Outstanding athletic performances, 2013 racers from 46 nations and Stephan Hugenschmidt (GER) as the crowd-pleasing overall winner of the 4th SALOMON ZUGSPITZ ULTRATRAIL. That’s the upshot of a thrilling ultra race weekend on the mountainous German-Austrian border that ended early Sunday morning. Victorious Hugenschmidt, a 28-year-old resident of the Swiss-German Lake Constance region, was clearly overjoyed upon realizing that he finished first on the tough loop trail around the infamous Zugspitz massif. „It is simply incredible that I was able to win the ULTRATRAIL after already being successful on the BASETRAIL last year. This was my first 100 km race!“ As if that wasn’t enough, Hugenschmidt managed to best the standing trail record of 2011 by almost 20 minutes. 10:36.50 hours is the new time to beat and a record that may well stand for a few years yet. The fastest woman on the 100 km ULTRATRAIL was Anne-Marie Flammersfeld (GER / SUI) who had chased Italian Simona Morbelli for the longest time and ultimately finished first after 13:53.21 hours on the trail.
Stephan Hugenschmidt ist the deserving winner of the SALOMON ZUGSPITZ ULTRATRAIL 2014. His sizeable 37-minute lead over Spaniard Clemente Mora Cris of San Sebastian allowed him to conclude finishline interviews just before the attendant crowd turned their attention to the second arrival. Clemente Mora Cris, in turn, managed to put another 20 minutes between him and third-placing British racer Dan Doherty. These time gaps punctuate Hugenschmidt’s tremendous athletic achievement and what turned out to be a superior race tactic. Hugenschmidt shared his assessment that „an ultra race doesn’t start until the 50th kilometer. Any time before then the order of racers does not have much of a bearing on the outcome“. Staying true to that assessment, Hugenschmidt held back early on and allowed others to assume the lead who in fact set off on a punishing chase right away. Mirco Berner was certainly the instigating pacesetter early on. „An up-and-coming trail talent who lured the posse to follow him but unfortunately caved in a third into the race“ according to the overall victor. This may have turned into a boon for Hugenschmidt who assumed a lonely lead after Berner burnt out and from then on maintained a healthy distance between him and his competitors from there on out. Not an easy task by any means and in particular given the tremendous pressure the winner had felt ahead of the race start. „When I picked up my bib with start number One I got pretty nervous. It didn’t help that the SALOMON ZUGSPITZ ULTRATRAIL has quite a reputation by now. I felt that high expectations were placed on me“.
Applying previous running experience into ultra racing in the European Alps didn’t work for all participants equally well. US racer Michael Wardian was ranked 6th for he longest time but unable to maintain the pace caved in eventually. For Maroccan Mohamad Ahansal the day had started out on the wrong foot altogether. „It simply wasn’t my day and I was unable to find a comfortable speed“, Ahansal shared after calling it quits after Kilometer 40.
Indeed, hardly anyone proved immune to the tremendous pressures and phyical demands of the ULTRATRAIL race. Among the women, Italian Simona Morbelli‘s lead had remained largely unchallenged for the better part of eleven hours. Out of an oversight the Italian favorite missed the very last ascent which required her disqualification. Runner-up German-native and Swiss-resident Anne-Marie Flammersfeld stepped into the breach and claimed ULTRATRAIL victory among the women before nightfall. The astounded winner found that change in fate hard to believe: „I had the Italian Morbelli ahead of me the whole time and was absolutely certain that I would come in second. All of a sudden she was gone and nobody was able to tell me what had happened to her“.
The all-new SUPERTRAIL XL course, covering a distance of 79.3 km and a vertical gain of 4,156 m was well received by all participants. Anton Philipp (9:19.56)of the Master Men took overall victory 39 minutes ahead of his peer Stefan Zäh and 81 minutes ahead of third-ranking Tomm Zechmeister (all Germany). Philipp shared one of the secrets to his success: „I didn’t have any problems with the high temperatures today as I recently trained in the Southern Alps under conditions up to 36 degrees C“.
The race turned quite dramatic, however, for the leading women in the Supertrail XL. Swedish-native Kristin Berglund who calls Austria her home led her most immediate competitors by up to 15 minutes for much of the race. However, Hungarian Zsofia Palos (11:14.26) relegated her to second place at the very end by attacking ferociously in one grand finale. Incredulous, she found it „hard to believe that I won“ – her first grand victory in the Alps.
The somewhat shorter SUPERTRAIL course offered lots of trail excitement but much more clearcut rankings and fewer upsets among the leaders. Eva Färberböck (GER, 7:52.16) ended up finishing as the first woman in Grainau and laughingly shared that „it wasn’t that hard after all“. In the end, all but three minutes separated the 42-year-old and second-placing Austrian Kathrin Schichtl.
Among the Men, it was Martin Schedler of TEAM SALOMON GERMANY who got through the 60.7 km and almost 3,000 m of vertical the fastest in 6:41.54 hours. He had assumed the lead right off the start and managed to maintain that position with ease all the way across the finish line. „Just before the final descent, I led by eight minutes. Ordinarily you wouldn’t expect much of an upset under these conditions but you just never know“. Just to be on the safe side, Schedler upped the ante to expand his lead to 13 minutes over Steffen Walk (GER) by the time he arrived at the finish – his biggest trail-running victory to date.
The BASETRAIL course over 35.6 km in contrast left much room for speculation on who would claim victory until the very final descent into Grainau. While Andrew Syme of Garmisch-Partenkirchen (GER) had maintained a tiny but solid lead to that point, it was the tenacious Austrian Peter Fankhauser who ultimately managed to pull away on the technical downhill to claim victory in 3:32.28 hours. The winner seemed somewhat surprised: „It was supposed to be a training run for me. I wouldn’t have guessed that I was going to claim victory“. Andrew Syme was still joyful about second place as his time was sufficient to claim second place in the Master category and, moreover, beat his own time of 2013 by 30 minutes.
One more notable record was broken by Tina Fischl (GER) who dominated the Women category on the BASETRAIL. Her time of 3:51.08 beat the previous record of 2013 by 36 minutes.
