With the sun set on a spring day in the Italian countryside, the 2026 Chianti Ultra Trail by UTMB 120k is done and dusted, and Courtney Dauwalter (U.S.) and Thomas Cardin (France) are this year’s champions. As one of the final races in this season’s Western States 100 Golden Ticket Races series, whereby top finishers earn coveted entries to the June 2026 event, the race drew folks on the hunt for Golden Tickets as well as others seeking a spring barnburner. And this is exactly what competitors found.
The pre-sunrise start of the 2026 Chianti Ultra Trail by UTMB 120k in Italy. Photo: Chianti Ultra Trail/Filippo Orlandi
The 120-kilometer (75 miles) route has over 5,200 meters (17,000 feet) of climbing, making a hilly loop through the famed Chianti wine-making region of Italy, starting and finishing in the village of Radda in Chianti. Fields of grapes, centuries-old buildings in rural villages, incessant ups and downs, and a course that’s backloaded with the hardest terrain are markers of this event, taking place a few hours south of Florence.
Top women’s contenders ahead of the race included the likes of American Rachel Entrekin, entering this event with a winning streak of something around 20 ultras; Norway’s Yngvild Kaspersen, who is perhaps best known for her 2023 CCC win and fifth place at the 2024 Western States 100; China’s Lin Chen, with top finishes including fourth at both the 2024 UTMB and 2025 Black Canyon 100k; and the surprise late entry of American trail running G.O.A.T. Dauwalter, pivoting to Chianti following the unfortunate weather cancellation of the same weekend’s Tenerife Bluetrail by UTMB event on the Spanish Canary Islands.
The men’s headliners were easily French countrymen Vincent Bouillard and Cardin. Bouillard is best known as the 2024 UTMB champ who was returning after finishing third at this race last year, while Cardin’s historically been a shorter course specialist who is moving to longer distances of late, with a resume that includes a win at the 2024 Les Templiers and sixth at last year’s Zegama Marathon. Italian Andreas Reiterer, this race’s 2024 champ with plenty of other accolades, including a pair of podiums at the 2022 and 2023 Trail World Championships Long Trail, was another late entrant from the canceled Tenerife Bluetrail.
Both Reiterer for the men and Dauwalter for the women were granted official entry by the race organization under its late-entrance policy.
As part of the Western States 100 Golden Ticket Races series, two Golden Tickets were up for grabs in each of the women’s and men’s races.
Read on to see how the races played out.
2026 Chianti Ultra Trail by UTMB 120k Women’s Race
Norway’s Mari Wetterhus was the surprise early pace setter, passing through the first aid station at 12 kilometers with a lead of a few seconds on the rest of the women’s field. A bit of an unknown quantity, Wetterhus looks to be a national-level Nordic biathlete whose been racing trail and ultras for a couple of years.
Running just behind her were all the expected top contenders — Norway’s Yngvild Kaspersen, the U.S.’s Rachel Entrekin, China’s Lin Chen, and the U.S.’s Courtney Dauwalter — making up the top five. This trend continued past Castello di Brolio (38k), where Wetterhus held her lead, and the next four stayed in place, the only change being that the women’s top five was now spread over a couple of minutes.
Courtney Dauwalter, 2026 Chianti Ultra Trail by UTMB 120k women’s champion. Photo: Chianti Ultra Trail/Alessandro Moretti
By Monteluco, 51k, the women’s field was shaken up, with Kaspersen bringing the group through as the new leader, Entrekin a couple of seconds back, and Dauwalter another few seconds behind in third. Early leader Wetterhus had lapsed back to about five minutes off the lead in fourth place. While she continued to move out of podium contention, she eventually took sixth place. Also around this spot, Chen began to distance herself from the top runners and finally dropped another 30k down the trail.
With early race antics complete, Kaspersen, Entrekin, and Dauwalter were left to their own devices at the front. The trio stayed close to each other for the 70k of racing that remained. At 59k and with roughly 4:50 elapsed on the race clock, they ran through within 30 seconds of each other, with Kaspersen at the helm. Another couple of hours later, at 74k, the same thing: Kaspersen and Entrekin passing through basically together, with Dauwalter just behind. At a bit over eight hours of racing and about 33k left to run, it was Kaspersen, Dauwalter, and Entrekin as one-two-three and within a minute.
The splits at the final checkpoint of Villa San Michele (105k), around the top of the final major climb, showed it could be a nailbiter until the end. That said, there was now a bit of daylight between each runner, as Kaspersen still led, while Entrekin chased about 2.5 minutes behind, and Dauwalter was third, just over a minute back from second.
