Ryan Sandes will again be returning to the Ultra Trail Mont Blanc Festival later this month, but this time will be tackling the 145km TDS route as preparation for his 160km UTMB race in 2020. Over the years the event has become Sandes nemesis and he is hoping the TDS route will allow him to master the European Trail running conditions before coming back next year.

“I am really excited to be running TDS this year, I believe this will give me the experience I need on the European trails,” says Sandes. “I am feeling strong and positive about the race, and hope to get the best result possible and have a great day out in the mountain. I haven’t had the best races at UTMB in the past, so I am looking forward to getting out there and getting on the front foot!”

Top names joining Ryan at the 2019 start line include French runner Ludovic Pommeret, a previous UTMB winner; Spaniard, Tofol Castaner Bernat, previous CCC winner and 2nd place at UTMB and Russian, Dmitry Mityaev, who took 3rd place at TDS in 2018.

TDS, an acronym for Traces des Ducs de Savoie (the footprints of the Dukes of Savoie), follows his journey from Courmayeur to Charmonix, will take place on Wednesday, 28 August. The 2019 edition of the race has been lengthened by 23km to 145km with an astounding 9100m of elevation gain and will now take runners through the exquisite Beaufortain region. The new addition allows for easy adjustments in the case of extreme weather conditions with several options that will take runners as close to the original route as possible and not only increases the distance by 23km but also adds 1800m of elevation gain.

For more information on the race please visit www.ultratrailmb.com for live coverage on race day, and follow Ryan live on his Facebook Page @Ryan.Nicholas.Sandes, Twitter and Instagram account @RyanSandes.

After setting a fastest known time in the Himalayas earlier this year, Ryan Sandes will be lining up for what many are calling the World Championships of Trail Running at this year’s Ultra Trail Mont Blanc on Friday 31 August in Chamonix. 2018 sees the “who’s-who” of trail running taking part with names like Jim Walmsley, Kilian Jornet, Luis Hernando and Tim Tollefson to mention a few all looking to take the title of King of the Mountain.

“UTMB is a race that has never gone well for me and I think in the past I have put too much pressure on myself. It was really refreshing to pre run the UTMB route over a few days with a group of friends earlier this year,” says Ryan. “It was a pretty unplanned disaster style lap of the Mont Blanc. On the first night we ended up sleeping in a cow shed to take shelter from a storm as all the accommodation was fully booked, but we had an awesome few days on the mountain with lots of laughs. I have so many good memories from the trip and I will take that positive energy with me into the race.”

“Running the Great Himalaya Trail earlier this year took a lot more out of me both physically and mentally than I initially thought,” explains Ryan. “I took quite a long break from training to properly recover, but I have started feeling a lot better over the past few weeks and I am really looking forward to lining up at the start line of UTMB.”

UTMB will see roughly 2300 of the toughest runners in the world to taking on the French, Swiss and Italian Alps over 100miles. Known as one of the most difficult foot races in Europe, the 170km loop race, has more than 10 000m of positive altitude change before it ends - a total climb which is higher than Mount Everest.

The race loop around Mont Blanc follows the Tour du Mont Blanc hiking path that normally takes hikers between 7 to 9 days to complete, but the lead runners will complete this course in just over 20hrs, with the final cut off time after 46hrs30min. The race is termed semi-self-sufficient, with 10 food/ drink posts situated on the course where the participants can take whatever food and drink they need.

For more information on the race please visit www.ultratrailmb.com, and follow Ryan live on his Facebook Page @Ryan.Sandes.Ultra.Marathon.Runner, Twitter and Instagram account @RyanSandes. For live coverage of the race on race day please visit http://www.ultratrail.tv/en