While the weather impacted races earlier in the week, it was clear skies for much of the 100-kilometer 2025 CCC race. The course ran from Courmayeur, Italy, to Champex-Lac, Switzerland, and ultimately to the finish in Chamonix, France. The race totaled 20,013 feet of elevation over its 62.1-mile distance and had over 2,100 runners on its 9:00 a.m. start line on Friday, August 29.
It was the UTMB World Series Final for the 100k distance, and paid 13,000 Euro to its winners as part of a total 75,000 Euro prize purse.
Some considered this year’s CCC the most competitive race in the UTMB Mont Blanc festival. With an eye toward recovery for next month’s World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Spain, some top runners who would typically race the full UTMB loop opted for the shorter CCC race.
Francesco Puppi on his way to winning the 2025 CCC. Photo: UTMB
Martyna Młynarczyk (Poland) fought off a late-race challenge from Sylvia Nordskar (Norway) to win the women’s race in 11:41. Nordskar was only 18 seconds behind as the two ran the race’s second- and third-fastest times ever. Młynarczyk’s win came after she dropped at June’s Western States 100, and it improved on her 2024 second-place CCC finish.
Men’s winner Francesco Puppi (France) attacked after Champex-Lac at mile 34 and ran away from David Sinclair (U.S.) and everyone else over the race’s second half. Puppi’s 10:06 finish time was also the race’s second-fastest ever. Sinclair stayed second to the finish, but could never make up any time on Puppi.
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Read on for the full race story.
You can also check out more results from the week’s UTMB Mont Blanc festival:
- 2025 TDS Results: Careth Arnold and Antoine Charvolin Win
- 2025 OCC Results: Jim Walmsley, Joyline Chepngeno Win Dramatic Races on Alternate Course
2025 CCC Women’s Race
All of the last three champions were back. Toni McCann (South Africa), 2024 winner, 2023 winner Yngvild Kaspersen (Norway), and 2022 winner and course-record holder Blandine L’Hirondel (France) were the race favorites, and 2024 runner-up Martyna Młynarczyk (Poland) returned too.
Kaspersen didn’t wait long to go. She climbed the opening six miles and 4,000-plus feet to Tête de la Tronche in 1:20 elapsed. L’Hirondel and McCann were over two minutes slower to the top, and the first 10 runners were already six minutes apart.
By the time they dropped from that 8,306-foot course high point and then ran eight mostly flat miles to reach Arnouvaz at mile 16, things looked different. Kaspersen was still moving but had greatly fallen back with an ankle injury and would later drop from the race. Instead, L’Hirondel and McCann were seconds apart, and Młynarczyk and Anna Tarasova (Spain) formed a front four that were within a minute of each other. After Tarasova, it was nearly three minutes back to fifth-place Sylvia Nordskar (Norway).
Martyna Młynarczyk on her way to winning the 2025 CCC. Photo: UTMB
L’Hirondel attacked on the short climb to Grand Col Ferret at mile 19, reaching the 8,261-foot top a minute ahead of McCann and Młynarczyk, but Młynarczyk struck back on the long downhill that followed. At nearly the same moment that Młynarczyk passed L’Hirondel, McCann fell while running in third near mile 25.
Champex-Lac is the race’s unofficial halfway point at mile 34 and signals that two major climbs are done with three to go. Here, Młynarczyk led L’Hirondel by two minutes at 5:50 elapsed. Nordskar and Tarasova were now third and fourth, more than three minutes behind L’Hirondel. Veronika Leng (Slovakia), Julie Roux (France), Tabor Hemming (U.S.), Lotti Brinks (U.S.), Robyn Lesh (U.S.), and Eleanor Davis (U.K.) rounded out the rest of the top 10. McCann dropped from the race at Champex-Lac, and Hemming would later drop near mile 44.
Młynarczyk and L’Hirondel continued to duel to La Giète at mile 41. They were still only two minutes apart, and behind them, Tarasova had closed to about a minute of L’Hirondel.
And then the women’s race got incredibly exciting.
Sylvia Nordskar finishing second at the 2025 CCC. Photo: UTMB
At La Flégère at mile 48 and with only four downhill miles to the finish, Nordskar was surging and L’Hirondel was starting to fade. Nordskar had closed to within 37 seconds of longtime leader Młynarczyk, and Tarasova too had leapfrogged L’Hirondel to take third and was only 45 seconds back of Młynarczyk.
Tarasova never got there, but just as nightfall came, Nordskar hauled past Młynarczyk at 11:13 elapsed.
Młynarczyk wasn’t done though, not even close, and she danced past Nordskar with a winning move at 11:29 on the race clock.
Martyna Młynarczyk won in 11:41:55. It was the race’s second-fastest finish ever behind L’Hirondel’s course record from 2022 of 11:40. The CCC was a Western States 100 Golden Ticket race too, with three automatic entries available to the 2026 edition. That affords Młynarczyk a chance for redemption after dropping near the halfway point at this year’s Western States 100.
Sylvia Nordskar held on until the end. She was second in 11:42:13, a mere 18 seconds behind over the 100k distance.
Anna Tarasova was third in 11:44:18. The front three were separated by just over two minutes, yet another signal on the quick advancement of the competitive depth of women’s trail ultrarunning.
