The Transvulcania ultramarathon goes off at 6am from the Faro de Fuencaliente lighthouse on Saturday, sending a stacked international field 73 kilometres along the volcanic spine of La Palma to a finish in Los Llanos de Aridane. With 4,350 metres of climbing and the same again descending, this is one of the longest, hottest, and most technical fixtures on the World Trail Majors calendar, and the men's and women's elite fields are both as deep as the race has seen since the post-pandemic restart.
American Ben Dhiman lines up as the pre-race favourite among the men. The Bend, Oregon-born ultrarunner has been based in France for two seasons and arrives off the back of last year's UTMB silver medal, a course record at Lavaredo, and a win at Grand Raid Ventoux to close out 2025. Saturday is his Transvulcania debut and his season opener, and he has talked about using the rocky volcanic stadium as a fitness check ahead of his July return to Lavaredo. The chief threat is Italian Andreas Reiterer, who finished second on this course last year in 6:58 and has already won a 50K and finished second at Chianti 120K in 2026.
Sweden's Petter Engdahl is the wildcard. The 2022 Transvulcania champion has run an unconventional spring, including a stop at the Boston Marathon road race in April, and a difficult outing at Tarawera in New Zealand in February. His best on La Palma is a winning 6:50:37, and on form he can run with anyone in the field. Russian Dmitry Mityaev, three-time runner-up here, is back from injury and brings a course-best of 6:55:21 to a deep men's pack that also features Frenchman Sylvain Court, Spanish hopes Pablo Villa and Aritz Egea, and a chasing American group led by Cole Watson and Adrian Macdonald.
The women's race brings the storyline of the weekend. Two-time Transvulcania winner Emelie Forsberg has returned to the start line for the first time since 2015, when she ran 8:32 for the win. Now 39, the Swedish runner who lives in Norway has built her 2026 around a long volcanic block that culminates here. She is racing France's Blandine L'Hirondel, the 2025 Diagonale des Fous winner, and the third pillar of the women's field is Russian Ekaterina Mityaeva, who was second on this course in 2025 and won the Madeira Island Ultra-Trail 110km a fortnight ago in 2026.
Saturday's weather forecast on La Palma calls for a clear, breezy start at sea level, with morning temperatures in the high teens Celsius rising to the mid 20s by the time the leaders reach Roque de los Muchachos at 2,426 metres. The crater traverse is expected to stay dry. The Mountain Running World Cup vertical kilometre raced on Wednesday produced a Ruth Croft win and an Andrew Douglas men's victory, and the half marathon goes off at 7:30am Saturday alongside the ultra, completing the World Cup double-header that has anchored Transvulcania's racing weekend since 2017. iRunFar carries the live English-language coverage from the 6am gun.