2020 Golden Trail Championship PREVIEW | Many of World’s Best Arrive in the Azores for 4-Day Stage Race
by Chase Parnell — October 27, 2020 — Photo: courtesy of Golden Trail
This has to be the most stacked field assembled in 2020 and somehow it still feels as if the event is flying under the radar here in the USA. Come on, Jim Walmsley is racing! The Golden Trail Championship in the Azores, a cluster of Portuguese islands deep in the Atlantic, is hosting this tremendous field and offering up yet another mountainous island environment experience similar to TransVulcania, Diagonale de Fous, or TransGranCanaria.
The Golden Trail Championship Format
The Golden Trail series, not to be confused with the Skyrunning series or the Ultra Trail World Tour, came up with a pretty unique format to test the world elite in a new way: a stage race. This style of race isn’t necessarily uncommon, but it is unique for a stage race to assemble this level of competition. But hey, when you pay for airfare, meals and lodgings, and provide some decent prize money, I can see why many jumped at the opportunity. The race will take place over the course of four days, and similar to cycling events like the Tour de France, the runner with the least cumulative time over all the stages will be declared the winner. Here are the stats:
Metric
- Day 1: 26km, 1069m+, 1098m-
- Day 2: 32km, 1343m+, 1310m-
- Day 3: 32km, 2364m+, 1137m-
- Day 4: 36km, 1453m+, 1518m-
- Totals: 126km, 6229m+, 5063m-
Imperial
- Day 1: 16.16 miles, 3507ft+, 3602ft-
- Day 2: 19.88 miles, 4406ft+, 4298ft-
- Day 3: 19.88 miles, 7756ft+, 3730ft-
- Day 4: 22.37 miles, 4767ft+, 4980ft-
- Totals: 78.29 miles, 20436+, 16610ft-
Looking at the numbers, there definitely aren’t any “flat” days. You absolutely are going to need strong climbing ability to excel at this event. Day number three is massive. It’ll be interesting to see how they pace day one and two. Go out too hard and you’ll pay for it, but you also don’t want to cede too much time early on. The final day actually has the least amount of climbing, mile for mile, so perhaps the pure runners might be able to make a late push after likely suffering against the mountain goats on day three.
Elite Field Qualification Process
Such an innovative approach here. The Golden Trail series came up with a Covid-friendly qualifying system where “Golden Segments” were created all over the world, where athletes could take a crack at running a pre-determined Strava segment in their area, upload their GPS files, and if they ended up the fastest during the qualifying period (July 1-Oct 1), they’d earn a trip to the Azores. To give some context, here are the Golden Segments for the five regions of the USA (there were 27 total worldwide):
Taking a page from the cycling book, this contest will include a variety of carrots to chase: overall winner, single stage winners, and categorical winners for best climber, downhiller, and sprinter. Each day a specific climb/downhill/flat section will be designated and used to calculate the results for these categories.
The American Contingent – Men
Alright, here we go, I think we sent a pretty legit field. Of the five golden segment winners in the US, three of them are on the official starting list. Honestly, I’m not sure what happened to the others; post in the comments below if you know!
Jim Walmsley – With all the media hype around the US marathon olympic trials and the fact that he has the highest ITRA ranking in the world, Jim is coming in with a major target on his back. As far as I know, Jim hasn’t raced since the trials so this may be a bit of a rust buster for him. Hell of a race to reenter the fray! His weekly mileage over the last four weeks has averaged 125 miles per week with 16,000-24,000 feet of vertical gain. While Jim will certainly be cardiovascularly fit, I’m thinking he might struggle a bit on the terrain. Take a look at the photos of the “trail” that Jim posted on this run. I’m thinking the Euros that train on steeper more techy terrain are going to have the advantage here, but we shall see!
Max King – Never count out the King! That said, I’m not entirely sure how fit he is right now. Per his Strava, it looks like he’s had a couple good weeks of running after one week where all he did was cycle. Apparently he was cross-training through a calf flare up after the Stumpjump 50k on October 3rd where he had to drop, but he appears to be healthy now and ready to give it a rip. What I think Max has going for him is his experience and that all the stages are on the shorter side where he can use his speed. He has a massive lifetime base and racing experience that should really come in handy over the course of four days on the trail. He also did an “FKT week” earlier in the summer where he went after (and set) a new FKT five days in a row. I can’t imagine a better simulation. As a fellow Bendite, I’m certainly rooting for him!
Aaron Newell – Honestly, I had no idea who Aaron Newell was when I saw him on the list. It appears he’s made a name for himself in the obstacle course racing scene and comes from a strong endurance sports background of running, cycling, and cross country skiing as well. You can’t deny he’s full of talent, but unfortunately he had a six year string of illness and injuries that kept him from rising up the ranks. He has some experience with multi-day efforts; in 2019 he won the Broken Arrow Skyrace triple crown where he finished the 52k, 26k, and VK in the least cumulative time over the course of three days. Who knows, this gnarly rugged terrain might be a good equalizer for a guy like Newell with massive aerobic talent. I have strangely high expectations for Aaron; he’s definitely my dark horse. #mulletpower
The American Contingent – Women
Rachel Drake has been on fire lately. With five new FKTs logged in 2020 alone, she’s got to be coming in feeling strong. On October 10th, she won the Old Cascadia 20 miler in course record time, finishing 2nd overall just 14 minutes back from overall winner, Mario Mendoza. She also has a pretty decent training partner up in Portland in beau Tyler Green, so that can’t hurt. Looking forward to seeing what she can do against the best of the best!
