Spain’s Canary Islands are an absolute hotspot for trail running and ultrarunning, and this weekend’s 2026 Transvulcania Ultramarathon is taking it to another level.
The six-race Transvulcania festival is taking place on La Palma, the most northwestern of the Canary Islands and the fifth-largest of the eight main Canary Islands. The event’s Vertical Kilometer and Half Marathon races are both part of the Mountain Running World Cup, but the 73-kilometer (45.4 miles) ultra is the marquee distance.
The 2025 Transvulcania Ultramarathon had unusually dismal weather for the start at the southern end of La Palma island. Photo: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
The Transvulcania Ultramarathon starts on the island’s southern tip and runs north, over a string of volcanoes and over 2,420-meter (7,940-foot) Roque de los Muchachos, the island’s high point. It then plunges west to nearly touch the ocean before climbing up to finish in the city of Los Llanos. The point-to-point route gains 4,350 meters (14,270 feet) of elevation. It’s a challenging but runnable course.
The event has a 39,500 Euro cash purse across its races, with a 6,000 Euro first-place prize.
Last year, the race was characterized by exceptionally bad weather. Despite this, Slovakia’s Peter Fraňo came close to Spain’s Luis Alberto Hernando’s course record of 6:52:39, which has stood since 2015. That’s a lifetime ago in the current era of ultrarunning. Fraňo won last year in 6:55:36. France’s Anne-Lise Rousset Séguret won the 2025 women’s race in 8:18:17, and Kiwi Ruth Croft holds the women’s course record with her 8:02:49 run from 2024.
The 2025 Transvulcania Ultramarathon women’s podium hugs at the finish. From left to right are Martina Valmassoi, Anne-Lise Rousset Séguret, and Ekaterina Mityaeva. Photo: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
Is this the year that the men’s mark finally goes down, or that a woman runs under eight hours? Top men’s entrants, Ben Dhiman of the U.S. and Italy’s Andreas Reiterer, and women’s favorites, neutral athlete Ekaterina Mityaeva and France’s Blandine L’Hirondel, are certainly capable of all of that.
The Ultramarathon starts at 6 a.m. local time (Western European Summer Time) on Saturday, May 9. That’s 11 p.m. Friday, May 8 Mountain Daylight Time in the U.S. iRunFar will be there providing on-site coverage of this spring blockbuster.
2026 Transvulcania Ultramarathon Men’s Preview
Contenders for the Men’s Win
Ben Dhiman was world class in 2025, and he’s the biggest of the race favorites. An American living in France, Dhiman’s got a seemingly limitless ceiling. Perpetually on the up and up, last year he was second at UTMB, set a new course record at the Lavaredo Ultra Trail, and won at Grand Raid Ventoux, too. This will be Dhiman’s first race of 2026, and his first go at the Transvulcania Ultramarathon, but he documented a big winter of training on his Substack as he builds toward UTMB as the year’s goal race.
Ben Dhiman finishing in second at the 2025 UTMB. Photo: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
Andreas Reiterer of Italy has already raced a handful of times in 2026. When the nearby Tenerife Bluetrail event was canceled in March, Reiterer shifted to the Chianti 120k in his native Italy and finished second. He’s raced twice more in Italy in 2026, winning a 50k and finishing third in a 30k. Reiterer was second in last year’s bad-weather Transvulcania race in 6:58 and was third here in 2023 in 7:17, too.
Andreas Reiterer looking quite pleased with second place at the 2025 Transvulcania Ultramarathon. Photo: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
The 2022 winner of Transvulcania, Petter Engdahl of Sweden, gets less than three weeks of recovery after running a 2:23 at the 2026 Boston Marathon on April 20, his road marathon debut. He split 1:08 through halfway and gave some time back in the second half, pointing to blisters on social media afterward for part of the slowdown. Earlier this year, he had a shaky run at the 2026 Tarawera in New Zealand in February and didn’t finish the 102k race there. Engdahl was better through a busy 2025, though. His results are highlighted by a fourth place at OCC and a sixth-place finish at the Trail World Championships Long Trail.
