There’s not anything rather just like the UTMB Mont Blanc competition week, and the 2023 CCC is the overall lead-up to the massive dance. Racers, numbering 2,406 this yr, took off from Courmayeur, Italy, on Friday, September 1 at 9:15 a.m. to hide 101 kilometers (63 miles) and roughly 6,100 meters (20,000 ft) of elevation achieve.
The path, getting into the wrong way from the TDS, which runs previous within the week, strains a sinuous trail in the course of the mountains, paying a discuss with to Champex-Lac, Switzerland, and completing on the hub of the week’s festivities, Chamonix, France. Incessantly used as a stepping stone for racers eyeing UTMB one day, it’s all the time a aggressive race on each the lads’s and girls’s aspect, and this yr used to be no exception. Like the opposite races this week, the CCC used to be run on a quite changed path, however the trade didn’t have an effect on its distance or vertical achieve.
You’ll additionally take a look at extra effects from the week’s UTMB Mont Blanc competition:
2023 CCC Males’s Race
Jonathan Albon (U.Ok.) ran away with the highest honors at this yr’s CCC by means of executing what gave the look to be a measured and well-planned race technique. Completing 2nd within the race in 2022, he had the data of what he had to do to win it. Lurking within the best 10 early within the race, Albon appeared content material to bide his time. But if it used to be time to move, no person used to be ready to stick with him.
Albon pulled clear of the remainder of the sector no longer simplest by means of working quicker, however by means of being extremely environment friendly within the help stations. He took on all of his diet and liquid whilst nonetheless status, refusing to sit down down and waste any time. Even in a race this lengthy, every 2nd counts. Excessive of the overall climb at Los angeles Flégère, he used to be 5 mins transparent of his subsequent competitor. Identified for his descending, Albon by no means regarded again and completed with a time of 10:14:25.
Jia-Sheng Shen (China) got here closest to matching Albon’s tempo to complete 2nd, an important development over his fourth-place end within the race in 2022. Shen supposed trade from the get-go and took the race out speedy. He led for far of the time till Albon’s unrelenting tempo merely turned into an excessive amount of. He completed just below 10 mins again with a time of 10:22:30.
Dakota Jones enjoys the completing directly on his solution to completing 3rd. All footage: UTMB
The American contingent rounded out the remainder of the highest six, with Dakota Jones taking the overall podium spot with a time of 10:41:40. Jonathan Rea used to be shut in the back of with a time of 10:43:51, and Drew Holmen got here in only a few mins again with a time of 10:47:49. Seth Ruhling got here in at 10:55:14.
2023 CCC Males’s Effects
- Jonathan Albon (U.Ok.) – 10:14:25
- Jia-Sheng Shen (China) – 10:22:30
- Dakota Jones (U.S.) – 10:41:40
- Jonathan Rea (U.S.) – 10:43:51
- Drew Holmen (U.S.) – 10:47:49
- Seth Ruhling (U.S.) – 10:55:14
- Peter Fraňo (Slovakia) – 10:59:52
- Luke Grenfell-Shaw (U.Ok.) – 11:00:41
- Baptiste Petitjean (France) – 11:08:47
- Rodrigo Monasor Romero (Spain) – 11:08:55
The 2023 CCC males’s podium (l-to-r): 2. Jia-Sheng Shen, 1. Jonathan Albon, and three. Dakota Jones.
2023 CCC Ladies’s Race
It used to be natural dominance from Yngvild Kaspersen (Norway) within the girls’s race this yr. Completing thirtieth final yr should were a finding out enjoy that she put to excellent use this time round. From early within the race, she held a cast hole on her closest competition. At Champex-Lac, 53 kilometers into the race, she used to be already 20 mins up, and the distance simplest persisted to develop. She completed in 11:51:22, just about 40 mins up at the subsequent girl.
The 2023 CCC girls’s champion, Yngvild Kaspersen, coming down the completing chute.
Emily Hawgood (Zimbabwe, lives within the U.S.) is not any stranger to the UTMB Mont Blanc competition occasions, and her 2nd position right here with a time of 12:28:19 confirmed that she’s simplest proceeding to give a boost to. She completed 6th final yr at UTMB and tenth in 2021. She’s additionally probably the most many people who find themselves opting for to double up a UTMB competition tournament with the Western States 100 previous within the yr. She completed an excellent 5th in that jaunt in the course of the California mountains, a far other atmosphere from the CCC path, appearing that she’s a flexible runner who can deal with many stipulations.
The race for the overall spot at the podium got here right down to a combat between Helen Mino Faukner (U.S.) and Hau Ha Thi (Vietnam). With simply the slightest of margins, the American used to be ready to carry on to 3rd with a time of 12:38:05. Thi completed simply 23 seconds in the back of.
The North American contingent had a robust appearing in the second one part of the highest 10. Emily Schmitz, Emmiliese Von Avis, and Tara Fraga, the entire U.S., landed within the best 10, as did Arden Younger of Canada.
2023 CCC Ladies’s Effects
- Yngvild Kaspersen (Norway) – 11:51:22
- Emily Hawgood (Zimbabwe) – 12:28:19
- Helen Mino Faukner (U.S.) – 12:38:05
- Hau Ha Thi (Vietnam) – 12:38:28
- Emily Schmitz (U.S.) – 12:42:24
- Audrey Tanguy (France) – 12:42:37
- Mari Klakegg Fenre (Norway) – 12:47:30
- Emmiliese Von Avis (U.S.) – 12:53:53
- Tara Fraga (U.S.) – 13:10:03
- Arden Younger (Canada) – 13:11:15
The 2023 CCC girls’s best 4 (l-to-r): 2. Emily Hawgood, 1. Yngvild Kaspersen, 3. Helen Mino Faukner, and four. Hau Ha Thi.