Bailey Kowalczyk is an experienced runner that bounces around the different running disciplines, everything but ultras it would appear. She won the inaugural 2019 Spartan 10k trail national champs, nabbing a nice payday of $3,000. Curious to see how she fares over a four day stage-race. She earned her way in on the Colorado Golden Segment beating out some super strong runners in the Boulder area.
Kimber Mattox is a local legend here in Bend. I got to know her when I wrote this story about her multi-year comeback from injury and have shared a few runs with her over the last couple of years. I don’t know that there’s a stronger uphill runner and power-hiker out there. As a relative newcomer to the ultra scene, I think she’s still learning to develop her kamikaze downhill skills, but she’s super tough and could really surprise a lot of people over the course of this event. After recently linking up with coach David Roche, I’m sure her development is calculated and on the upward trajectory. Kimber has twice represented the USA in the World Mountain Running Championships and she won the 2020 Way Too Cool 50k just before Corona blew up the world, running the 8th fastest time in the race’s 30 year history. Let’s go Kimber!
Michelle Hummel of Albuquerque, New Mexico earned her way on the Arizona Golden Segment and looks to be a pretty solid veteran in the ultra scene with 27 races on ultrasignup. She’s had a smattering of wins over the years, her latest at the Speedgoat 28k in July of this year. Michelle too seems to favor the “shorter” races with 50k appearing to be the farthest she’s gone. Hummel was also the 2020 snowshoe U.S. national champion, winning the 10k event on February 29. Her mixed bag of skills may take her far on the Azores!
(Another) NEW📽️on our YouTube channel: Michelle Hummel Wins U.S. National Snowshoe Championships. 👉👉https://t.co/yWCRJtlPc5 pic.twitter.com/OiIH8yV4Sw
— ATRA 🏃♂️ 🇺🇲 🏃 (@ATRAtrailrunner) March 6, 2020
Jessica Marion had to run the New England Golden Segment twice to get into the race. On September 13, she ran the Presidential Traverse in New Hampshire in 4h48m, then Britta Clark bettered the time to 4h37m on September 20, leaving Jessica just 10 days until the deadline. On September 27, Jess came back and lowered the mark to 4h34m, which held and earned her a ticket. In 2019, Jess finished 8th at the U.S. Mountain Running championships, three seconds ahead of the above Michelle Hummel and four minutes back from Kimber Mattox. It’ll be fun to see how these ladies work together as they seem pretty evenly matched. One final note: you always hear about the technical trails of the the NE. In the west we have huge sweeping landscapes but our trails can be buffed out and gradual, working on switchbacks up the slopes; I’m wondering if our New Englanders will better be able to handle the super steep, muddy, uneven trails of the Azores. Will be exciting to see how the dust settles throughout four days of competition!
The International Competitors
I’m not going to go into the nitty gritty on all the international runners, but trust me, some of the best in the world are toeing the line. No Kilian as he focuses on training for flatter faster events this year (I also think he’s making a special effort to only travel when absolutely necessary as part of his new Outdoor Friendly campaign to lower carbon emissions in the outdoor industry), but there is no shortage of other world-class short course specialists to make things interesting.
Francesco Puppi of Italy was the 2017 Mountain Running World Champion and gave Walmsley a real run for his money at the Mountain Running World Championships in Argentina last year.
People have said Italian Davide Magnini is the heir apparent to the Kilian throne. He just turned 23 years old and already he has wins at Limone Extreme, Dolomyths Skyrace, and the Mont Blanc Marathon. Davide could win the whole thing.
Stian Angermund of Norway and Remi Bonnet of Switzerland are two others who will contend for the win. It seems criminal not to write more about them but the field is just so deep!
On the women’s side, we have Maude Mathys of Switzerland, who has to be the clear favorite after what she did in 2019. She smashed the women’s Pikes Peak Marathon course record by 13 minutes and actually beat two of the men noted above (Remi and Max) on that day. Maude also won the super competitive 2019 Sierre-Zinal race, setting a course record there too by nearly five minutes. I don’t know what kind of form she’s in this year, but if it’s anything like 2019, I’m putting my money on her.
New Zealander, Ruth Croft, is a perennial top contender on the European circuit and appears to have been one of the few who actually raced a fair amount this year. Another one to keep an eye on is Marcela Vasinova of the Czech Republic who beat up on a really solid field (including Ruth Croft) at this year’s Matterhorn Ultraks race in August.
Wrap-up and How to Follow Along
Alright, I think this one is going to be super interesting to follow. I’ll try to post some stage-by-stage updates on Twitter, so give us a follow there if you haven’t already. Stage one goes off this Thursday, October 29, in the early morning hours for us in the States.
It doesn’t appear the live tracking is going to be all that spectacular but Golden Trail did say the best way to follow the stage races is to watch their instagram stories. Stage results will be posted on the Golden Trail homepage. There is also something called “the prologue” which is a short 2 mile race that apparently will be run on Wednesday, before Stage 1, to establish the starting order. That will be streamed live on the Golden Trail facebook page. I don’t totally understand why this is needed given how small the event is but it may have something to do with starting the competitors off in waves? The prologue may be useful in determining who is grouped with who for Stage 1 to create the best head-to-head action. We’ll see!
I don’t know about you, but I’m really grateful to have this race to follow over the next few days as a distraction from the news cycle around the election. Let’s get that over with already! I hope you enjoyed this preview and you’re at least a little more stoked now to follow along. Should be exciting to see how the Americans stack up against some of the best in the world!
Enjoy this article? Consider signing up for our Rise & Grind weekly newsletter or supporting us via Patreon for as little as $2 a month. We appreciate your support. It goes a long way in keeping Treeline Journal afloat!
2 thoughts on “2020 Golden Trail Championship PREVIEW | Many of World’s Best Arrive in the Azores for 4-Day Stage Race”