Not only could it be a nail-biter, but it was! Sometime in that final 15k, which included a long downhill and some more of this course’s relentless ups and downs, Courtney Dauwalter assumed the lead to cross the line as the women’s champion in a time of 11:31:55. Longtime race leader Yngvild Kaspersen stopped the clock in second place in 11:33:34, just over 1.5 minutes back of the winner. And Rachel Entrekin ran across the line in third position just under five more minutes in arrears, in 11:38:13.
As far as those Western States 100 Golden Tickets go, second-place Kaspersen is a yes on accepting hers, and the second ticket rolled down to fifth-place finisher Lauren Puretz, who eagerly accepted it. Champ Dauwalter, third-place Entrekin, and fourth-place Gemma Hillier Moses kindly declined the ticket offers.
The 2026 Chianti Ultra Trail by UTMB 120k women’s podium (left to right): 3. Rachel Entrekin, 1. Courtney Dauwalter, 2. Yngvild Kaspersen. Photo: Chianti Ultra Trail/Alessandro Moretti
2026 Chianti Ultra Trail by UTMB 120k Women’s Results
- Courtney Dauwalter (U.S.) – 11:31:55
- Yngvild Kaspersen (Norway) – 11:33:34
- Rachel Entrekin (U.S.) – 11:38:13
- Gemma Hillier Moses (U.K.) – 12:04:30
- Lauren Puretz (U.S.) – 12:25:13
- Mari Wetterhus (Norway) – 12:56:32
- Eve Moore (U.K.) – 13:24:06
- Ragna Debats (The Netherlands) – 13:43:45
- Manon Gras (France) – 13:49:54
- Kristina Hanecakova (Slovakia) – 14:10:54
2026 Chianti Ultra Trail by UTMB 120k Men’s Race
Unlike the women’s race, which had a leader off the front, the early kilometers of the men’s race’s were highlighted by a break group of seven men, which whittled down to five by around Castello di Brolio at 38k and included France’s Vincent Bouillard, Andorra’s Samuel Ponce, Italy’s Andreas Reiterer, France’s Thomas Cardin, and Italy’s Tobias Geiser.
At the village of Monteluco (51k), it was now a three-man race for the lead between expected top contenders Cardin, Reiterer, and Bouillard, who came through together in just over four hours elapsed on the race clock. Geiser had moved back to fourth place, a couple of minutes back of the trio, and early co-leader Ponce had slipped to fifth, also a couple of minutes off the lead. Ponce would eventually drop, while Geiser would maintain that fourth position as far away as the finish line over six hours later.
Thomas Cardin, 2026 Chianti Ultra Trail by UTMB 120k men’s champion. Photo: Chianti Ultra Trail/Alessandro Moretti
The men’s podium race thus became a three-way race, and for a bit of the remaining 70k, the men stayed fairly close together. At 58k, for example, they were within seconds of each other. But in the middle of the race, things changed. At 87k, Cardin had shaken free in the lead and built a gap of over six minutes. This was a gap he maintained, passing through each remaining checkpoint with a six- to eight-minute lead, reportedly looking calm and collected the whole way. Ultimately, France’s Thomas Cardin won in 9:58:38, thereby continuing to demonstrate his ability on longer courses, as he has shown in shorter-distance trail racing over the years.
The race for the remaining podium positions remained dynamic. At all the checkpoints in the second half of the race, Reiterer ran through in second and Bouillard third, but there was never much distance between them. Things were still close after the tough uphill run to the finish, where Italy’s Andreas Reiterer took second in 10:06:16, and France’s Vincent Bouillard finished third in 10:06:52, just over 30 seconds later, for the second year in a row.
In the race for the men’s Western States 100 Golden Tickets, winner Cardin has officially accepted his, while second-place Reiterer has declined due to him and his wife being due with their second child around the June race date. Third-place Bouillard excitedly accepted the ticket.
The 2026 Chianti Ultra Trail by UTMB 120k men’s podium (left to right): 2. Andreas Reiterer, 1. Thomas Cardin, 3. Vincent Bouillard. Photo: Chianti Ultra Trail/Marzia Benigna
2026 Chianti Ultra Trail by UTMB 120k Men’s Results
- Thomas Cardin (France) – 9:58:38
- Andreas Reiterer (Italy) – 10:06:16
- Vincent Bouillard (France) – 10:06:52
- Tobias Geiser (Italy) – 10:21:35
- Baptiste Coatantiec (France) – 10:49:17
- Jeff Mogavero (U.S.) – 10:55:24
- Rémi Gillie (France) – 11:18:49
- Charles Van Tiggelen (Belgium) – 11:21:21
- Bogdan Ibanescu (Romania) – 11:30:45
- Harry Jones (U.K.) – 11:34:54