Petter Engdahl, 2022 CCC men’s champion. Photo: UTMB
Dmitry Mityaev missed last year’s race with an injury, but he’s finished second here in 2018, 2019, and 2024. Competing as a neutral athlete, this will be the first time we’ve seen Mityaev race in 2026. After four DNFs through the middle of 2025, Mityaev closed the year well with a second-place finish in the Ultra-Trail Cape Town 100k and a third-place finish at the Chiangmai Thailand 100k only two weeks later. If Mityaev gets to the finish, it’s usually on the podium.
Dmitry Mityaev on his way to winning the 2023 Ultra-Trail Cape Town 100k. Photo: iRunFar/Neville Sharwood
David Sinclair of the U.S. was at Transvulcania last year, but didn’t finish. Sinclair rebounded from that early season drop to finish second at the 2025 Broken Arrow Skyrace 46k, second at CCC, and second at the JFK 50 Mile, too. Sinclair has competed in ski mountaineering this winter, as per his usual wintertime training, but was on nearby Gran Canaria in February for a Craft brand running team camp. However, that week of training was limited by illness. He did just win the Canyons 25k and is ramping toward his 100-mile debut at the Western States 100 in June.
David Sinclair finishes in second place at the 2025 CCC. Photo: UTMB
More Fast Men
France’s Gautier Bonnecarrère is coming into this event off a seventh-place finish at the Penyagolosa MiM earlier this year. While he didn’t finish OCC in 2025, the same year he was fourth at the Lavaredo Ultra Trail 50k and won the Madeira Island 40k. He was ninth at the 2024 UTMB.
Romanian runner Raul Butaci won this year’s Penyagolosa CSP race in Spain in April, finishing about six minutes back of Ben Dhiman’s 2023 course record. Butaci was second, and 13 minutes behind Dhiman, at the 2025 Lavaredo Ultra Trail, too. In 2024, he finished 16th at Transvulcania and was 19th in 2018.
Raul Butaci wins the 2024 Transgrancanaria Classic. Photo: Transgrancanaria/Miguel Travieso
While Mexico’s Jupiter Carera has had years of top performances in his home country, he broke out internationally at the 2024 Black Canyon 100k, where he took second. Since then, his performances have been strong, but perhaps not to the same level. Just a couple of weeks ago, he took second at the 2026 Canyons 50k behind the winner, Matt Daniels, who is also in this race.
Australian Billy Curtis was just second at the recent Madeira Island Ultra-Trail 56k race. In both 2024 and 2023, he was third at the Ultra-Trail Australia 22k.
Matt Daniels of the U.S. didn’t have the best year of racing in 2025. He ran a quick 3:27 for second at last year’s Canyons 50k, but didn’t finish an ultra the rest of the year and dropped in the bad weather at Transvulcania. Daniels is better, so far, in 2026. He won the Canyons 50k in 3:21, setting a new course record.
Matt Daniels before the 2021 Western States 100. Photo: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
France’s Théo Detienne saw a 2025 that included the highs of a win at the Mont Blanc 90k and the lows of a DNF at UTMB. With a former focus on skyrunning, he’s stepped up in distance in recent years and finished fifth at Les Templiers 80k in 2024.
Tobias Geiser of Italy finished just off the 2026 Chianti 120k podium. It was a good finish, but he was over 15 minutes behind second-place Reiterer there. He was back from Dhiman and Butaci at last year’s Lavaredo Ultra Trail, too, when he again finished fourth.
Luís Alberto Hernando is the course record holder, but that was in 2015. The Spanish star, who is a three-time trail world champion, is 48 years old now. In more recent years, he was 12th at the 2024 Transvulcania and 14th at the 2024 Penyagolosa MiM.
Luis Alberto Hernando on his way to his third-straight Trail World Championships win in 2018. Photo: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
Damien Humbert from France was second at the 2023 Transvulcania. In the years since, he hasn’t finished a race longer than 56k.
