brits on the rostrum.
Within the girls’s race, New Zealand’s Croft, a grasp tactician, utilized her astute pacing to take management of the race round two-thirds of the best way by way of. She gained in 22:56:23, bettering on her second-place end from final 12 months and cementing herself as one of many high runners within the sport. She now has wins within the triumvirate of UTMB races: OCC in 2019, CCC in 2015, and now the large loop.
France’s Camille Bruyas (pre-race interview), who battled with Croft for a big a part of the race, completed second in 23:28:48, whereas Germany’s Katharina Hartmuth capped a powerful second half to take third in 24:16:39. Pre-race favourite Courtney Dauwalter (pre-race interview) pale late however managed to complete, whereas the race for the again half of the ladies’s high 10 was the closest of the day.
Ruth Croft arriving to sunlight on the second day of working through the 2025 UTMB. Photograph: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
All of them had been among the many practically 2,500 runners to begin the race virtually a day earlier, at 5:45 p.m. native time in Chamonix, France, on Friday, August 29. The duty earlier than all of them was to run the largest race on the ultrarunning calendar that circumnavigates Mont Blanc within the Alps, infamous for its elevation profile and technicality and well-known for its competitiveness and resplendent surroundings.
This 12 months’s preliminary course was 178 kilometers (108 miles) with virtually 10,000 meters (32,500 ft) of elevation achieve, traversing by way of three nations — France, Italy, and Switzerland — and beginning and ending in Chamonix. Along with the everyday challenges of finishing a 100-plus-mile race, runners this 12 months needed to battle driving rain, wind, and even snow by way of the night time. The course was modified within the Italian part, the place the technical Pyramides Calcaires ascent and descent had been eliminated as a result of storm, shortening the course by about two kilometers and 200 meters of elevation, saving the leaders roughly 20 to half-hour of run time.
“I feel we had been blessed with very British climate,” Evans stated in a separate interview after the end. “The snow, rain, after which a bit of warmth on the finish.”
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The beginning of the 2025 UTMB. Photograph: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
2025 UTMB Males’s Race
The U.Ok.’s Tom Evans (pre-race interview) entered the Arnouvaz assist station at 102 kilometers (62 miles) like a person on a mission. Evans, who completed third on the 2022 UTMB and gained CCC in 2018, stopped briefly to fill his bottle with cola earlier than heading again out into the moist night time. He had been working with the leaders for your entire race, however between Refuge Bertone at 89k and Arnouvaz, he handed early race tempo pusher Théo Detienne (France) to take a lead he wouldn’t relinquish.
Final 12 months, Evans battled hydration and vitamin points earlier than dropping late within the race. This 12 months, he seemingly adhered to his pre-race plan of staying affected person.
“With a purpose to get to the enjoyable bit, you’ve acquired to undergo the ‘pleased to let individuals go’ and simply hike a bit of bit, and simply maintain fueling, and maintain hydrated,” Evans stated in his pre-race interview. “Figuring out that truly the race will get actually enjoyable from high of Grand Col Ferret, and it’s then truly enjoyable. And also you then assume, Oh, that is why I do the game. Fairly than sitting on a rock simply earlier than you get to Bertone considering, Why do I do that sport?”
It was at Grand Col Ferret that Evans made his definitive transfer. Ben Dhiman (pre-race interview) — who got here by way of Arnouvaz shortly after Evans, trying extra informal as he took some soup — stated that he and Evans, teammates for Asics Europe, had been working collectively however that he couldn’t match Evans’ climb at this level.
The U.Ok.’s Tom Evans climbing over the course excessive level at Grand Col Ferret in a storm through the 2025 UTMB. Photograph: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
It was a manifestation of Evans’ coaching block for this race, which centered on lengthy repetitions of heavy uphill work. He spent the final two months in France and stated a typical exercise was working with a weighted pack up a climb, hiding it in a tree, after which working down and again up with out the pack.
“I needed to go by myself and type of be this mountain monk,” stated Evans, who lately turned a father and ran in a hat together with his daughter’s title, Phoebe, written on the within.
What nobody may have actually ready for was the climate: a chilly, moist, windy slog by way of the night time hours that made viewers of the livestream grateful for his or her heat beds.
“It threw every part at you,” Evans stated. “In path working, you want an enormous toolbox and plenty of good instruments in your toolbox, and UTMB this 12 months, you wanted every part to have the ability to run quick, hike in mud, do snow, do rain, take care of your self within the massive mountains. This 12 months, it was simply every part.”
The U.S.’s Ben Dhiman within the later levels of the 2025 UTMB, on his technique to ending second. Photograph: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
Profitable UTMB after two straight DNFs and three months after turning into a father was particularly gratifying.
