CCC HISTORY: FROM UTMB'S LITTLE SISTER TO THE 100K FINAL
More than 1,000 runners left Courmayeur on an August morning in 2006, bound for Chamonix by way of two national borders and the Grand Col Ferret. The organizers of the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc had created a second race to absorb demand their main event could no longer hold. Two decades later, that half loop has a championship of its own.
The CCC takes its name from its three anchor towns, Courmayeur in Italy, Champex in Switzerland and Chamonix in France. It covers 101 kilometers with roughly 6,050 meters of climbing, tracing the eastern half of the Tour du Mont Blanc walking route. Since the creation of the UTMB World Series, it has served as the final of the 100K category, and its start list reads like a championship field.
Born From Overflow
The UTMB first circled the Mont Blanc massif in 2003, and within three years demand for places had outgrown the race. For 2006 the organization added a second event covering the half of the loop that runs from Courmayeur back to Chamonix. Registration for the new race filled in two weeks.
That first edition measured 86 kilometers. Alun Powell of the United Kingdom won the men's race in 10:53:17, and Corinne Favre of France won the women's race in 10:35:55. Favre's winning time was more than 17 minutes faster than Powell's.
Of the 1,054 runners who started, 854 finished. The race has never again been that small. Entries passed 2,000 by 2008 and have stayed near that level since, with more than 2,200 starters in both 2023 and 2024.
Finding Its Distance
The course grew almost immediately. The 86-kilometer route of the first two editions was extended to 98 kilometers in 2008, then to the current 101 kilometers in 2013. Weather forced the 2012 edition back down to 86 kilometers, and the 2017 race ran slightly short at 99.
Those changes matter when reading the record book. Tofol Castañer Bernat of Spain won the shortened 2012 race in 8:57:04, the fastest winning time in the event's history, but it was set on a course 15 kilometers short of the full route. Ellie Greenwood of the United Kingdom won the women's race that day in 11:17:24 under the same conditions. Neither mark counts against times run on the complete course.
The 98-kilometer years produced their own outlier. Emmanuel Gault of France won the 2011 edition in 10:10:25, almost 90 minutes faster than any other winning time from that period of the course's life.
Three Countries in a Day
The modern route leaves the center of Courmayeur and climbs quickly above 2,500 meters at the Tête de la Tronche, facing Mont Blanc and the Grandes Jorasses. The Grand Col Ferret carries runners into Switzerland, where the course descends through the villages of La Fouly, Champex-Lac and Trient. A third border crossing brings the race into France at Vallorcine.
The finish is not a formality. From Vallorcine the course climbs to the Vallons des Chezerys and La Flégère before dropping into Chamonix, and the late climbs regularly reorder the front of the race. Runners have 26 hours and 30 minutes to complete the route.
The checkpoints double as the race's landmarks. Refuge Bertone sits at the top of the opening climb, Arnouvaz marks the base of the Grand Col Ferret, and the aid stations at La Fouly and Champex-Lac have become known for the reception their volunteers give every runner in the field.
A Race That Builds Champions
The winners list doubles as a scouting report for the sport. Xavier Thevenard of France won in 2010 in 11:57:13, three years before the first of his three UTMB titles. He remains the only runner to have won the CCC before winning the main event around the full loop.
Julien Chorier of France took the 2007 edition in 10:19:46 at the start of a long ultrarunning career. Zach Miller of the United States won in 2015 in 11:53:32, and Ruth Croft of New Zealand won the women's race the same year in 12:54:53. Michel Lanne of France and Mimmi Kotka of Sweden won in 2016.
Hayden Hawks of the United States won in 2017 in 10:24:30, then returned seven years later and won again in 10:20:11. He is the only runner to have won the event twice. Tom Evans of the United Kingdom won in 2018 in 10:44:32, and Miao Yao of China took the women's race that year in 11:57:46, at the time the fastest women's winning mark recorded on the full-length course.
The race stopped only once. The 2020 edition was cancelled during the pandemic, the single missed year since the event's creation. Thibaut Garrivier of France and Marta Molist Codina of Spain won the restart in 2021.
The Record Book
Petter Engdahl of Sweden rewrote the men's standard in 2022, running 9:53:02 for the only finish under 10 hours on the full-length course. Blandine L'Hirondel of France won the women's race the same day in 11:40:55, a women's course record that still stands.
That mark nearly fell in 2025. Martyna Mlynarczyk of Poland won in 11:41:55, exactly one minute short of L'Hirondel's record. On the men's side, Francesco Puppi became the first Italian winner of the race that starts on Italian soil, a gap that had stood through 19 editions.
Toni McCann of South Africa won the 2024 women's race in 11:57:59, holding off a field assembled by the World Series final format. The depth of recent podiums reflects how the qualification structure has changed the race. Winning times that would have taken the title comfortably a decade ago now sit outside the top five.
The 100K Final
The CCC is now the season-ending final of the UTMB World Series 100K category. Entry requires Running Stones collected at World Series events, or direct qualification through victories at those races. The format funnels the strongest 100K field of the year onto one start line in Courmayeur.
The structure has also changed what a CCC title means. A win in Chamonix at the end of August is no longer a stepping stone toward the longer race. For runners who specialize at the distance, it is the biggest prize available.
The 2026 edition starts in the center of Courmayeur at 9:00 a.m. on Friday, August 28, with the field due in Chamonix through the following day. Twenty years after it began as an overflow event, the race decides the world's best at its distance.