Months of deaf dialogue and false promises. Then radio silence. Before Stanislas Réchard knew, on September 11, overnight, that his twenty-year-old Trail du Ventoux (Vaucluse) would compete, in the spring, with the UTMB Group, which bought the emblematic Grand Raid du Ventoux (GRV). .
Initially, the UTMB, Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc, is a 170 kilometer race created in 2003 in Chamonix (Haute Savoie) by Catherine and Michel Poletti. Today, it has evolved into a group, buying or franchising competitions, to become the largest ultra-trail racing circuit in the world: 51 events called World Series in 28 countries announced in 2025, which will bring together 165,000 participants.
“The change in format and location of the GRV now makes it a racing copy of ours, a month apart, 12 kilometers away. And with registration open before our event, despite commitments to the contrary! »protests Mr. Réchard, the head of the Trail du Ventoux.
A year ago, the arrival of UTMB to British Columbia, a province in western Canada, had already created controversy. Since 2016, trail runner Gary Robbins has organized the Whistler Alpine Meadows there. Approached by those responsible for the structure, he was first tempted to negotiate before refusing to advance the discussion. A few months later, he learned that his sponsors had joined the group, which he accused of scheming to impose his own event. Their event no longer exists, but an Ultra Trail Whistler by UTMB is planned for the region next year, on the 7th.my circuit event in North America.
According to numerous testimonies collected by the worldThis way of maneuvering behind the scenes and then imposing itself on the ground without much consideration for the local actors already present would be recurrent. “We are grocers, they are a hypermarket. In front of them we do not exist”laments Stanislas Réchard. In less than two years, the UTMB Group has experienced unprecedented growth: in 2021, the family SME joined the triathlon giant, the American Ironman, which owns 45% of the shares of the structure and the Poletti family owns the 55% remaining.
A drying mechanism
James Elson, president of the British Trail Association, says he is very concerned today. “When, in a small market like Great Britain, you have two “by UTMB” events, whose pyramid system requires runners to do at least one race on this circuit to qualify for the final in Chamonix, this inevitably diverts participants and volunteers . »
You have 76.49% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