Anna Tarasova finishing third at the 2025 CCC. Photo: UTMB
2025 CCC Women’s Results
- Martyna Młynarczyk (Poland) – 11:41:55
- Sylvia Nordskar (Norway) – 11:42:13
- Anna Tarasova (Spain) – 11:44:18
- Blandine L’Hirondel (France) – 11:53:31
- Veronika Leng (Slovakia) – 12:00:27
- Lotti Brinks (U.S.) – 12:02:23
- Robyn Lesh (U.S.) – 12:16:10
- Julie Roux (France) – 12:24:18
- Jing-Yan Tang (China) – 12:42:54
- Allison Baca (U.S.) – 12:44:05
The 2025 CCC women’s podium (left to right): 2. Sylvia Nordskar, 1. Martyna Młynarczyk, 3. Anna Tarasova
2025 CCC Men’s Race
It was a deep race, and so it was no surprise that at the top of the Tête de la Tronche, a nearly six-mile and 4,000-plus foot climb right from the start, a big group of men came through together. The top 13 were within a minute of each other at 1:14 elapsed. Race favorites Francesco Puppi (Italy) and Eli Hemming (U.S.) were among the leaders. Puppi is having an exceptional year, highlighted by a win at the Canyons by UTMB 100k, his debut for the distance. Hemming won last year’s OCC race ahead of Puppi.
At 8,306 feet, Tête de la Tronche was the course’s high point from where runners descended for about three miles before a flatter eight-mile stretch to Arnouvaz at mile 16. The group was still together there, with the first 10 runners all within a minute of each other. Andreas Reiterer (Italy) was at the very front, and David Sinclair (U.S.), Hemming, Anthony Costales (U.S.), Drew Holmen (U.S.), and Jeshurun Small (U.S.) gave the U.S. five runners inside the top 10.
Francesco Puppi winning the 2025 CCC. Photo: UTMB
A steep three-mile climb to Grand Col Ferret followed, the race’s second major ascent. At 8,261 feet, it’s nearly as high as the earlier Tête de la Tronche. The Americans remained, but Reiterer started to fall back for the first time in the race. He crested Grand Col Ferret in ninth, almost three minutes off the leader.
After Grand Col Ferret, the race runs 11 miles downhill, first through La Fouly and on to Praz de Fort before climbing to Champex-Lac, Switzerland, at mile 34. Although beyond the halfway distance, Champex-Lac marks the unofficial halfway point of the race, and it’s considered to be where the “real race” starts with three more major climbs to go.
Near the fragile five-hour mark, before Champex-Lac, Hemming started to fall back. Down to a lead two then, Puppi and Sinclair were into Champex-Lac more than three minutes ahead of Holmen and Hemming, who were running together in third and fourth. Puppi and Sinclair were in and out of that mile 34 aid station together, but Puppi flew through town upon exit to gain immediate separation. China’s Guang-Fu Meng was now in fifth, nearly five minutes back, and Huo-Hua Zhang (China), Reiterer, Small, Simon Paccard (France), and Andreu Simon (Spain) made up the back half of the top 10 at with only 10 minutes from first to 10th place. Zhang would later drop, and Reiterer, Simon, and Costales finished outside the top 10.
Puppi created a four-minute lead on Sinclair in the next seven miles to La Giète at mile 41. This stretch included a flat section followed by the third of the race’s five big climbs. Behind Sinclair, Small was suddenly running big. He jumped four spots, passing Reiterer, Zhang, Holmen, and Hemming, to sit third, but 10 minutes back of Sinclair and 15 minutes back of Puppi. It was only about four minutes from third-place Small back to the 10th man, and there were roughly 22 miles to go.
David Sinclair looks pleased with his second place at the 2025 CCC. Photo: UTMB
There’d be a lot of shuffling behind him, but at the very front, it was Puppi’s race the rest of the way. His break leaving Champex-Lac was the go-away move, and his lead on Sinclair grew to nine minutes after the race’s fourth big climb, Les Tseppes, near mile 46. Puppi ran alone up over La Flégère at mile 58 and then downhill into Chamonix.
In only his second go at the 100k distance, Francesco Puppi won in 10:06, the event’s second-fastest finish ever behind Petter Engdahl’s course record from 2022 of 9:53.
David Sinclair stayed second to the finish in 10:13. He’s excelled in the U.S., with course records at the Speedgoat 50k and JFK 50 Mile among others, but this was an international breakout.
Drew Holmen was the best of the rest, and he closed hard on Sinclair, finishing third in 10:16.
Drew Holmen celebrates as he finishes third at the 2025 CCC. Photo: UTMB
2025 CCC Men’s Results
- Francesco Puppi (Italy) – 10:06:02
- David Sinclair (U.S.) – 10:13:42
- Drew Holmen (U.S.) – 10:16:15
- Arnaud Bonin (France) – 10:26:03
- Jeshurun Small (U.S.) – 10:28:57
- Guang-Fu Meng (China) – 10:31:36
- Eli Hemming (U.S.) – 10:34:36
- Loïc Rolland (France) – 10:36:41
- Mario Olmedo (Spain) – 10:40:19
- Gui-Du Qin (China) – 10:43:24
The 2025 CCC men’s podium (left to right): 2. David Sinclair, 1. Francesco Puppi, 3. Drew Holmen. Photo: UTMB
