The UTMB World Series Finals open in Chamonix on Monday with the strangest of backdrops: three of the biggest names in the men's sport will not be on the start line. Kilian Jornet announced on Thursday that he will undergo knee surgery rather than chase a record-extending fifth title, and his withdrawal follows those of Jim Walmsley, who is also managing a knee injury, and Britain's Tom Evans. Added to Katie Schide's absence from the women's race, confirmed earlier this month, the 174-kilometre loop of Mont Blanc has lost a remarkable amount of star power in the space of a fortnight.
Jornet's decision ends a frustrating season that began to unravel in the spring. An MRI after Zegama revealed a horizontal tear of the lateral meniscus in his left knee, along with patellar cartilage damage and bone oedema, and the injury forced him out of the Western States 100 in June. The Spaniard and his medical team initially chose a conservative approach, and he reported that training had been going well. A long mountain effort in recent days told a different story. "We need to find a more permanent solution," he wrote in announcing the operation, giving no procedure, date or timeline for his return.
The withdrawals reshape rather than diminish the men's race, which starts on Friday 28 August at 5:45 p.m. local time. Vincent Bouillard, the surprise 2024 champion who set a course record of 13:46 at Western States in June, now starts as the man to beat. Italy's Cristian Minoggio heads the field on UTMB Index, with American David Sinclair, second in 2025, close behind. New Zealand's Daniel Jones, Frenchmen Benjamin Roubiol and Thomas Cardin, China's Guangfu Meng and Poland's Andrzej Witek complete a contending group that remains, on paper, among the deepest ever assembled here.
The women's race has a clearer favourite. Ruth Croft, last year's champion in atrocious weather and the first woman to win all three UTMB World Series Finals distances, returns knowing that no woman has successfully defended the title since Rory Bosio in 2013 and 2014. Courtney Dauwalter, a three-time winner who faded to tenth last year, is chasing a fourth title, while Jennifer Lichter arrives having broken the women's course record at Western States in June. China's Miao Yao and Norway's Yngvild Kaspersen add further depth to a field missing only its course record holder in Schide.
Before the main event, a full week of racing unfolds across the valley, from Monday's opening starts through the OCC and CCC to Friday evening's UTMB departure from the centre of Chamonix. For the organisers, the absences are a reminder of how brutal the 100-mile discipline has become at the sharp end, with Western States efforts in June increasingly colliding with Mont Blanc ambitions in August. For everyone else, an open men's race and a heavyweight women's duel are not a bad consolation.