The U.K.’s Tom Evans says he executed well in his win of the 2025 UTMB. In the following interview, Tom talks about how he adapted to the weather and competition, how his uphill hiking ability gave him an advantage, how self-talk was an important part of his performance, and what it was like to win an event he’s been committed to for so long.
For more on how the race played out, read our in-depth 2025 UTMB results article.
[Editor’s Note: If you are unable to see the video above, click here to access it.]
Tom Evans, 2025 UTMB Champion, Interview Transcript
iRunFar: Bryon Powell with iRunFar here with Tom Evans after his win at the 2025 UTMB. How are you this morning, Tom?
Tom Evans: Thank you very much. Thank you for having me. No, I’m very well, thank you.
iRunFar: I would hope so.
Evans: Yeah. A little bit tired, a little bit stiff, but I can deal with that, I think.
iRunFar: That’s worth it, a price worth paying, I think.
Evans: Precisely.
iRunFar: But you are moving around pretty well, but let’s rewind in time to Friday evening. Not unlike UTMBs of the past half decade, there were 10 or 20 or 30 of you, there’s 10-plus fast guys all running together for the first 80k. Did it feel like you were all together? Were you racing? Were you being patient? What was going on?
Evans: Yeah, I think it was one of those like, we were all together but everyone was definitely on different strategies. Some people were going harder on the downhills, and that was definitely not my plan. It was old school UTMB that funnily enough works, that’s hike early, hike often, and hike hard when you’re hiking. So yeah, I hiked a lot. I had my poles out a lot, and actually used poles a lot because it was wet and slippy. I used poles on the downhills, something I practiced a lot that gets some attention saying, “Well, normally it’s not the faster guys who use poles on the downhills because it slows you down actually. You don’t want to be slowed down.”
But actually, when it was muddy and slippy, so many people stacked it, and so the last thing you want to do is fall. So we were all together, but it didn’t really feel like we were. I say, it was probably me, Jon Albon, Ben Dhiman, and Théo [Detienne], it was sort of the quartet who were doing most stuff a little bit closer. And sort of Germain [Graingier] was there as well for bits, but then I think other people were just sitting behind a little bit. Yeah, what would typically happen is on a downhill, I would lose a little bit, and then on the uphill, you would gain from just hiking instead.
iRunFar: Even if it was intentional, did that feel odd at all because you come from a very strong running background. Like there’s people who come from a mountain background like…
Evans: Yeah, I think my result here, it didn’t come from my strengths from the running, it came from my hiking. And we’re talking to Ben afterwards, he said, “I’ve never seen anything like it,” which, it’s a huge compliment and it’s amazing. It’s amazing to hear. And I think Scott Johnston, my coach, has worked incredibly hard at making sure that the hiking is a real strength. And in a race like UTMB, if you can out-hike everyone, then you save a lot of energy. It’s easier to fuel, you can feel better, you’re using less energy, and it makes life really easy. Actually, if you are a bit tired, you can just hike, and you’re going quicker than anyone else.
iRunFar: And last year, you sort of thought you made some mistakes early. Did you manage to be patient? Did you feel like you were being patient early?
Evans: Yeah, I felt like I was being really patient. I was a bit concerned coming out of Saint-Gervais that I ended up taking the lead. That definitely was not the plan. I was running with Ben and Jeff [Mogavero] at the time, I said, “Oh, how many guys are in front?” And they’re like, “What do you mean?” I was like, “How many guys in front of us?” They’re like, “There’s no one. It’s us.” And at that point, I was like, “Oh, no, have I just made, already 20k in, have I already made the mistake?” So I was like, “Okay.” So there’s some sort of small rolling hills and a big, I’d say, a big tarmac climb in between Saint-Gervais and Les Contamines. So I was like, “Right, I’m just walking this bit.” Not even a hike, it was just a walk.
And then let 10 people close up, and you’re like, “Okay, this is now better. There’s now a bigger group.” Yeah, there were definitely times where I needed to consciously remind myself. I found myself a bit far forward, a bit further forward than I thought that I was going to be, but I think everyone was a little bit hesitant with the weather, and there was a lot of looking around of who’s going to take it on. There were no kamikazes from the beginning, which sometimes there are. I think everyone was fairly sensible. But yeah, lessons definitely learned that actually if you run smart and you don’t go too hard at the beginning, and I wonder how many stomach issues happen when you go too hard. I’d say most of them.
iRunFar: It’s interesting that you, almost in the same sense of a mantra, took a little reset. You could have just backed off and gone into a power hike rather than run that roller, but you even went a little step beyond that consciously.