Germany’s Janosch Kowalczyk was fifth at this year’s Tarawera 102k. Looking further back, he was third at the 2023 Black Canyon 100k and 10th at the 2023 Western States 100.
Nadir Maguet of Italy has more often raced shorter distances. He dropped from this year’s Chianti Marathon, and he’s seemingly never raced longer than a 60k. While success at longer distances has eluded him so far, he’s been successful in the Skyrunner World Series.
Nadir Maguet, the 2024 Maga Skymarathon men’s winner. Photo: Skyrunner World Series
The Moroccan runner living in Spain, Zaid Ait Malek has more commonly raced shorter distances. He’s familiar with La Palma, though, and was fifth at the Transvulcania Marathon in 2024, and third on the long course in 2017. Malek’s best 2025 finish was a win at the Reventón El Paso Marathon, also on La Palma.
Zaid Ait Malek wins the 2021 Gorbeia Suzien. Photo: Chris Alonzo
Ionel Manole is a Romanian based in Spain, and he was fifth at this race in 2024, fourth at the Transgrancanaria Classic in 2025, and won the Ultra-Trail Xiamen 100k in China in March 2026.
Spain’s Mario Olmedo was fourth at the 2025 Transvulcania Marathon, and while he generally races shorter distances, he was third at the 60-kilometer Penyagolosa MiM in 2026 and ninth at CCC in 2025.
Poland’s Bartłomiej Przedwojewski was an early Golden Trail World Series runner and has stepped up in distance in recent years, but he hasn’t found the same success he did as a podium regular at races like the Zegama Marathon. Przedwojewski’s ultra record has a win at the 2025 Restonica Trail 60k, but drops on bigger stages at CCC and Grand Raid Ventoux 100k in that same year.
Bartłomiej Przedwojewski looking fresh after taking third at the 2024 Zegama Marathon. Photo: Zegama Marathon/Roger Salanova
Jia-Sheng Shen was only sixth at this year’s Tarawera 102k. That was perhaps a lower-than-expected finish for the Chinese runner after an eighth-place run at the 2025 UTMB and wins at the 2025 Mt. Fuji 70k and Ultra-Trail Australia 100k, as well as a fourth-place finish at the 2023 Western States 100.
Jia-Sheng Shen running to fourth place at the 2023 Western States 100. Photo: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
The U.K.’s Robbie Simpson is a prolific 50k racer but has only done a handful of races longer than that. Simpson won the January 2026 Arc of Attrition Marathon and April 2026 Lake Sonoma 50k. Between Europe and South Africa, he was on the podium of some half dozen other races in 2025, too.
Robbie Simpson crosses the line in second place at the 2021 Sierre-Zinal race. Photo: World Mountain Running Association
Like a few others in this group, Japan’s Ruy Ueda is best known as a shorter-course trail runner. He won and placed second at the Chiangmai Thailand 56k in 2024 and 2025. He did win the 2023 Ultra-Trail Kosciuszko 106k in Australia, but hasn’t landed other big competitive ultras. Ueda dropped at last year’s OCC and was 46th at the 2025 Trail World Championships Short Trail race. So far this year Ueda was second at the Mt. Fuji 40k.
Ruy Ueda, the Chiangmai Thailand 50k men’s winner. Photo: Chiangmai Thailand by UTMB
Pablo Villa from Spain has an ultra history going back to 2010. Recently, he was eighth at Transvulcania in 2025, and he won the Mozart 100k in Austria last year, too.
Pablo Villa, the 2025 Mozart 120k men’s winner. Photo: Birgit Kramer
2026 Transvulcania Ultramarathon Women’s Preview
Favorites for the Women’s Win
The women’s elite entrant list is largely Spanish, but a handful of international runners are expected to run at the front of the field.
