The Ultra Trail World Tour has its fifth event of the season on the beautiful Portuguese island of Madeira. Its not an island renowned for its beaches but it does have plenty of mountains and an incredible network of trails and ‘levadas’ covering 1,500km. The Madeira Island Ultra Trail now in its 8th edition will see runners traversing the island from North West to South East for a total of 115kms and 6,850M of ascent, that’s 60M of ascent every kilometre!
Defending champions Luis Fernandes (14:36:19) and Ester Alves (18:43:08) are up against very strong fields and they will both have to be on their ‘A’ game to come away with the win. Here’s our run down of the top contenders in the men’s and women’s races.
Race Details
April 23 – 00:00 start time – Porto Moniz
Madeira Island Ultra Trail
| Men’s Race | ||
| Zach Miller | USA | Races hard and loves it the harder it gets. Will be the one to beat. 1st TNF 50 2015, 1st CCC 2015, 5th Transvulcania 2015. |
| Luis Fernandes | Portugal | Defending champion who has home advantage and intimate knowledge of the course. |
| Iker Karrera | Spain | Leading contender of the several top Spanish runners and a podium place for sure. 5th Diagonal des Fous 2015, 8th Hardrock 2015, 2nd UTMB 2014 |
| Tofol Castanyer | Spain | Strong racer and top three if on form. 3rd UTMB 2014, 4th Transvulcania 2014, 4th TNF 50 2014, 1st CCC 2012, |
| Antoine Guillon | France | Strong determined runner and likely to be top three. 1st Diagonal des Fous 2015, 3rd Transgrancanaria 2015, 3rd Vibram HK 2015, 9th MDS 2015. 3rd Tor des Geants 2014 |
| Pau Capell Gil | Spain | In form and can go the distance. Will be looking for another podium place. 3rd Transgrancanaria 2016, 4th Vibram HK 2016 |
| Miguel Heras | Spain | Undoubtedly a strong runner but has not been in form recently. 2nd UTMB 2013 |
| Christophe Le Saux | France | Tough competitor who came 13th at Trangrancanaria 83KM race in early March. 7th Eiger ultra 2015, MDS 9th, 10th and 7th in 2013 to 2015 respectively. |
| Cyril Cointre | France | 10th Tarawera 2016, 5th Transgrancanaria 2015, 4th Vibram HK 2015. 9th Lavaredo 2014. |
| Sebastien Camus | France | 2nd Diagonal des Fous 2015 |
| Jordi Gamito | Spain | 6th Vibram HK 2016, 10th Transgrancanaria 2016, 6th Diagonal des Fous 2015. |
| Fabien Antolinos | France | 6th UTMB 2015 |
| Sange Sherpa | Nepal | 4th Eiger Ultra 2016, 8th UTMF 2015 |
| Jordi Bes Ginesta | Spain | 1st CCC 2013 |
| Fulvio Dapit | Italy | |
| Women’s Race | ||
| Caroline Chaverot | France | Fresh from winning Transgrancanaria in early March and this distance in her sweetspot. 1st Lavaredo 2015, 2nd TGC 2015, 1st Eiger Ultra 2015. Loves to lead out from the start and stretch the field early on. Clear favorite. |
| Andrea Huser | Switzerland | 2nd place at Transgrancanaria in early March. Prolific racer and always in top ten shape. Expect Huser to make the podium and if Chaverot is not on form to take the win. 2nd Eiger Ultra 2015, 7th Lavaredo 2015, 4th TGC 2015, 7th UTMB 2014. |
| Emilie Lecomte | France | Podium place. 2nd place Diagonal des Fous in 2015. 7th Eiger Ultra 2015, 1st Tor des Geants 2014. |
| Ester Alves | Portugal | Home favorite and defending champion – winner of Madeira Island Ultra in 2015. A solid racer but will have to race hard here to make the podium. 6th TGC 2015, 7th Transvulcania 2015, 7th Laveredo 2014. |
| Lucinda Sousa | Portugal | 7th place at Transgrancanaria in early March. Home favourite with Alves. |
| Juliette Blanchet | France | 2nd place Diagonal des Fous 2014. |
| Melanie Rousset | France | 9th place at UTMB 2015, 5th place at Diagonal des Fous 2014, 6th Diagonal des Fous 2013. |