Evans: Yeah, I think it’s really important. You’ve got such a long day that you need to look after yourself. And whether that’s with putting your jacket in gloves on early, or just slowing down and seeing like, “Oh, heart rate or effort’s a little bit high. Let’s just back off a little bit.” Let’s take 30 seconds, start feeling good again, and then get back into things rather than just trying to rush it and trying to force it. I think that was really big for me this year, is just not trying to force it, just be really fluid and do what you need to do. But then everything that you do is really, really deliberate. I am deliberately putting my jacket on or I’m deliberately unzipping it, but doing a little clip up, so it’s like a cape.
Everything I did had a purpose and a reason behind it. I wasn’t just going to, “Oh, someone else put his jacket on. I’m going to put mine on as well.” It was a, “Okay, this is what I need to do,” and then make the decision, go with it. I reckon I have my jacket on and off 20, 25 times in the race.
iRunFar: And it’s interesting because it’s you taking active care of yourself, but it’s also an active agency. If you are being proactive and doing those things and conscious about it, you’re not being reactive. And you don’t pull the narrative like, “This is happening to me.”
Evans: Yeah, I agree. But then also in a really, I guess, a fairly holistic approach. And yes, I’m not all about, I like numbers and data, but when you do something like, you can praise yourself. I said to myself so many times, “Oh, well done. That was really good.” Literally putting my gloves on, taking them off. A little bit of praise and that your brain chemicals, yeah, it’s what you need, you are fueling yourself. And it’s sort of that positive feedback that you’re giving yourself, “Oh, I did that really well.” You then do it again, and you do it again, and before you know it, you’re smiling and you’re like, “Ah, we’re here because we want to be here. That’s out of choice, and I’m really happy. I’m having a really good day.” And that then sort of compartmentalizes itself and you go from, “I’m really happy I’m having a good day, so I’m then even happier, and I’m having an even better day.” Yeah, I think stuff like that really helped.
iRunFar: And anybody from at the very front of the pack to the very back of the pack can take that same lesson and…
Evans: 100%, yeah. Be kind to yourself and do the things that you need to do to get the job done.
iRunFar: Yeah. So we’re at Courmayeur now. There’s still a bunch of you together. It’s not quite so packed up. Walk me up the Grand Col Ferret.
Evans: So going on the balcony, I was very chilled. We caught up with Théo, who… Théo pushed just before Courmayeur and got a bit of a gap on us, and we could sort of see his headlamp at points on the balcony.
iRunFar: And who are you with?
Evans: Me and Ben Dhiman were together at this point. And Jon was there for a little bit, but then dropped off.
iRunFar: Were you two actively working together at all or …
Evans: Not really. We’d taken turns to be at the front, but that was normally coincidental. And then, I then realized coming into our Arnouva that I sort of turned around, or maybe I said something to Ben and he didn’t reply, which was very unlike him. So I sort of turned around and couldn’t see him, couldn’t see his lamp. So I thought, “Okay. Well, maybe he’s just tied a shoelace or whatever.” Got into Arnouva, then as I left Arnouva, he was coming in, so like, “Okay, that’s a minute.” So then, I didn’t do anything crazy. I sort of just got my poles and just started hiking, but always sort of race-pace-plus for 10 minutes and could just see the gap growing and growing. And I felt really comfortable, I already had my jacket on, I had thick gloves on.
iRunFar: You’re ahead of Théo at this point?
Evans: Yeah.
iRunFar: Okay.
Evans: Ahead of Théo at this point. And just felt really good climbing and the conditions were grim. So I was like, “Cool, great. Let’s work on this climb.” And I think I put six, seven minutes into Ben on the climb and 99% hiking. And I just thought, right, if I can get to the top, then the weather was so miserable at the top. Yeah. It was the first time I’ve had to use some clear glasses at night, and it was a complete game-changer. You actually needed them.
And then at that point, we’ve just kept sort of taking a minute here, a minute there, not pushing hard, but just trying to be really smooth. And again, it was at this point, it was like, “Okay. Well, now, once you had established a gap, you need to keep it. If the deficit goes the wrong way and he starts closing in a little bit, then that’s going to push him forward. But it’s like, “Right, let’s get 10 minutes.” It’s not a massive gap, but 10 minutes is still 10 minutes. If you had to sit down on a rock for 10 minutes and wait for someone, it seems like a really long time.
And then, yeah, I just really looked after myself, changed my clothes a lot, changed my jackets a lot, changed my gloves at every opportunity. Yeah, I just managed things well from a pacing standpoint. Yeah, just ran to really cruisy, and then hiked really hard.
iRunFar: So basically it was one push up out of Arnouva, you really went beyond.
