Rémy Brassac and Sarah Vieuille win a cold, wet TDS from Courmayeur to Chamonix
Brassac passed Clovis Chaverot in the Beaufortain and won by 45 minutes in 19:28:43; Vieuille led from the first checkpoint and was ninth overall in 22:08:16.
Photograph: Sarah Vieuille racing Transvulcania on La Palma in 2017, by Alexis Martín, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsThe TDS started at ten to midnight on Monday in Courmayeur and finished on Tuesday in Chamonix, and the French took both races. Rémy Brassac won in 19:28:43 and Sarah Vieuille in 22:08:16, ninth overall.
The course runs clockwise around the back of the massif through the Beaufortain, about 150 km with around 9,500 m of climbing depending on whose measurement you take, and it is the most technical of the week. The first night brought cold rain and fog with temperatures near freezing on the passes. Of 1,290 starters, 715 finished.
Three Frenchmen went off the front together. Louison Coiffet, the pre-race favourite and Mont Blanc 90k winner in June, led over the Col Chavannes and then stopped at Bourg-Saint-Maurice around 51 km. Clovis Chaverot, in his longest race, then led for close to 100 km and was 13 minutes up at Beaufort. Brassac caught and passed him on the technical ground of the Beaufortain, had 24 minutes by about 115 km, and was the only one of the three to reach Chamonix. Pierre-Adrien Hivert was second in 20:14:26 and Nicolas Court third in 20:56:52.
Vieuille, fourth at the Diagonale des Fous last year, led the women from the first checkpoint and was 39 minutes clear at Beaufort. Alice Meignié closed some of it late and was second in 22:30:29, with Alyssa Clark of the United States third in 22:54:19.
Nearly half the field did not finish. The TDS is the race of the week that does not care about your ranking.
Sources: iRunFar; Carreras de Montaña; Cimalp.
