St Honoré, France, prepares to host the second race of the 2023 Skyrunner® World Series this Sunday, 14th of May. Top athletes, including both male and female winners of the first race of the season, Calamorro Skyrace, will compete in France’s biggest skyrace, Skyrace des Matheysins, which will be broadcast live around the world.
Starting in the town of St Honoré, the 25 km route with 2,000 meters of elevation gain, ascends the “Sentier du Diable” (“The Devil’s Garden”) that holds 43 hairpin bends, to reach the top of “Le Pérolier” at 2,183 meters. Following this is the race’s most mythical spot, the “Les Oreilles de loup” (“the Wolf’s ears”) – a technical stretch of ridge with fixed ropes and nets. The route continues on to “Le Piquet de Nantes” before hitting a very steep and fast downhill with 39 hairpin bends that leads to the finish line back in St Honoré.
After a hot start to the season in Spain last week with temperatures above 30°C, it’s looking likely to be a cooler second stage. Although weather conditions look less extreme than in the famous 2019 edition, there is likely to still be some snow on the course.
As in previous years, the world-renowned race has attracted many international athletes to the French Alps. Both male and female current overall ranking leaders, Iris Pessey of France (team Scott Running) and Antonio Martinez Perez of Spain (team Scarpa) will return to their second starting line of the season, no doubt eager to take home the second bib of the season too.
In the men’s field, Perez will be joined by: 2022 Skyrunner World Series overall champion Nico Molina of Spain (team La Sportiva); 2022 ISF Skyrunning World Champion Roberto Delorenzi of Switzerland (team Brooks); 2021 and 2022 Skyrace des Matheysins winners, Frédéric Tranchand (team Scott Running) and Sylvain Cachard (team Hoka) both of France, and Luka Kovacic of Slovenia (team Dynafit / Red Bull).
Those likely to rival Pessey in the women’s field include 2022 Kima winner, Hillary Gerardi of the USA (team Scarpa / Black Diamond); French athletes Lucille Germain (team Sidas Matryx) and Clementine Geoffray (team Evadict); 2022 SkyMasters winner Noémie Vachon, also of France (team Brooks); Swiss pro Amélie Bertschy (team ON Running); Takako Takamura of Japan and Georgia Tindley of the UK (team Rab). Sadly due to an ankle injury, Denisa Dragomir of Romania has been forced to drop out of the first two races of the season.
Like Calamorro Skyrace, there will be a global live broadcastingof Skyrace des Matheysins from 08:30 am CET on Telegrenoble and across Skyrunner® World Series social media channels.
Points shall be awarded to the top 20 male and females of the race and prize money awarded to the top 10.
The top 10 will also qualify for the 2023 SkyMasters, the final race of the season. This is only as long as they complete a further 2 races of the season and the SkyMasters. More information on the athletes and rules can be found here:
Elite field
Rules
SkyMasters qualification