“I feel it’s proof that you may’t fail, you possibly can simply be taught out of your errors,” Evans stated. “It’d take one, it would take two, however I’m extremely proud to have discovered from my errors and executed a extremely good race and profitable the largest and most stunning path race on this planet.” Certainly, Tom Evans gained probably the most aggressive path extremely in 19:18:58.
For Dhiman, who had additionally DNFed the final two years at this race, it was an identical redemption story. Dhiman, an American who lives and trains within the French Pyrenees, had comparable vitamin and hydration points within the historic warmth of final 12 months’s race and vowed to run a special race.
Théo Detienne of France was one of many individuals’s favorites all race. After serving to to set the lads’s race tempo for lengthy components of the primary half, he ultimately dropped. Photograph: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
“I feel particularly this 12 months, we don’t have Kilian [Jornet] or Jim [Walmsley], so all people’s saying, ‘Effectively, who’s going to step up?’” Dhiman stated in his pre-race interview. I hope all of us sort of step up and behave with some maturity right here. But when not, I’m going to definitely try and run a wiser race than I did final 12 months.”
Mission completed for Dhiman, who ran with the lead group for the primary half of the race earlier than breaking away with Evans after Arnouvaz. He couldn’t fairly match Evans’ legs for the final half after Grand Col Ferret however nonetheless broke the legendary 20-hour mark. Ben Dhiman crossed the end line to take second in 19:51:37.
Detienne, who gained this 12 months’s Mont-Blanc 90k, had taken the lead at La Combal at 72k, after serving to to push the tempo within the distance earlier than that, and regarded pleased to be main at Courmayeur, the unofficial midway level of the race. He was amongst a pack of leaders within the center components of the race that included Evans, Dhiman, Jonathan Albon — a British runner residing in Norway — and Frenchmen Aurélien Dunand-Pallaz and Germain Grangier (pre-race interview). By Arnouvaz, although, he regarded extra fatigued, working in third behind Evans and Dhiman earlier than being handed by a number of others and ultimately dropping at Trient at kilometer 145.
Aurélien Dundand-Pallaz pushed the tempo within the early miles of the 2025 UTMB. The Frenchman dropped from the race after midway. Photograph: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
Different notable drops had been pre-race favourite France’s François D’Haene (pre-race interview), who was looking for to develop into the primary five-time winner of UTMB, at Lac Combal at 72k; Albon, who was among the many high 5 for practically the entire race earlier than dropping at Champex-Lac at 128k; Grangier, who took third in 2023, at La Fouly at 1146; American Hayden Hawks (pre-race interview), who had knee surgical procedure in late spring, at Les Chapieux round 52k; and Kiwi Dan Jones at Courmayeur at 84k.
Three-time UTMB champion François D’Haene firstly of the 2025 race. He ultimately dropped 72 kilometers into the race with a leg harm. Photograph: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
Josh Wade, who dropped from the 2023 race earlier than ending eleventh final 12 months, was among the many many who took benefit. Wade ran among the many high 10 for almost all of the primary half of the race earlier than methodically transferring his manner into podium competition: At Arnouvaz, he was seventh, by Grand Col Ferret, he was sixth, at La Fouly, not lengthy after, he was fifth, after which by Champex-Lac, he was third, a place he wouldn’t relinquish. Josh Wade took third in 20:05:06.
The U.Ok.’s Josh Wade was a darkish horse choose for a lot of. After working within the again half of the lads’s high 10 within the first half of the race, he moved up later to take second. Photograph: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
China’s Ji Duo, who like Evans and Dhiman DNFed final 12 months, had an especially robust final 70k to maneuver from Tenth at La Fouly to a fourth-place end in 20:15:05, whereas France’s Thibaut Garrivier used an identical strategy to complete fifth in 20:20:25.
China’s Ji Duo had a unbelievable second-half efficiency to take fourth on the 2025 UTMB. Photograph: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
The ageless Ludovic Pommeret (pre-race interview), lower than two months after profitable the Hardrock 100 for the second 12 months in a row, picked off runners within the second half of the race — due to course he did — to complete sixth in 20:40:34.
There was an in depth race for the final 4 spots of the highest 10. The following 4 runners — France’s Yannick Noël, China’s Jia-Sheng Shen, American Rod Farvard, and China’s Jia-Ju Zhao — all got here inside 17 minutes of each other. All of them used affected person approaches — Farvard’s late surge introduced him from twenty third at La Courmayeur to a ninth-place end — in a 12 months that rewarded them. Early tempo pusher Dunand-Pallaz finally crossed the road in twentieth place.
