Christian Allen and Anna Gibson handle gale force conditions to win mountain race as Kilian Jornet is 23rd
Broken Arrow tore up the script for this year’s Ascent Race. The eyes of the world were on Kilian Jornet (NNormal) taking on this race from the valley floor to the summit of Washeshu Peak at 2708m, climbing its way up 914m over 4.8km. But the weather system and the men’s field had another plan in mind.
Despite a beautiful blue sky day in Palisades Tahoe, Olympic Valley, there were gale force winds at the summit of Washeshu Peak, so the decision was taken to reroute the race to finish at KT22 at 2,458m. This made it around 3km with approximately 660m of ascent. Would this change play to the advantage of some runners over others?
Despite the changes, the race maintained some steep and technical sections. Starting in its usual place it immediately hit the grass section and then the gradient quickly ramped up. Once they topped out on the grass section and hit the dirt road the climbing didn’t let up, and then came the singletrack, which took them all the way up to ridge and a merciful bit of downhill before hitting the summit. Short and sharp with the runners redlining all the way.
The race
Both the men’s and women’s fields were stacked with US and international athletes. Last year’s women’s winner, Joyce Njeru (NNormal) was on the start line, alongside last year’s runner-up Anna Gibson (Brooks) and third-placed Allie McLaughlin (HOKA). But there was also an incredibly deep US field due to the race acting as the US trial for the World Championships.
Similarly the men’s field had an incredible array of US talent, such as former world champion Joseph Gray (HOKA), Christian Allen (Nike), who we saw with some breakthrough performances in last year’s World Cup, and Olympic Skimo hopeful Cam Smith (Dynafit). In addition there were strong international athletes like Philemon Kiriago (Run2Gether/On) of Kenya and German Lukas Ehrle (ASICS). And obviously Jornet.
The men’s and women’s races started together and it was no surprise to see a small group of men break off the front as they headed up the grass section. It was also no surprise at all to see Jornet and Gray in that group, alongside Allen, Tyler McCandless and David Sinclair once they emerged onto the road section.
For the women there was a clear leader early on and that was Gibson. But she was being chased hard by Njeru, Jade Belzberg (Altra) and young America Sydney Petersen, who finished top 10 in last year’s Skyrace. With the shorter course it was really anybody’s guess as to how it would shake out.
One thing that people wouldn’t have predicted was Jornet backing right off the pace and dropping back in the field. He didn’t feature in the latter stages of the race and afterwards he cited stomach issues from travelling as the reason he couldn’t push as he wanted. It was Allen who opened a gap and successfully held off Gray’s challenges to take the win in 23.49, with Gray runner-up in 24.12.
Cam Smith held on to take a close third in 24.24. The top six men were all from the US, with Kiriago the top international runner in seventh.
Gibson could not be caught in the women’s race, no matter how hard Njeru and Belzberg tried. She eventually stretched out a strong lead and took the win in 27.32, almost catching Jornet on the line. Njeru ran a very strong race, as we see week in, week out in the World Cup, and took second in 29.06. Belzberg was a close third in 29.23. In fifth, astonishingly, was 12 year-old running prodigy Pema Franchi Antelme of Ecuador.
We don’t have to wait long for the next stage of the World Cup. On Sunday it’s the 23km Skyrace, stage six of this year’s World Mountain Running Cup.
