MTB vs Ultra-Runner: The Tour du Mont Blanc

The Challenge: Inspired by Ultra Runner Kilian Jornet’s incredible achievement of completing the Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB) in sub-20 hours, the question was raised “Is it possible for a mountain biker to beat this time?”. Professional New Zealand mountain biker, Matthew Fairbrother, was set this monumental challenge.

The Stats: This is a 160KM loop with over 8000 metres of elevation, passing three different countries.

The Target: The exact time to beat was 19h 49M 32S. In theory, a mountain bike should have the advantage on the descents whilst a runner has the upper hand on the climbs. But what would the reality hold?

no matter where I go there always seems me one place that keeps pulling me back the Alps is the Pinnacle of mountain Bing and long [Applause] the I am Ben Jones uh sales and marketing director at dvh Cycles myself and Chris deson uh co-owners of dbh Cycles uh actually met each other guiding here in the Alps it’s somewhere I’ve spent a lot of time um and I think because because both me and Chris have such a connection to the Alps I think it’s become a big part of deviate well the first guided trip that I put together was something called The Mont Blanc and Juro um and it was based on the concept of the TM mon Blanc the tmbb and it was a it’s actually a six days circum navigation of Mont Blanc it went a little bit further out uh and took in some of the best Endura Trails it’s fair to say that that area circling Mont Blanc was is is pretty special to us uh pretty special to me but also an area that I know really well myself and Matthew Fair brother were discussing ideas for for a challenge um it was obvious that the Alps and specifically the block Mass if and circumnavigating that in some way was going to be something that kind of uh that I thought of a really cool thing happened last year um a Spanish Ultra uh Trail Runner uh called K Jer set like a quite frankly like incomprehensible time around Mont Blanca around this UTMB route of uh sub2 hours it was 19 hours and 49 minutes and when that happened I the question I asked myself is is it possible to beat that time on a bite and I I don’t know the answer to that question but I’ve asked Matthew to find out what is that uh this is C looks like tar how are you feeling Matt I don’t know not feeling the best but even if I was feeling good I’ll be tired in a few hours anyway so doesn’t matter okay sweet we good to go good to go good luck s I’m on okay Co catch you guys later thank [Applause] you first we’ve got to navigate sham got my first Clan oh it’s a state pushed quite hard at the start just to see where I’d compare against plion and then work out what PA I need to hold for the circuit first climb quite a Savage one at first it was just a bunch of Switchback super steep I walked about half them holy [ __ ] that’s the top of the clim according to the gar oh not not the top of the climb you’re joking by the time I got to the top of the First Co I was behind him but by the bottom of the Descent I was ahead of them by quite a bit just made sure to go quick when it was going down lost too many ways to go the B climb was quite Savage I almost don’t mind that cuz you know you’re climbing I think what what was hard was just all the walkers you supposed to ride that up uh please stve have a good day oh [ __ ] I was 5 hours in in 15 minutes of H kilan but I had the biggest clim just he me 1 and 12,000 M up to the Italian border leaving Switzerland and heading into Italy that was quite a solid section of descending although it was quite hard because it’s like quite a physical way of descending it was a good descent and the views and in a I just like insane yeah that whole section after that desent was was quite hard because it was just up and down and find that hard just don’t s into anything so you often end up with working a lot harder than you should I was about 45 minutes ahead of brilliant at that point in time so actually quite a bit up although I had plan to stop here I stopped maybe about 15 20 minutes just stocking up on coat basically gave away quite a bit of that lead for everyone uh this is at halfway point what we what’s the time it is 10 to 9 10 to 9 so how many hours is that 10 hours 10 hours so he’s aiming for 20 hours he’s at the halfway point and um he’s just bought eight Cokes for 50 that he’s downed now he’s uh continuing up here in the dark yeah not going be the but also the the special remember is going a BL on train on going into the first night climb I felt super good and um I think almost too good I like caught myself pushing harder than I should have been it’s quicker to walk most of this just CU it’s so chunky it’s 11 20 just done the four to last plan um at 6K [Music] minutes in like that at the moment I’m hiking up to my third to last Summit and then since it’s my third class Summit I only have two more climbs to go after that so it’s basically 1:00 now just finished the third last [Music] time I would have bon home clim I was quite confident that I had a good lead on him and then I was kind of looking at the Times climbing up there and it was like could go either way up to the the Cole the most technical part whole [Music] Loop well I just cleared coal on home we have you s um never again that was awful and then I went into the next descent down in Le con and that descent was just like it was quite awful it was just like blown out lots of loose stones and stuff and I was just getting shaken to bed well I’ve been quite sick um I think had some dodgy water so yeah that’s good man to get off the bike [Music] though right it’s the last climb now just finished the last time I’m feeling [Music] [Music] demolished oh oh my God whoopsies that was silly [Music] sck I was done I had completely empty the tank and unfortunately this time it wasn’t meant to [Music] be [Music] I believe that it is possible I just need to come back and show that it is am