Lizzy Hawker crosses the line at Chamonix in last year's race. Photo: Chiara Dendena
Fans of ultrarunning will be able to watch one of the world’s toughest mountain races on web-tv.
Sponsors The North Face will set up an online broadcast following the Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc at the end of this month.
The race passes through three countries and the 6,000 runners will have to complete a combined ascent higher than Everest.
British runner Jez Bragg is a past winner of the race and Lizzy Hawker was first woman home in last year’s event. This month’s running of the race will be the 10th time the event has taken place.
Competitors from 73 nations are due to take part in the race, which starts on 27 August in Chamonix before following a 168km circuit of Mont Blanc passing through France, Italy and Switzerland, crossing 10 high mountain passes, with an accumulated positive height gain of 9,600m.
The shorter Courmayeur Champex Chamonix race will run over 100km race with 5,950m of ascent; and the Sur les Traces des Ducs de Savoie covers 112km with 7,150m gain.
The North Face Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc web-tv first images in both French and English will begin with the live start of the Petite Trotte à Léon on Monday 27 August 27 at 10pm.
From 28 to 29 August there will be feature episodes on preparation, race, recovery and technical trail-running advice provided by special guest presenters.
This will be followed by 84 hours of non-stop live webcast coverage from Thursday 30 August at 6am with the with the start of the TDS, covering the CCC and UTMB races until 8pm on Sunday 2 September.
Each day from Thursday to Sunday at 9am, 1pm and 8pm, anchorman Gilles Chappaz will present 15-minute live news updates with special guests including Météo France’s forecasters and previous race winners.
Also broadcast live will be two event press conferences – the official pre-race conference, on Thursday 30 August 6 to 7.30pm, and the post-race conference on Sunday with the winners from each race.
Fans of particular runners will also be able to follow their progress via social media such as Facebook and Twitter as a chip carried by each competitor will record their timings as they pass through checkpoints.
The web-tv broadcasts will be available later this month and tracking of athletes can be done via The North Face’s UTMB website.
