The Top 10 Storylines of the 2023 UTMB

Welcome to Day 1 of Good Morning, Mont Blanc. This is the inaugural year of Freetrail’s daily morning show, kicking off with the 20th anniversary of the Ultra Trail Mont Blanc (UTMB), the most important global event in the sport of trail running. The show is hosted each day by professional athlete, Dylan Bowman, and he’s joined on Day 1 by his longtime co-host, Corrine Malcolm (Adidas Terrex).

Today Dylan Bowman and Corrine Malcolm discuss the Top 10 Storylines of the 2023 UTMB. What is everyone talking about this week? What to pay attention to? Who to pick in Freetrail Fantasy?

Watch on for more and make sure you subscribe to the Freetrail YouTube channel! If you like listening to the Freetrail Podcast, please leave us a review wherever you enjoy listening.

The Top Ten Storylines
02:33 - 06:31 1. The Courtney Slam
06:31 - 09:47 2. The wide open men’s race for UTMB
09:47 - 14:45 3. American men – can they finally do it?
14:45 - 20:33 4. Jim Walmsley – Quiet season, dark on Strava, speculation he was hurt, but apparently he is ready.
20:33 - 27:25 5. Western States / UTMB double
27:25 - 30:50 6. CCC Golden Tickets
30:50 - 34:45 7. Katie Schide – 2023 Champ, 2nd at CCC, how will she perform at OCC?
34:45 - 38:36 8. International Diversity
42:43 - 49:53 10. 20th Anniversary of UTMB!

49:53 - 51:07 Freetrail Fantasy

Fantasy Prizes
We have amazing prizes for Freetrail Fantasy this week. 10 winners will receive head to toe Hoka kits including footwear, a CamelBak Zephyr pack, Ketone shots from HVMN, and Freetrail swag. Please note: We will do our best to ship prize packages internationally, but cannot guarantee it due to shipping costs and logistics.

51:07 - 52:30 Our Sponsors
Thanks to our sponsors who are making this show possible, Hoka and CamelBak.

Hoka and UTMB were born in the Alps - fueled by the thrill of flying up and down mountains.

Trail running is in Hoka's DNA, and they are proud to be the 2023 UTMB World Series Premier Partner and help share the sport with as many people as possible

CamelBak invented the hydration pack category a couple decades ago and have remained on the forefront of innovation for this very important product sector. Outside of footwear, the pack is the most critical piece of running gear and you’ll see a bunch of people trusting CamelBak throughout race week out on the trails around the Mont Blanc.

If you’re here in Chamonix, there is a public event hosted by CamelBak on Thursday from 6-8pm at Folie Douce Hotel in Chamonix – there will be a panel discussion, followed by an open bar/mixer. They will also be previewing some of their 2024 products in the space. Again it’s open to the public so feel free to stop by on Thursday, the Freetrail team will be there. If you can’t make it, they have a booth at the expo, so stop by and check it all out.

[Bonsaibiku]

Freetrail setting the pace in the media space… so appreciative for all that you all do!

[gillianomar]

Great to see you back together again, a great duo with vast knowledge and sincere enthusiasm. ❤❤❤❤❤

[jkim]

I love this duo… great thoughts, assessments, knowledge… great pair of humans 😊

[LioNataraj]

Love you guys are doing this. THANK YOU!
🙏🏃⛰💛

[Sunnydaypicnic]

This is a fun show, thank you! Can’t wait!!

[fynthemtns]

Sorry to not hear Dylan commentating on the races but very excited for this series! Going to be a legendary year. So so stoked to follow Jim and Courtney.

[pablomarani]

Great show! I love the excitement that Dylan brings to the table and the insights and data from Corrine. Regarding storyline 4, I think that this year is THE opportunity for Jim, considering the investment (focus) he put in and the absence of Killian, Francois and Xavier - yeah, asterik year but anyway winning UTMB would be liberating for him. My hypothesis regarding to his dark mode has to be interpreted in the light of last year's disappointment.

[cpruns]

Love the episode but I disagree with even saying...heck even whispering the word "asterisk" when commenting on the winner. I know it was more of a reference for "those people" who will say that but I wouldn't even give them this stage. This is such a stacked field and part of winning is making it healthy to the start line so basically everyone who lines up beat Killian this year:) This is going to be the best UTMB ever and the winner(s) is going to be someone very special and well deserving. That Jim:)

[mvd]

Dear various bosses at both work and home. I am not going to be very productive this week. thanks in advance

[irunovermountains]

FreeTrail bringing the heat this UTMB week. Thank you guys 🙌 🫶

[Runnerrwe]

Great stuff. FYI, the camera pointing to Corrine is out of focus

[manfredmueller]

International representation is good, but we’re not only missing South America but Africa too. Would be great to see their talents on the trails.

[MNP]

Was Christian Meier expected to win TDS?

[Tpulaski]

Is anyone else thinking that the men have a gentleman’s agreement to see if Jim can do it and thus why the main Euro GOATs aren’t running this year?

[annalau]

Only 2 x 2 weeks vacation? 😢 Poor guy. Otherwise, nice program.