The 2023 Diagonale des Fous, or “Diagonal of Fools,” kicked off at 9 p.m. native time in Saint Pierre, at the south coast of Réunion Island, a French division within the Indian Ocean, on Thursday, October 19.
The original 165-kilometer (102 miles) traverse, the longest race within the weekend-long Grand Raid Réunion competition, starts at the south facet of the island with a partial ascent of energetic volcano, Piton de L. a. Fournaise, and follows a impressive direction thru UNESCO International Heritage Websites and the lands of Réunion Nationwide Park to complete at the north coast within the capital town of Saint-Denis. The race takes in kind of 10,000 meters (32,800 toes) of mountain climbing and as a lot descending, on brutally technical terrain, and is observed as probably the most tough 100 milers at the world race calendar.
This 12 months’s race had a promising line-up, together with UTMB’s 2022 winner, Katie Schide, and 2023 third-place guy Germain Grangier. Enthusiasts had been additionally extremely joyful with a stunning past due addition — four-time Diagonale des Fous winner François D’Haene, who has been absent from the scene for a time because of harm and used to be noticed on the starting point carrying a hand-written bib.
Whilst ladies’s favourite Schide didn’t disappoint, with a commanding win over robust competitors together with France’s Camille Bruyas; it used to be 2023 Hardrock 100 champion Aurélien Dunand-Pallaz who got here out on most sensible within the males’s race, with a identical runaway victory to what we noticed from him at Hardrock.
Learn on to peer how each those races performed out.
2023 Diagonale des Fous Girls’s Race
Katie Schide has had two top profile second-place finishes this season — on the Western States 100, the place the American dwelling in France completed in the second one quickest ladies’s time ever at the historical direction, and at OCC, the place she demonstrated her versatility through stepping down a distance and nonetheless competing on the perfect stage. At Diagonale des Fous, it used to be transparent from the beginning that she can be exhausting to overcome — main from the get-go, and all the time with a relaxed hole on 2022 Les Templiers winner, Camille Bruyas, of France, in moment.
Schide took it out exhausting from the primary climb, and through Notre Dame De L. a. Paix at 28k, already had an 18-minute lead on Bruyas. She received much more floor on the second one leg of the climb as much as the race’s top level, Croisée Coteaux Kerveguen at 63.5k, the place she crowned out 29 mins forward of her chaser. Previous the 100k level at Ilet À Bourse, she had stretched her lead additional to an hour and 12 mins, at this level having a look unattainable to catch.
Whilst Schide used to be out on her personal for just about the whole thing of the race, so too used to be Bruyas, who all the time had a large hole on the remainder of the sector and not appeared to be in peril. Summiting Croisée Coteaux Kerveguen at 63.5k, she used to be 23 mins transparent of Réunion Island’s personal Emilie Maroteaux in 1/3. It used to be a more in-depth combat for 1/3 place, with Germany’s Eva-Maria Sperger following scorching on Maroteaux’s heels, simply two mins in the back of at that time.
Schide persisted her excursion de power for the remainder 60k or so of the race — which had fewer giant climbs, however lined ankle-breaking volcanic terrain — and in the long run completed in 27:31:08, an hour and 26 mins transparent of Bruyas in moment. Bruyas completed with a fair larger lead on Maroteaux in 1/3. After some shut operating and buying and selling of puts with Sperger previous within the race, Maroteaux controlled to tug away, securing the general podium place and the primary native house within the ladies’s race with some other giant margin.
Katie Schide, the 2023 Diagonale des Fous champion. Photograph: CANAL GRAND RAID
2023 Diagonale des Fous Girls’s Effects
- Katie Schide (U.S., lives in France) ─ 27:31:08
- Camille Bruyas (France) ─ 28:57:48
- Emilie Maroteaux (Réunion Island) ─ 30:38:02
- Eva-Maria Sperger (Germany) ─ 32:41:36
- Laure De Jacquelot (France) ─ 33:16:12
- Marcelle Vienne (Réunion Island) ─ 33:22:01
- Geraldine Prost (France) ─ 33:45:33
- Julia Harnie (France) ─ 34:42:23
- Sylvaine Cussot (Réunion Island) ─ 35:12:48
- Pauline Winer (Réunion Island) ─ 35:15:07
2023 Diagonale des Fous Males’s Race
Early on in his profession, in 2012, Frenchman Aurélien Dunand-Pallaz ran the 73k race at Grand Raid Réunion, striking fourth. Used to be a seed planted then to come back again ultimately and take at the 100-mile win? Who is aware of, however he began this race like somebody on a undertaking. Via Notre Dame De L. a. Paix — 28k into the race with simply over 1,600 meters climbed — he used to be simply over a minute forward of then second-place, France’s Germain Grangier, however used to be no longer giving up his marginal lead. Attaining Coteaux Kerveguen at 61k — simply sooner than cresting the race’s top level at kind of 2,500 meters — Dunand-Pallaz had pulled 12 mins transparent of the remainder of the sector, along with his countryman Lambert Santelli then following in moment.
Final 12 months’s second-place guy, Switzerland’s Jean-Philippe Tschumi — after shifting round within the most sensible 10 for the primary part of the race — crept up the sector to moment position after 85k. He got here shut sufficient to make Dunand-Pallaz sweat, operating simply 3 mins again of the chief across the 100k mark.
Tschumi held directly to moment for a very long time, however Dunand-Pallaz reasserted his dominance, and had pulled greater than a part hour transparent of his chaser through Deux Bras at 128k, with many of the mountain climbing finished.
It used to be right here too that Grangier made a transfer into moment place. Like Tschumi, Grangier have been shifting across the most sensible 10 for the race’s first part, sooner than settling into 1/3 place from 92k onward. It used to be at the second-to-last climb as much as Dos D’ane the place he in spite of everything were given forward of Tschumi.
Dunand-Pallaz persisted to energy forward, in the long run completing in 23 hours and 21 mins, 39 mins transparent of Grangier in moment. Tschumi adopted in 24:28 for 1/3, with Grangier having put vital time on him within the race’s ultimate segment.
Grand Raid legend, Frenchman François D’Haene would possibly or might not be again to complete race health. He used to be in brief in podium place across the midway level however fell again somewhat to in the long run end in 8th position. Mid-race, his social media channels indicated that he used to be affected by leg cramps. We are hoping that is just the start of his comeback.
Aurélien Dunand-Pallaz celebrates successful the 2023 Diagonale des Fous. Photograph: CANAL GRAND RAID
2023 Diagonale des Fous Males’s Effects
- Aurélien Dunand-Pallaz (France) ─ 23:21:23
- Germain Grangier (France) ─ 24:00:54
- Jean-Philippe Tschumi (Switzerland) ─ 24:28:36
- Lambert Santelli (France) ─ 25:44:49
- Rémi Berchet (France) ─ 25:48:14
- Fabrice Payet (Réunion Island) ─ 25:48:44
- Alexis Sévennec (France) – 26:01:02
- François D’Haene (France) ─ 26:12:41
- Cédric Chavet (France) ─ 26:53:17
- Alexandre Boucheix (France) ─ 27:01:22