Luis Alberto Hernando (post-race interview) and Anna Frost (post-race interview) found near-perfect days on the sharp rocks, up the steep climbs, and under the blue skies of the 2014 Transvulcania Ultramarathon as they became this year’s champions. With those wins, they take early leads in the Skyrunner Ultra Series, as well.
You can find our full play-by-play of the race as well as a collection of our pre-race interviews and previews on our Transvulcania Ultramarathon Live Coverage page.
As usual, we’ll be updating this article with additional results as well as links to Transvulcania-related articles, photo galleries, and race reports.
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2014 Transvulcania Ultramarathon Men’s Race
The races of Luis Alberto Hernando, Kilian Jornet (post-race interview), and Sage Canaday (post-race interview) played out with striking similarity to the 2013 Transvulcania Ultramarathon. The only difference was that Luis and Kilian switched final positions. The rest of their story–at least from the outside looking in–felt much the same.
Sage Canaday at El Reventón, 31.4k, holding a four minute lead in the race’s first half. All photos: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
First, there was Sage who broke away early and ran off the front of the main pack with a solid three minute lead by El Pilar, 24k. He could only hold that break until after El Reventón at 31k. In both this year and last year, he was caught and quickly passed by the tandem of Kilian and Luis. Once Kilian and Luis passed Sage, they would run together until after El Roque de los Muchachos (51k) and the massive late-race, sky-to-sea descent for which Transvulcania is known. Last year, Kilian made his move on Luis during this descent, but this year roles were reversed and Luis took control, building first seconds and later a couple minutes onto his lead, enough time so that he could comfortably finish with no Kilian in sight. Kilian seemed happy with second place in his first ultra of 2014.
Winner of the 2014 Transvulcania Ultramarathon, Luis Alberto Hernando.
Sage Canaday would lose most of his time to Luis and Kilian via that long descent. Once he made it back down to where the descent ends and the last six kilometers to the finish continues, he didn’t lose any more time to the lead men. Sage has said as long as he’s been running ultras that his weakness is descending, and he showed us again that this was the case. However, he ran strong in this stellar field to take third place at Transvulcania for the second straight year.
Kilian on the long descent from Roque de los Muchachos.
As for the rest of the top-10 men, about half of them were the strongest to emerge from the lead pack that formed by Los Canarios and was still largely together at 20 miles. Among those who thrived from this group included Tòfol Castanyer, who hung on for fourth place, sixth place Tom Owens, and tenth place Dakota Jones. After a hiatus from high-level racing, Tom Owens showed a strong return and Dakota Jones, though managing to stay inside the top 10, did not run to his potential today.
Timothy Olson looked like he was hurting for a good piece of today, but he persevered, running most of the morning in tenth, but moving up to eighth by the end of the race.
Today’s smart, breakout performances were run by Stephan Hugenschmidt, Manuel Merillas, and Pablo Villa. Each of these three was not in the men’s top 10 until after the halfway point, working their way up as others slowed.
2014 Transvulcania Ultramarathon Men’s Results
- Luis Alberto Hernando (adidas) – 6:55:41 (pre-race and post-race interviews)
- Kilian Jornet (Salomon) – 7:01:34 (pre-race and post-race interviews)
- Sage Canaday (Hoka One One) – 7:11:39 (post-race interview)
- Tòfol Castanyer (Salomon) – 7:23:56
- Stephan Hugenschmidt (Salomon) – 7:27:10
- Tom Owens (Salomon) – 7:31:15
- Manuel Merillas – 7:34:55
- Timothy Olson (The North Face) – 7:35:22 (pre-race interview)
- Pablo Villa (SCOTT) – 7:36:12
- Dakota Jones (Montrail) – 7:42:35 (pre-race interview)
2014 Transvulcania Ultramarathon Women’s Race
If we had to pick a plot for the women’s race beforehand, we would have guessed that Anna Frost and Emelie Forsberg would have run together for a long way before one of them–whoever was the strongest on the day–took off to a faster finish. And, if we’d had to pick a winner, odds would have been against Anna Frost given that this was her first highly competitive race since she’s been totally fit and strong again after her 2013 of injury. Turns out, we wouldn’t have been more wrong.
