The athletes most likely expected the Trail Long over 86.9 kilometers with 6,500 meters of ascent and 6,970 meters of descent to be a tough one. But that tough? Medals that were believed to be won were lost along the way, and lonely athletes were able to hold their own for a long time until the difficulty of the route, cramps and the heat threw a spanner in the works. “I felt good and already envisioned Gold,” as Andreas Reiterer puts it.
After leading the race over long periods of time, the Italian had to let go of his dream of Gold in favor of 23-year-old Frenchman Benjamin Roubiol, who was the first to cross the finish line in Innsbruck - to great jubilation. “I was completely exhausted, but I pushed myself to at least get the silver medal,” says Reiterer - and he managed to persevere, crossing the finish line 7:47 minutes behind the winner, wrapped in an Italian flag. Behind him, Slovakia's Peter Frano was the next one to finish the race, with a deficit of 9:11 minutes on Roubiol. He found the course to be hard. “I’ll probably only realize what this medal actually means sometime tomorrow,” Peter Frano says.
As the supreme discipline in trail running, the Trail Long was one of the highlights of the WMTRC. In glorious sunshine and corresponding temperatures, the athletes first ran a loop up the Stubaital valley before making their way into high-alpine terrain and on towards Innsbruck. Long races like these are made to show whose strategy works best and who still needs to make adjustments. The wrong carbohydrates can make a decisive difference. In other cases it can be the heat that leads to problems, sucking so much salt out of the body that the calves and thighs start to cramp up.
The men’s race was not the only one seeing a lone leader up ahead. Among the ladies, Marcela Vašínová from Czechia dominated for the first part. She lost her respectable lead when her pursuer, German Katharina Hartmuth, caught up with her. The two ran side by side for a few minutes, exchanging views on how the race had gone so far, as Hartmuth later mentioned in an interview before adding that she didn’t, however, apologize to her opponent Vašínová for overtaking her.
The tables were turned when Marion Delespierre caught up with Katharina Hartmuth on the climb to the Aspach hut. She could not keep up with the high pace of the strong Frenchwoman. In the end, Hartmuth came in second, securing Silver. She was followed by Manon Bohard Cailler, another French who, after crossing the finish line, said that she was pleasantly surprised to have come third. “I really enjoyed the race because it was so technical,” she says. Her teammate Delespierre didn’t see her success coming either. ”I just wanted what was best for my team,” she said. She definitely succeeded: The French women’s team secured Gold in the team classification, even though the defending champion Blandine L'Hirondel had to give up after the first loop of the Stubaital valley in Neustift.
The athletes agree: This race truly deserves the title World Championship competition. Another thing they agree on is the fantastic atmosphere that met them everywhere along the route and on the home stretch. “Innsbruck did a great job,” said Andreas Reiterer, who is exemplary for many. With thunderous applause, waving flags and cheers, crowds of spectators greeted their stars at the finish line or motivated them to keep going along the routes. Reiterer, who lives in a small town with a population of 700, says that at least 300 of those were present today. The energy was palpable.
