Bonnet and Kimmel take The Rut 25K |
Young Swiss talent Rémi Bonnet does a double after taking Friday’s Vertical Kilometer® and yesterday’s 25K at Montana’s The Rut events with Dolomites winner Megan Kimmel taking the women's victory. New for 2015 and forming an integral part of the Skyrunner® World Series, the inaugural RUT 25K can be considered a pure skyrunning race. At times, it offers extremely steep and technical terrain that demands and requires 100% respect. It’s not for the feint hearted. What this race lacks in distance is made up for in technicality and challenge. With 2,286m of vertical gain this 25km course is basically the RUT 50km on steroids as it includes all three major climbs of its bigger brother. The high point comes at Lone Peak (3,403m) and the combination of altitude, technical running and exposure makes this one seriously great race that guarantees a good, hard and painful time! Like the VK, the 25K event had wave starts to reduce congestion and to promote good safety along the route. Following on from Friday’s VK victory, Switzerland’s Rémi Bonnet ran a clear race from the front and never really looked back. He opened a gap in the early stages and extended it as the race went on. Climbing up to Lone Peak summit he was 4-minutes ahead of Italians Tadei Pivk and Marco De Gasperi who were pursued by American Joseph Gray. Remi’s victory never looked in doubt, even the very technical challenge of the descent could not dislodge his stranglehold on the race. At the finish he was a clear victor by over 3.5 minutes (02:58:55) from Tadei Pivk and Marco De Gasperi who were separated only by 1 second, 3:02:32 and 3:01:33 respectively. Joseph Gray finished 4th and looked very disappointed, so disappointed he didn’t collect his finishers medal. Spaniard Pere Rullan and Swiss Martin Anthamatten, recent MatterhornUltraks winner, rounded out the top five. Lady on fire Megan Kimmel once again pulled off another incredible Skyrunning victory showing that she is ‘the’ lady to beat at the moment. In the early stages of the race she ran with the front group and eventually she pulled away with Laura Orgué, Friday’s VK winner. Race results |