France’s Ludovic Pommeret, age 50 years younger, took sixth on the 2025 UTMB after pacing sensible all race and weathering the storms. Photograph: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
2025 UTMB Males’s Outcomes
- Tom Evans (Asics) – 19:18:58 (pre-race interview)
- Ben Dhiman (Asics) – 19:51:37 (pre-race interview)
- Josh Wade (The North Face) – 20:05:06
- Ji Duo (Hoka) – 20:15:05
- Thibaut Garrivier (Hoka) – 20:20:25
- Ludovic Pommeret (Hoka) – 20:40:34 (pre-race interview)
- Yannick Noël (Inov8) – 21:03:41
- Jia-Sheng Shen (The North Face) – 21:11:59
- Rod Farvard (Hoka) – 21:18:24
- Jia-Ju Zhao (Kailas Fuga) – 21:19:47
Tom Evans, 2025 UTMB males’s champion, earlier than the beginning. Photograph: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
2025 UTMB Girls’s Race
Kiwi Ruth Croft (pre-race interview), who used a powerful second half of the race to end second behind course document holder Katie Schide final 12 months, took classes from final 12 months to enhance on her efficiency this time round.
All smiles, she gave high-fives and hugs to the gang close to the end chute earlier than lifting the tape to cap a career-defining achievement.
“I knew if I needed to have an opportunity of doing nicely, I wanted to begin a bit extra aggressively than I did final 12 months,” Croft stated within the post-race interview on the end line. “After which as quickly because it began to get chilly, I knew that I simply wanted to outlive the night time, so I backed off fairly a bit and simply made certain that I used to be attempting to remain as heat as attainable. After which as quickly as day broke, I used to be capable of begin transferring a bit higher.”
Croft relied on her expertise earlier this 12 months to assist her keep heat by way of the chilly, moist, and windy night time hours.
“I DNFed Transvulcania from hypothermia in Could, so that actually helped me for the situations final night time,” she stated, laughing.
New Zealand’s Ruth Croft at Lac Combal, 72 kilometers into the 2025 UTMB. Regardless of an evening of storms, she emerged robust to steer the race’s last third and win. Photograph: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
She had an identical smile when she took the lead earlier than Champex-Lac at 129 kilometers, practically 16 hours into the race. It was nicely gained: She had been battling with France’s Camille Bruyas (pre-race interview) and the U.S.’s Courtney Dauwalter (pre-race interview) for almost all of the race as much as that time.
Up till Lac Combal at 72k, Croft was working in both second or third behind Bruyas and Dauwalter, and by Arnouvaz at 102k, she was greater than 17 minutes behind Dauwalter’s lead and about seven behind Bruyas.
Courtney Dauwalter main the race early. She would lead the race till after 120 kilometers, earlier than falling again within the discipline. Photograph: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
However she stored plugging away, chipping into the lead: 12 minutes again at Grand Col Ferret at 107k, eight minutes again coming down the descent, and within the lead by 129k. For Croft, who’s identified for her tactical racing methods, this was a grasp class in pacing.
By 142k, Croft had constructed an 11-minute lead over Bruyas, and it solely grew from there. After a centered — and mercifully dry — last 30k, Ruth Croft crossed the end line to win in 22:56:23.
“I simply wish to try to enhance on final 12 months,” Croft stated in her pre-race interview, usually understated. That, in fact, can be onerous to do, provided that she completed second final 12 months, however she did it nonetheless.
Camille Bruyas, who was returning to UTMB for the primary time since her second-place end in 2021, would finally take second once more in 23:28:48. It’s one other robust 100-mile race so as to add to her checklist of robust second-place finishes: the Hardrock 100, Diagonale des Fous, and now UTMB twice.
Like Croft, Bruyas put herself within the combine early. She was fourth behind Dauwalter, Croft, and Katarzyna Dombrowska (Poland) from 45k to 72k, however by Courmayeur, she had handed Croft and Dombrowska to maneuver into second, simply over six minutes behind Dauwalter.
She misplaced some floor over the following two assist stations however remained in second. By Grand Col Ferret, she was 9 minutes behind Dauwalter and commenting on the great climate, which by that time featured blowing snow.
Camille Bruyas ran robust all the 2025 UTMB to take second for the second time, following up on her comparable 2021 efficiency. Photograph: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
Dauwalter discovered herself in a well-known place within the early morning on Saturday: main deep right into a 100-mile race. She had led the race from 45k all the best way till La Fouly at 116k, trying pleased and centered all through. At Courmayeur, she was greeted by cheers and was main the race in 9:32 elapsed.
Within the kilometers that adopted, although, Croft and Bruyas started to chip into her lead, and within the 13k between La Fouly and Champex-Lac, each had handed her.
