Ludovic Pommeret was born in Grenoble in 1975 and moved to Valloire, a mountain village in the Savoie Alps, when he was eight. His early ultra career was defined by failure: his very first attempt ended in a DNF, and he failed to finish UTMB in both 2004 and 2005. He did not complete a 100km race until the CCC in 2009, nearly a decade into his ultra career. Pommeret's racing philosophy is simple: start slow, stay behind, and surge when the moment comes. His most famous performance was UTMB 2016. At kilometer 52, he sat around 50th place. His support team considered telling him to drop out. Instead, he kept going, steadily picking off runners through the night, and crossed the finish line first in 22:00:02 at age 41. As he approaches his sixth decade, he has only gotten better. At 48, he won the 2024 Hardrock 100 in a course-record 21:33:06, breaking Kilian Jornet's previous record. At 49, he came back and won it again in 22:21:55. He divides his year between trail running in summer and competitive ski mountaineering in winter, and still works as a computer engineer.