The penultimate event in the Gran Canaria World Trail Majors series could hardly have had a better setting. On the north side of the Pyrenees, with Vielle-Aure as the epicentre, almost 8000 runners took part in the various races that make up the Gran Raid des Pyrenees. The longest and most demanding race at 160 km and almost 10,000 metres of elevation (plus another 10,000 metres of descent) was the one that counted towards the series that will be concluded in November in Cape Town, South Africa. Rémi Gillie and Anne Champagne took the 1500 points for victory in 2024, one of the most competitive GRP editions in its history.
Fast first few hours: Le Rohellec and Archambeau in the lead
The race started in the early hours of Friday morning, nearly 700 competitors set off on the Ultra 160, departing Vielle-Aure shortly before the sun rose over the horizon. Ahead of them, an adventure of almost 20 hours for the first to cross the line and 49 hours for the final finishers.
After a good warm up with not too much elevation, the runners had to face their first big challenge in the form of 1,500 metres of elevation in just over 14 kilometres. Each runner, trying not to waste energy, reached the third aid station at the base of the ski slopes of La Mongie, after 31 km and 2500 m of elevation gain, we saw Loan Le Rohellec (France, Esclops d’Azun) in the lead of the men’s race with a considerable distance of 8 minutes to Jan Gutermann (France) and Sangé Sherpa (Nepal, Kailas) in second and third almost tied. David Menanteau (France) was fourth, Rémi Gillie (France), fifth. The women’s race was led by Juliette Archambeau (France) with Anne Champagne (Canada, Salomon) close behind and Junyue Zheng (China, Kailas) in second and third, but it was a long way to go for all the runners and many things could happen before the finish.
Although there was no climb to the summit of the Pic du Midi du Bigorre, after 42 km is the highest point of the race at almost 2,400m. Going through the aid stations did not significantly alter the podium places with no one taking a longer break. The weather was pleasant at altitude, mostly clear with a low risk of rain forecast on Saturday, and given that for nearly 60 km the race is at an altitude above 1500 metres, the 28°C in Vielle-Aure was not feeling much cooler at altitude with runners using streams on route to cool off and additional hydration.
By the Hautacam aid station (65 km), one of the classic passes of the Tour de France, the gradients had become less steep, sometimes the terrain was more technical, sometimes more runnable, but the descent to the town of Villelongue (73-75 km) required a descent of 1200 metres to really test the legs, this would begin to clarify the positions. Loan Le Rohellec continued leading with a 10 minute gap to Jan Gutermann and 7 more over Rémi Gillie that was steadily climbing on the rankings. These were in the podium places but with almost a hundred kilometres to go a lot could still change. Sangé Sherpa was a couple minutes behind.
Second half: Rémi rules the roost!
From Villelongue, a long, long climb brings the runners to the second half of the race with +1500m. Aulian, at 100 km, again offered a similar leader group: Rémi Gillie was leading at this point, followed by Jan Gutermann who was 13 minutes behind and third was Sangé Sherpa running 27 minutes further back. Still with a chance and an opportunity were Maxime Jaouen (France) and Diego Zanardo (Italy, Scuola di Maratona Vittorio Veneto).
The area also known from the Tour de France of Luz-Ardiden involved another 1000 metres of descent and then an immediate climb of 700 metres in four kilometres: the course is undoubtedly a major crusher of runners. This would be the last aid station for the lead runners in daylight, headtorches would be turned on as darkness descended.
From this point onwards, constantly above 1,400 metres, the gradients are no longer excessive but the cumulative fatigue takes its toll on the runners, all the runners would have the challenge of darkness, and for some this was their first night of 2 as they challenged themselves for over 40 hours.
At 146.2 kilometres the runners reached the highest point of the race at 2465 metres and slowly descend to the coveted finish at Vielle-Aure at 791 metres above sea level.
Rémi Gillie arrived euphoric at the finish in a time of 24:39:12 as a worthy winner. A huge effort for Rémi who was rewarded with the victory in one of the favourite races of French trail/ultra runners and gets the 1500 points in the Gran Canaria World Trail Majors series. Declared that “I’m very tired, I have a bit of pain everywhere but I’m delighted and I’m super surprised by the result and it’s a bit of a dream come true. In the last kilometre I thought about my family I thought about everything we put in place and then here it is”.
After 64 minutes, Jan Gutermann crossed the finish line for second, exhausted, and Maxime Jaouen came through in third. Sangé Sherpa was fourth followed by Frenchmen Laurent Mendez, Guillaume Chaignon, Patxi Etcheverrigarray, Yves-Loup Fanton, Nicolas Firmin and David Leveille for the top 10.
Overwhelming victory for Anne Champagne in Gran Raid des Pyrenees 2024
With 75 km on their legs Juliette Archambeau remained leading with a considerable gap to Anne Champagne. Although Junyue Zheng and Aurélie Morisaux (France, Millet) may have looked like rivals for the win now they seem far from it. At the Luz Saunt Sauveur aid station (113 km) the gap was 37 minutes between Archembeau and Champagne. Was enough to Vielle-Aure?
It wasn’t. Only 13 km later the gap was down to 24. One aid station later Anne Champagne was more than an hour and a half ahead Archambeau that finally dropped out. The competitiviness between Champagne and Archambeau, and when this DNFed let the Canadian alone with more than two hours ahead the second, a comfortable lead but still many kilometres ahead, a fight with herself. Aurélie Morisaux took the third, far from Zheng and with some differences with the French Raxanne Auge and Yanid Arango. For the podium finishers was a huge time trail against themselves.
Anne Champagne was unopposed. With a solid performance, with no apparent signs of weakness, controlling rivals and her own strength, Champagne won the Grand Raid des Pyrenees 2024 with a time of 31:23:35 in an incredible effort that took its price as she had to be attended by doctors just after the race. But her performance in GRP and Quebec Mega Trail where she won, ties her to Courtney Dauwalter in the provisional ranking!
Following Champagne, the Chinese Junyue Zheng crossing the line 128 minutes behind grabbing important points that will make her climb to the third-fourth position overall tied with Kelsey Hogan. And third place went to Aurélie Morisaux 131 minutes behind followed by Celine Berecochea, Dorine Laulhé, Sarah Lostau, Yanid Arango (Colombia), Clara De Bortoli, Roxanne Auge and, finally, to close the top 10, Laura Breaux.
Other GRP results
Although much of the racing is still ongoing at the time of writing, of note are the victories of Tiago Vieira (Portugal, BigK) and Mylene da Costa Reis (France) in Tour du Néouvielle (43 km, +2400 m). In the Tour de la Géla (45 km, +3400 m) won Rachid El Morabity (Morocco, Raidlight) and Emilie Laboyrie (France, Lurbel). Emeline Oudet (France, Wise) and Alex Molin Pradel (France, Marmot Trail Running) in the Tour de Moudang (63 km, +3600 m). Marion Boudé (France) and Mathieu Colzato (France) were the winners in Tour des Lacs (planned 80 km, +5200 m) and, finally, the Tour des Cirques (121 km, +7400 m) were won by Quentin Camou Juncas (France) and Angélique Plaire (France). The Tour des Lacs had to be shortened to 60 km due to adverse weather conditions.
Full results
All the results can be found in this page.
A brief information about GRP can be found here and the official website is this. 2025 is not that far!