Evans: Yeah. Yeah. I think then all of the subsequent climbs were all probably a similar effort. I just felt really strong in the hikes. It came up on the Strava that from Courmayeur to La Fouly from 2022 compared to this year, I was 50 minutes faster this year. And yes, we didn’t do Pyramids, so we didn’t have as much fatigue in the legs. But yeah, we were still really rolling, which was a nice place to be.
iRunFar: And do you feel like your fitness was 50 minutes faster or was that a testament to taking care of yourself?
Evans: I think a combination. I definitely think not going too hard then allowed things to open up a little bit. I think in terms of pure numbers in the lab, I tested better eight weeks before UTMB than I did eight weeks before Western States. And I think the Training Peaks numbers and everything was pointing towards higher fitness, but in a different, more sort of muscular endurance and resistance to fatigue rather than just a massive engine for Western States. Yeah, the training was incredibly specific for the demands of the race, doing a lot of hiking.
iRunFar: Yeah, tell me about your specific uphill training, because that’s …
Evans: I think the uphill training, we did a lot here. I’ve been in Chamonix for eight weeks, and we would do the Chamonix VK, but just up to Planpraz, so a thousand meters of climbing. We’d do one with a 15-kilogram pack on, and a sort of a tempo effort. Funnily enough, a similar effort to what I climbed Grand Col Ferret. At the top, I would then drop the pack off, and I would then run down the slightly longer way with maybe a couple of small pushes, sort of a fartlek downhill. I would then hike up at whatever the average heart rate was for the first one. I would then have the average heart rate for the second one. So it ended up being somewhere between 12 and 15 minutes faster on the second one, but you’ve already got the fatigue in your legs, and that was the specificity.
That was a two and a half hour session, then take the lift down just to save your legs a little bit. There definitely isn’t one session that was the make or break for race. We did that session every week for seven weeks, but that was on top of a foundation of doing a lot. When we were back home, I did a lot on the treadmill with a weighted vest.
iRunFar: And that’s just hiking.
Evans: And that was just hiking because I had our daughter, Phoebe, and a baby crib next to me while I was doing that.
iRunFar: Your wife gets a little break, and you’re a dad on the treadmill.
Evans: Precisely. Yeah, did far more hiking this year. I guess, not doing a cross-country run season just allows you to do … I think a cross-country run season’s really good, probably in the Western States year, but I think mountains in the U.K., the weather was, yes, the weather was bad this weekend, but that’s a fairly standard day out in the U.K., minus the snow. I think it was just being able to look after yourself and be able to make those decisions and understand the, “Okay. Well, I’ve got a jacket on and gloves on. How do I fuel?” So knowing, “Okay. Well, let’s change the fueling strategy. Instead of having gels, let’s just have more drink mix, because you don’t need to undo a gel wrap with that, or more do small bottles where you can put three gels in. Instead of having to rip open your gel, you just have to flip it open. So if you’ve got mitts on, which I did with a thumb, you can just flip it.
iRunFar: Yeah. As opposed to having wet gloves that are cold and not quite as dexterous.
Evans: And then trying to do that, and then put it in your sort of trash pocket or whatever.
iRunFar: Yeah. So you simplify your routine when things got a little complicated.
Evans: And changed it, being able to say. And I think being able to say, “Okay. Well, things aren’t happening as …” The weather was possibly worse than people had thought. It looked bad at the beginning, and then it said, “Oh, it snowing. It had the opportunity to be so bad, but then it was pretty grim. So yeah, I think just being able to adapt things on the move and sort of trusting yourself, making the decision, and then going with it rather than not making a decision at all.
iRunFar: Or questioning once you do it.
Evans: Or questioning once you do it.
iRunFar: So let’s get to the last 50k-plus. You’ve built a more substantial lead. Is there any time that you ever backed off? Like, not backed off to 90%, but backed off to 96, 97 percent where you’re…
Evans: Not really, to be honest. You just never know who’s coming through. I have been in Vallorcine 20 minutes behind someone, and if you pop, you pop. So it was just an, okay, just keep going for as long as you can because you just don’t know who … Someone could be coming like a train behind you, and you’ve just got no idea.
iRunFar: Germain’s light goes on or whatever it is.
Evans: These things happen. No, I kept going. I relaxed a little bit on the final descent from Flégère, but still moving pretty well. But it was at that point that I knew that as I was at Flégère, I knew Ben was just starting the first descent in the forest. To that point, I was like, “Okay. Well, if I stay on my feet, I’m probably okay.”
iRunFar: That’s where you could… Yeah, you got to keep the rubber side down. Yeah.
