FOUR STRAIGHT: PAU CAPELL AND THE TRANSGRANCANARIA DYNASTY
On a late February morning in 2020, Pau Capell and Pablo Villa crossed the Transgrancanaria finish line in Maspalomas at exactly the same second: 13:04:10. Both Spaniards had run 126 kilometers from the northern beach of Las Palmas to the southern coast, crossing the mountainous spine of Gran Canaria in an exact dead heat. The race credited both as co-winners.
It was Capell's fourth consecutive Transgrancanaria title and one of trail running's most unusual finishes. For four years, from 2017 through 2020, no one had beaten him on this course. He had won differently each time: with a course record in 2017, with a near-record run in 2018, with a tactical win over Villa in 2019, and with this strangest of conclusions in 2020. His hold on the race looked permanent.
Five years later, Caleb Olson of the United States ran 12:17:25 at the 2025 edition and broke Capell's six-year-old course record by 25 minutes.
The Course
The Transgrancanaria Classic covers 126 kilometers from the northeastern coast of Gran Canaria to the southern tip of the island, accumulating approximately 6,800 meters of elevation gain along the way. The race starts on a beach in Las Palmas and finishes on one in Maspalomas. Everything between those two points is mountainous terrain: rocky ridgelines, technical descents, volcanic landscape, and the high central plateau of the Canary Island interior.
The event is held in late February or early March, when the Atlantic climate of the Canary Islands delivers cooler overnight temperatures and manageable daytime warmth. It is one of the most prestigious non-UTMB 100-milers in Europe and carries UTMB Index points that matter to athletes qualifying for Chamonix.
The point-to-point format and island-crossing structure make Transgrancanaria a logistically distinctive event. There is no out-and-back, no loop. The race has a direction and a destination. Runners cross an entire island.
Capell Builds the Dynasty
Capell finished third at Transgrancanaria in 2016, his first podium at the race. He returned in 2017 and won in 13:21:03, setting a new course record. He was 28 years old, a Catalan runner from Argentona who had built his reputation on technical mountain racing in the Pyrenees and Alps.
He won again in 2018 with 12:42:08, lowering the record. In 2019, he ran 12:42:42, one second slower than his 2018 time, but still easily fast enough to win. Villa finished second, 21 minutes behind.
The 2020 edition, with the shared finish, gave Capell his fourth title but no new record. Villa had pushed harder than he had in 2019 and the two men arrived at Maspalomas inseparable.
Capell's four-win run coincided with his breakthrough on the wider trail calendar. In 2019, the same year as his third Transgrancanaria title, he won UTMB in 20:19:00, covering the 171-kilometer circuit of Mont Blanc in his first attempt at the race. He became the first Spaniard to win UTMB and arrived at the Chamonix finish with a course record that stood for two years. At that moment he was the most complete mountain ultra runner on the circuit.
Villa's Revenge
Capell did not start Transgrancanaria in 2021. Aurélien Dunand-Pallaz of France won in 13:42:43, in what were clearly more difficult conditions than the previous editions. Villa returned and finished in a modest position.
In 2022, Villa won outright in 13:37:30. Capell started and finished second in 13:58:47, more than 21 minutes behind. It was the first time in the modern era of the race that Villa had beaten Capell in a head-to-head finish. The 2020 tie had been a shared result; 2022 was a clear victory.
Capell has not won Transgrancanaria since 2020. Villa's 2022 win represented a transition in the race's competitive structure. The field that had been shaped around Capell's dominance was beginning to reflect broader changes in the trail running elite.
Courtney Dauwalter's Two-Year Takeover
On the women's side, Courtney Dauwalter arrived at Transgrancanaria in 2023 and won by approximately two hours. No woman had dominated the race by that margin in its history. She returned in 2024 and won again with 15:14:00, the fastest women's finish in several years.
Dauwalter's 2023 Transgrancanaria win was part of a larger pattern. She won Western States 100 in a course record that year, then Hardrock 100 in a course record, then UTMB in a course record. The Transgrancanaria win in February 2023 was the first result of what became the most dominant single season in women's trail ultrarunning history.
Her back-to-back wins at Transgrancanaria were not surprising given that trajectory, but they confirmed the race's standing as part of the circuit that the sport's best women take seriously.
Olson's Record and What It Means
Capell's 2019 course record of 12:42:40 had survived through six editions, through changes in field composition, shoe technology, and racing strategy. Caleb Olson broke it by 25 minutes in 2025 with 12:17:25.
Olson is an American runner who has risen through the UTMB circuit and Western trail racing scene. His 2025 Transgrancanaria record was one of the largest improvements on a course record in the race's history. It suggested that the field ceiling at Transgrancanaria had shifted, that Capell's mark from 2019 had been set at a level that no one in the subsequent years had the speed to challenge until Olson arrived.
The Albon connection was one of the distinctive storylines from 2025. Jonathan Albon of Britain, the orienteering and trail running specialist, finished second in the men's race in 12:25:06. His wife, Henriette Albon of Norway, won the women's race in 15:02:50. Both were on the podium on the same day at the same race. Jonathan and Henriette Albon shared a podium in 2026 as well, with Henriette defending her title.
What the Race Delivers
Transgrancanaria's significance in the trail calendar is partly about geography and partly about timing. The Canary Islands in late February offer reliable racing conditions at a point in the season when European trail runners have completed winter training but before the spring-summer racing cycle peaks at UTMB in August. The race draws a competitive European and international field, but it does not compete directly with the Chamonix-based events that dominate the calendar.
The course record progression reflects the race's growing stature. When Capell first won in 2017, his 13:21:03 was a strong performance for a competitive but regionally focused event. By the time Olson broke the record in 2025 with 12:17:25, the race had attracted sufficient elite depth that a 25-minute course record improvement was the result of genuine international competition, not simply better conditions or a standout year.
Capell's four-win run remains the defining chapter in the race's history. The co-win with Villa in 2020 will remain one of trail running's more memorable finishes. But the record that bore his name for six years belongs to someone else now, and the race is expanding beyond the era he defined.
Capell's dominance is the latest chapter in a race with a rich history. For the full story, see the history of Transgrancanaria.