Camille Bruyas ending in second on the 2025 UTMB. Photograph: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
By Trient at 147k, she was the primary lady to stroll the descent and stopped to hug her nephew. That smiling-through-the-suffering mentality epitomized her last 30k of the race, when she was visibly struggling, particularly on the descents, however nonetheless wore a smile and clapped for her legions of followers.
“It was a privilege to get to race towards her lastly,” Croft stated. “She’s the G.O.A.T. At all times has been and all the time might be.”
Ruth Croft, 2025 UTMB champion. Photograph: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
Katharina Hartmuth, a German residing in Switzerland who completed second at UTMB in 2023, overcame an injury-riddled final two years, plus a disappointing (for her) third-place end at this 12 months’s Hardrock 100, to place in a powerful efficiency at UTMB. At 52k, she was in ninth, however by Refuge Bertone at 89k, she was in fifth. She’d stay in that spot till 129k, the place she was cracking jokes and had halved her hole to the fourth-place Lucy Bartholomew (Australia). By 142k, she had handed Bartholomew to take fourth, trying centered, and by 165k, she had handed Dauwalter to get to 3rd. Katharina Hartmuth would end there, in third place in 24:16:39, for her second podium end on the race.
Katharina Hartmuth of Germany skilled challenges early within the 2025 UTMB, however surged within the race’s last segments to take third. Photograph: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
The race for the remainder of the highest 10 was fierce. At 165k, with about 13k to go, Anna Carlsson (Sweden), Bartholomew, Maëlle Deruaz (France), Magali Mellon (France), Claudia Tremps (Spain), and Lauren Puretz (U.S.) had been separated by solely 26 minutes. By Chamonix, all of them had handed Dauwalter, who completed in Tenth.
Spain’s Claudia Tremps at Lac Combal through the storms of the 2025 UTMB. Photograph: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
Ultimately, Carlsson, who DNFed at UTMB in 2021, held on for fourth in 24:39:42, whereas Deruaz handed Bartholomew in a late surge however couldn’t fairly catch Carlsson. She capped a formidable second half to complete fifth in 24:43:02.
The race for sixth was possibly the very best of the day: With solely 4 kilometers to go in a 178-kilometer race, Bartholomew and Mellon had been separated by just some seconds and appeared to race down the descent to Chamonix. It was Mellon who may push tougher within the last miles, ending sixth in 24:48:12 in solely her second-ever 100-mile race. Bartholomew was shut behind in 24:51:32 to enhance on final 12 months’s Tenth-place end.
Lucy Bartholomew early within the 2025 UTMB. She ran within the girls’s high 10 a lot of the race, working robust however struggling a knee harm in a fall that may ultimately restrict her efficiency. Photograph: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
Puretz took the honors of high American by ending eighth, simply over three minutes behind Bartholomew. Tremps, in ninth, accomplished her third top-10 end at UTMB in 25:05:07.
Like within the males’s race, among the pre-race girls’s favorites ran in competition for parts of the race, earlier than exiting, together with American Abby Corridor (pre-race interview), China’s Lin Chen (pre-race interview), and Dombrowska. Alternatively, different high runners just like the U.S.’s Heather Jackson and Zimbabwe’s Emily Hawgood (pre-race interview) had been nonetheless out on track on the publication of this text.
2025 UTMB Girls’s Outcomes
- Ruth Croft (adidas Terrex) – 22:56:23 (pre-race interview)
- Camille Bruyas (Salomon) – 23:28:48 (pre-race interview)
- Katharina Hartmuth (Hoka) – 24:16:39
- Anna Carlsson (Asics) – 24:39:42
- Maëlle Deruaz (Ardent Sports activities) – 24:43:02
- Magali Mellon (Inov8) – 24:48:12
- Lucy Bartholomew (Salomon) – 24:51:32
- Lauren Puretz – 24:54:57
- Claudia Tremps (On Working) – 25:05:07
- Courtney Dauwalter (Salomon) – 25:50:38 (pre-race interview)
Protection Thanks
Thanks a lot to the next people who helped iRunFar cowl this race: Tim Peeters; Deki Fourcin; Chloe Naquin; Hattie Owen; Fabrice and Tom Van De Cauter; Simon Mawby and Gina Atwood; Jeevan Lama; Luca Yannick; Florent Lesueur and Sofiia Gaitan Lesueur; Randy Gaylord; Monique Stuut; Kristyna Rihova; Sam Roelants; Casey Wyatt; Olivia Rissland; Marissa Harris; and Ellie Greenwood.
Ruth Croft (proper) and Camille Bruyas on the 2025 UTMB end line after ending first and second, respectively. Photograph: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