Evans: Yeah, start to enjoy it a little bit more. But no, we stayed in Argentière this year, so a lot of my standard run was going up Col de Balme, dropping into Trient, and then doing the Trient UTMB climb, descending into Vallorcine, and then running along the bottom back to Argentière. So for me, that was genuinely, genuinely felt like I had the home advantage. Especially, when I got to Trient, I was like, “Okay, this is my least favorite climb of the course, but I reckon I’ve done it twice a week for eight weeks.” So it is like, “Okay. Well, take something you don’t like and convince yourself that you like it.” That’s a lie, I still don’t like it.
iRunFar: So not in the context of winning this specific edition, but what were your emotions in those last miles or today in the context of running UTMB all these years? You’ve had very good performances, you had some performances that were rougher.
Evans: I think this year has just been really simple. It’s not that I don’t care, or not that I don’t try, but just not trying too hard. I think if you become so fixated with something. I think Jim [Walmsley] said it really well. He felt like he needed to win the race rather than wanting to win. And that was something that I took into this year. I don’t need to do anything. I am not doing this for other people. I’m doing this myself. I really want to win.
And I think that was definitely something that I took. And yeah, he said it really well. And going in without that stress and without that pressure was brilliant. I think the UTMB is growing and growing over the years, and the support is getting more and more incredible. And Vallorcine this year is just bonk. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. So yeah, the emotions were there, but I think I’m very much in the mindset like, “It’s not over until it’s over.”
And having been in 2018, I was in second place, and I took the lead going into the Flégère aid station. You can’t count your chickens until you’re cross the line. So yeah, I think from an emotion standpoint, for me, it showed that there were definitely times where I thought before the race, like, what if I have another bad year? If I had another bad year, I genuinely don’t know what, I couldn’t have done three DNFs in a row, all my fault. Had I fell over and just whatever, like, fine.
iRunFar: Stuff happens.
Evans: But had it been my fault, I really don’t know. So, I guess, that was a bit of a concern. Yeah, I think it’s just nice to show people that it’s not failure, just try and learn. And yes, it took me a couple of years to learn, but … I think Jim won here on his fourth attempt as well. And actually, Jim and I have had very similar results. I think Jim in his first year was fourth or fifth.
iRunFar: Had an all right, a strong finish. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Evans: Yeah, he had a good first race. DNF, DNF. Sorry, DNF, then he was third. Maybe it was his fifth year that he won here.
iRunFar: But it wasn’t all bad and it wasn’t all good, like you said.
Evans: No, precisely. And that’s the race, it’s such an incredible race that throws so many challenges. Some years you’ll respond better than others, and to be able to put out your best performance on the day that really counts is not as easy as it might seem.
iRunFar: Yeah. So, do you have anything left on your plate for 2025?
Evans: I’m actually racing the British Gravel Cycling Championships in a couple of weeks.
iRunFar: So yes, but it’s probably nice to switch gears a little, literally.
Evans: Yeah. No, probably not. I think we put so much into this block, and what I really don’t want to do is make the same mistake that I did after Western States, and the next day sign up to some races. Like yes, there are things I would love to do, but I’ve been working at winning UTMB since I started trail running in 2017. And I seem to think that that was yesterday, but it’s actually now quite a long time ago. So I will definitely be enjoying it, spend time with friends, spend time with family, and then start mapping out something for …
iRunFar: Yeah. So zooming out, you talk about starting that journey in 2017. You’ve also won Western States, you’ve won some other really big races, is there anything out there, whether it’s a race or a running adventure, what kind is out there to draw you forward?
Evans: I think the two things that really interest me at the moment, especially with the hiking that has been a big thing, so a race out of my comfort, on paper out of my comfort, and something like Hardrock really does. Now, I have a Hardrock qualifier, which is very important, I imagine I’ll be putting my name in the hat for that, which would be really cool to do. The Bob Graham Round in the U.K. So next year, yeah, I could see my year being outside of Tom Evans comfort zone with maybe a Bob Graham and then Hardrock. I think those dates might work quite nicely with that if one had already looked into it.
iRunFar: Maybe back of the mind.
Evans: I think I’d love to go back to Western States. And that might be an option, but in order to do it again, I would want to go to Flagstaff eight weeks early. My wife Sophie will then be back in racing and who knows what will happen. So yeah, we will play things by ear.
iRunFar: You’ve got a couple different season schedules like, there’s lotteries and there’s getting in, there’s all these things, but you’ve got some ideas.
Evans: Yeah, just play the cards that you’re dealt and see what happens.
iRunFar: All right. Well, congratulations, Tom.
Evans: All right. Thanks very much.
