The ‘title fight’ at the 2017 edition of the Alta Valtellina Skyrunning Experience saw a Basque domination in the women’s field by La Sportiva runner Maiora, while the men’s podium witnessed a hotly fought duel between Tadei Pivk and Basque athlete Aritz Egea.
Staged in Livigno, aka Little Tibet, the second edition of the Livigno Sky Marathon played out in front of spectacular scenery and idea weather conditions. The gun went at 8.00 am, leading the competitors out of central Livigno and into true Skyrunning terrain. The field was packed with many of the world’s top skyrunners present to compete over the 34 km course, which climbs 2,670 metres of altitude and forms part of the MIGURUN Skyrunning World Series 2017 in the Sky speciality.
There was little need to cross our fingers and hope that the favourites would pull through, as these star athletes made their intentions clear from the gun, going out hard and battling from the start. Tadei Pivk, the race’s defending champion, stamped authority over the race by reaching the top of the first climb at Cima Cassana with an advantage of 2 minutes ahead of main rivals Aritz Egea and Joseba Larralde, both from the Basque Country. They were followed in quick succession by the Catalan Eduardo Hernandez, Sweden’s Andre Johnsson and Robert Krupicka from the Czech Republic. La Sportiva’s Pivk still had a lead of 1’30” as he passed Carosello 3000 ahead of Egea, who’d managed to build up a pretty solid lead of around 6 minutes from the rest of the chasers. Hernandez was next up, leading a more sparse field of strong outsiders now. For the second half of the race, which heads out from the feed station in Val Federia, Pivk was alone once more in the lead, and clocked a gap of 2’10” ahead of the praiseworthy Egea with just 4 km remaining of the race. Hernandez had now dropped back by around 9 minutes. Pivk was met with a deafening crescendo of applause as he arrived at the finish in Livigno, with a repeat of last year’s win and a time of 3h52’32”. Egea finished in second with 3h54’39” and Hernandez pulled back to finish in 4h00’39”. The top 5 was completed with a surprise fourth position by Gil Ocana and the ever-competitive Robert Krupicka.
In the women’s field, the Basque athlete Maite Maiora continued to demonstrate her dominance of the world circuit with a strong start but Denisa Dragomir wasn’t going to make it easy for her. For the first part of the race, the duo were chased by Spain’s Laia Adreu Trias. The epic duel between Maiora – recent winner of Zegama Aizkorri – and the Romanian Dragomir was reminiscent of recent races like Trentapassi and ResegUp. The current world Skyrunning champion Maiora was forced to put her foot on the gas to cement her lead as they passed through Val Federia to finish around 5 minutes ahead of Dragomir, who managed to hold onto her stellar second place in such hot competition.
With such a stellar performance, Maiora stormed to victory once again and continues to head up the World Series rankings. Second place went to Dragomir and Trias took third. The podium was rounded off with America’s Hilary Gerardi and Katie Schide.
The Top 10 at the Livigno Sky Marathon 2017
MEN
WOMEN
Alta Valtellina played host to three extremely exciting days of Skyrunning, which began with the spectacular and intense Santa Caterina Vertical on Friday, with wins going to Italy’s Michele Boscacci and Valentina Belotti. Saturday saw the popular Livigno Mini Skyrace, and Sunday topped off the weekend’s proceedings with the main event for amateurs and elite athletes. For Marco De Gasperi and his team, they can look back with pride on a successful weekend spent celebrating the joys of outdoor sports at the highest level here in Livigno.
Alta Valtellina Skyrunning Experiences 2017
SEARCH ACCOMMODATION