The Madeira Island Ultra Trail returns for its 17th edition on 25 and 26 April, bringing 2,487 runners from across Europe, North America and Asia to the Portuguese archipelago for a weekend that has become one of the most atmospheric fixtures on the UTMB World Series calendar. The flagship MIUT 115 departs from Porto Moniz at midnight on Saturday for a 115-kilometre crossing of the island with 7,200 metres of positive elevation, finishing on the eastern seafront at Machico. Four shorter races — the 85-kilometre MIUT 85, the 60-kilometre MIUT 60, the 42-kilometre MIUT 42 and the 16-kilometre MIUT 16 — follow across the same weekend, with the elite races on each distance drawing UTMB points that matter in the scramble for a Chamonix start.
The course retains the central mountain spine that has defined the race since its founding. Runners climb from sea level to the Paúl da Serra plateau, cross the volcanic highlands to Pico Ruivo — at 1,862 metres the island's highest peak, though MIUT crests the summit at around 1,700 metres — and then descend through Ribeiro Frio's laurel forest to Portela before a punishing climb-heavy final 15 kilometres into Machico. The overnight start means the opening 40 kilometres are run in full dark, with headlamps picking out the famous levadas — the narrow irrigation channels that crisscross the island — and the race's organisers have once again published a luminous safety bulletin detailing mandatory kit and weather contingency plans for the exposed ridgeline sections.
On the elite men's start list, France's Thibaut Garrivier leads a Euro-heavy lineup that also includes Germany's Hannes Namberger, a past Transgrancanaria podium finisher, and the Spanish trio of Pere Aurell, Manuel Merillas and Antonio Martínez Pérez. Britain's Robbie Simpson and Donnie Campbell, the latter best known for his Munros record, provide pedigree from a slightly older cohort. The women's field is headlined by the French-American duo of Ragna Debats and Claire Bannwarth, with Germany's Katharina Hartmuth and Portuguese home favourite Joana Soares expected to feature heavily in the closing climbs. Runners in the MIUT 115 who finish inside 24 hours will earn the long-sought 100M UTMB Index points that prequalify for the Chamonix draw in August.
The logistics of racing a line across an Atlantic island remain as idiosyncratic as ever. Runners and support crews transfer by bus from Funchal in the early afternoon of Saturday, with pre-race checks at Porto Moniz's marina complex concluding just before midnight. Aid stations follow every 10 to 12 kilometres through the first half and tighten to six or seven kilometres through the closing mountain passages, with hot soup and the island's signature poncha — a traditional citrus-and-honey drink — available at the late-night checkpoint in Estanquinhos for finishers who reach it before first light. Crew access is permitted at seven designated points across the 115-kilometre route, but not on the Paúl da Serra plateau itself, where the volume of runners passing through in the small hours has in previous editions overwhelmed the limited road access.
Madeira Island Ultra Trail has grown steadily over the past decade from a locally-organised event into a fixture that sits alongside Transgrancanaria, MaXi-Race and Grand Raid Réunion in the cognoscenti's mental rolodex of world-class single-island ultras. The 2026 field represents a new record for the event, up from 2,300 starters across all distances in 2025, and reflects the wider surge in ultra participation that UTMB documented in its 2025 annual review. Weather forecasts published on 17 April indicate a largely dry window with temperatures in the mid-teens at altitude and light westerly winds, though coastal fog remains a wildcard for the opening hours. Live tracking and a near-continuous livestream from MIUT's production team will make the race one of the most watchable trail ultras of the season.