Last year’s runner-up, Ekaterina Mityaeva, who races as a neutral athlete, is the top returning finisher from 2025. She finished last year’s race in 8:36, 18 minutes behind the race winner. Mityaeva’s got a long history here. She was third in 2021, fourth in 2024 and 2019, fifth in 2018, and seventh in 2017. Might this be her year to finish first? More recently, she was second at the Chiangmai Thailand 100k at the end of 2025, and third at the 2025 Mont Blanc 90k. We’ve yet to see her on a race course in 2026.
Ekaterina Mityaeva finishing second at the 2025 Transvulcania Ultramarathon. Photo: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
It’s pretty rare for France’s Blandine L’Hirondel to finish off the podium. She was fourth at the 2025 CCC, won the 2025 Diagonale des Fous, and won the 2025 Mont Blanc 90k. Further back, she won the 2022 Trail World Championships Long Trail in Thailand.
Blandine L’Hirondel, the 2025 Diagonale des Fous women’s winner. Photo courtesy of the race.
Two-time Transvulcania winner Emelie Forsberg is coming back. Swedish but living in Norway, Forsberg won in 2013 in 8:13 and again in 2015 in 8:32. Though not racing often in recent years, she tied for the win in a 33k race in Mallorca, Spain, in March 2026, and in 2025 she was third at the Mallorca 50k. How close to her decade-plus-ago finish times can she get?
Emelie Forsberg running in the mountains. Photo: Philipp Reiter
Fan favorite Lucy Bartholomew from Australia was 10th at this year’s Tarawera 102k and 12th there in 2025. Her big performance last year was a seventh-place finish at UTMB, but she did so with a bum knee from a fall early in the race. The year before at UTMB, she snuck into the top 10 with a 10th-place finish. A steadfast performer, Bartholomew should be in it all race.
Lucy Bartholomew during the 2025 UTMB. Photo: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
Sarah Biehl broke a longstanding JFK 50 Mile course record in 2022, and it’s still the race’s third-fastest time ever, but the American hasn’t followed it up with much other breakout ultra success. Biehl was sixth at the 2025 Canyons 100k, but has had quite a few drops in recent years, too, including at this year’s Chuckanut 50k. She was sixth at the Canyons 50k in late April 2026.
Sarah Biehl setting a course record at the 2022 JFK 50 Mile. Photo: Daniel Kauffman/Herald-Mail Media
More Fast Women
Neutral runner Anastasia Davydova will go up in distance after last year’s fourth-place run at the Transvulcania Marathon. She’s raced long courses before, though, and won last year’s Puglia 140k and was fourth at the Mont Blanc 90k.
France’s Céline Finas was third at the 2024 TDS, eighth at the event in 2022, and won it in 2021. She raced Transvulcania back in 2019.
Céline Finas, the 2025 Trail Verbeier St. Bernard 87 Mile women’s winner. Photo: UTMB World Series
Spain’s Azara García is a veteran of the game. She dropped here last year, was eighth in 2024, and was second at the event’s Half Marathon way back in 2014. She most recently dropped at the Penyagolosa MiM race in Spain in April.
Azara García, on her way to winning the 2023 Marathon del Meridiano. Photo: Marathon del Meridiano
Julie Lesage of Canada has raced mostly in her home country but was third at the Istria 110k in 2025.
In 2023, Daniela Oemus from Germany won the Zegama Marathon. She was sixth at the Trail Running World Championships Short Trail and fifth at OCC that same year. A year later, she was seventh at Zegama and dropped at OCC.
Virginia Perez from Spain dropped on the big CCC stage in both 2025 and 2024 but was fourth at the Ultra Pirineu 100k in 2024 and second at the Lavaredo Ultra Trail 80k that same year.
Virginia Perez, 2018 Matterhorn Ultraks champion. Photo: Skyrunner World Series
Mireia Pons has raced all around her Spanish home country. She was second at the 2026 Marathon Costa Brava race, third at the 2025 Penyagolosa Trail MiM, and fifth at the 2025 Tenerife Bluetrail 47k.
Call for Comments
- Will there be new course records this year?
- Who should be in this preview and who isn’t? See an error or omission? You know what to do in the comments section!