Anna Frost led from the start with Emelie hovering a minute or two behind until El Pilar at 24k. Early in the race, Emelie fell hard and banged up her hand and arm severely. She dropped from the race at El Pilar to get immediate medical care. Hours later she was at the finish to greet runners.
Anna Frost at El Reventón on her way to the win.
Anna arrived to El Pilar minutes ahead of pace for her own course-record, which she set in 2012. She’d continue running five or six minutes ahead of course-record pace for the next 30 kilometers. On the race’s long descent from Roque de los Muchachos, Anna gave up most of the minutes on her course record, arriving to Tazacorte, 68k and at the bottom of that descent, only a few seconds under her record. But she clearly ran hard to the finish from there, on a slightly different and more challenging route than previous years, arriving a little less than a minute under her previous course record despite the fact she high-fived everyone she could in the finishing stretch.
Anna’s win is really the story of the day. It showed she’s back close to her previous form and is among the world’s best once again.
Third place Uxue Fraile and fourth place Emma Roca are both steady-as-she-goes gals, finishing in about the position in which they spent much of the race. Early on, Jodee Adams-Moore was running in a podium position–in both third and second places at times–but she slowed to sixth by the finish. Krissy Moehl, who finished eighth, spent most of her day running in about sixth to eighth position.
There are a number of names in the women’s top 10 who we know little about, including second place Maite Mayora, who we know did some experimenting with Skyrunning races last year, fifth place Anne-Lise Rousset, seventh place Andrea Huser, ninth place Federica Boifava, and tenth place Alessandra Carlini.
The women’s podium under a champagne shower: Uxue Fraile (left), Anna Frost (center), and Maite Mayora (right).
2014 Transvulcania Ultramarathon Women’s Results
- Anna Frost (Salomon) – 8:10:41 (course record) (pre-race interview)
- Maite Maiora (La Sportiva) – 8:20:29
- Uxue Fraile (Vibram) – 8:48:01
- Emma Roca (Buff) – 8:58:45 (pre-race interview)
- Anne-Lise Rousset – 9:10:29
- Jodee Adams-Moore (SCOTT) – 9:19:14 (pre-race interview)
- Andrea Huser – 9:28:25
- Krissy Moehl (Patagonia) – 9:29:00 (pre-race interview)
- Federica Boifava – 9:41:32
- Alessandra Carlini – 9:47:25
2014 Transvulcania Ultramarathon Articles, Race Reports, and More
Articles and Photo Galleries
- Salomon Running’s photo gallery and race-recap video of the front of the pack
- Salomon Running/Jordi Saragossa’s photo gallery of the race as a whole
- Salomon Running/Jordi Saragossa’s Behind the Scenes video
- Trails Endurance’s photo gallery, report en Français, and video
- Jose Fernández Arozena’s photo gallery
- Saul Santos’s photo gallery
Cool timelapse video of the race start by Sport4U[broken link removed]- TelevisionCanaria’s hour of video footage from the finish line, showing the top-four men’s finishes
- Raul Gonzalez Santana’s photo gallery
- RunWalk’s story on second-place female Maite Maiora en Español
- Damian Martin Brito’s video from Pico de la Cruz on the course
Tony Perez’s photo gallery[broken link removed]- Trail magazine’s photo gallery
- Really stellar photo gallery by Alexis Martín
- Dreamteam Television’s video documentary
Race Reports
Luis Alberto Hernando – 1st man (en Español)[broken link removed]- Sage Canaday – 3rd man
- Krissy Moehl – 8th woman
- Timothy Olson – 8th man
- Dakota Jones – 10th man
Jason Schlarb – 16th man[broken link removed]- Luke Nelson – 22nd man
- David Laney – 32nd man
- Josh Arthur – 33rd man
Thank You
Thank you to Travis Trampe and Eric Senseman in the office as well as the field help of Richard Felton, Miguelito Rodriguez, and Carlos Bizipoz. Our coverage was made possible by them.
