All roads lead to Chamonix, France. That’s how it’s sometimes felt this summer, and that’s how it is with all of the UTMB Mont-Blanc festival group of races too. The 2022 TDS, an acronym for Sur les Traces des Ducs de Savoie, left from Courmayeur, Italy, at midnight local time on Tuesday, August 23. Some 1,600 runners lit the night on clockwise route back to Chamonix. The challenging 145-kilometer (90 miles) path totaled 9,100 meters (29,855 feet) of elevation gain on a course that’s been run since 2019.
You can also check out more results from the week’s UTMB Mont-Blanc festival:
2022 TDS Men’s Race
Ludovic Pommeret (France) added another win to his rich UTMB festival history. Pommeret, age 47, started as far back as 25th some seven kilometers into the race and finally moved into the standalone lead near the 99k point. There would be no question of the race’s outcome the rest of the way. Pommeret finished in 18:37, spraying champagne around the finish area before backtracking to collect high fives.
Ludovic Pommeret celebrates winning the 2022 TDS. All photos: UTMB
His finish time compares favorably to Erik-Sebastian Krogvig‘s 2021 18:49 win, though Pommeret did not approach Pablo Villa‘s 2019 18:03 course record. Pommeret was third himself at TDS that same year, and coincidentally also in 18:37. He was sixth earlier this year at the Western States 100 in June and famously won the 2016 edition of UTMB with a big comeback.
No one was close to Pommeret, but Joaquin Lopez (Ecuador) was just ahead of 26-year-old Elias Kadi (France) for second. The two finished in 19:32 and 19:49, respectively. Lopez was sixth at UTMB in 2019, but it was Kadi’s first race in Chamonix.
Elias Kadi, the 2022 TDS third-place man.
The rest of the top 10 included:
4 – Martin Kern (France) – 20:06
5 – Guillaume Beauxis (France) – 20:08
6 – Estanislao Rivero (Spain) – 20:21
7 – Sébastien Camus (France) – 21:03
8 – Tòfol Castanyer (Spain) – 21:07
9 – Jean-Francois Pugin (France) – 21:22
10 – Carmelo Gonzalez (Spain) – 22:07
Matt Palilla was the first American with an 18th-place, 23:13 finish. The 40-year-old was the winner of the 2021 Waldo 100k.
Fellow Americans Scott Darios and Mike Foote ran to 62nd- and 77th-place finishes in 28:05 and 28:51, but 2021 TDS 14th-placer Cordis Hall and 2022 Hardrock 100 finisher Matt Urbanski dropped.
2022 TDS Women’s Race
Martina Valmassoi (Italy) took the women’s crown with a 22:42 finish, and she did so while keeping up a social media presence throughout the race. That finish time was better than Manon Bohard‘s 23:11 win from last year, but Audrey Tanguy‘s lofty 2019 course record still stands at 21:36. Though racing less in recent years, Valmassoi is a popular ski mountaineer who was the top woman at the Ultra Dolomites (80k) race at the Lavaredo Ultra Trail festival in 2021.
Martina Valmassoi on her way to winning the 2022 TDS.
Claudia Tremps (Spain) was right behind the race winner, coming through in 22:59. Tremps was 10 minutes back of Valmassoi at the 100k point, and only conceded a few more minutes the rest of the way. Tremps was ninth at UTMB last year.
Katharina Hartmuth (Germany) was third in 23:22.
Claudia Tremps, the 2022 TDS second-place woman.
The rest of the top 10 included:
4 – Julia Rezzi (France) – 24:03
5 – Ildikó Wermescher (Hungary) – 24:38
6 – Aline Coquard (France) – 24:55
7 – Wen-Fei Xie (China) – 26:05
8 – Céline Finas (France) – 26:28
9 – Stacey Marion (USA) – 27:11
10 – Jessica Marion (USA) – 27:11
Both Kristina Pattison and Corrine Malcolm of the USA dropped before the finish.
