The 2024 Backbone Race was one for the file books, with Jack Scott (U.Okay.) taking redemption for his slim defeat to Damian Corridor (U.Okay.) in final yr’s race, by claiming a decisive win and a brand new course file. Scott’s time of 72 hours, 55 minutes, and 5 seconds carved 10 hours, 17 minutes, and 18 seconds off Jasmin Paris’s historic 2019 general course file.
Claire Bannwarth (France) grew to become the primary girl in Backbone Race historical past to safe back-to-back wins on the race, and her 92-hour, 2-minute, and 23-second victory additionally took greater than 5 hours off of her profitable time from 2023.
The 268-mile race runs the size of the Pennine Approach in England, from south to north, ending in Kirk Yetholm on the Scottish border. It takes racers via among the most distant elements of the nation, in invariably brutal circumstances.
Situations for this yr’s race had been brilliant and clear for the primary a part of the week, however bitterly chilly, with a diversion pressured resulting from excessive ice on the course. Within the second half of the week, the blue skies gave technique to heavy snowfall.
Learn on to see the total breakdown of the lads’s and ladies’s races.
Claire Bannwarth greets the wall on the end of the 2024 Winter Backbone Race. Photograph: Backbone Race/@willbaldlygo
2024 Backbone Race Males’s Race
Backbone Race fans will recall that final yr’s males’s race started with a duo of Kim Collison (U.Okay.) and Damian Corridor (U.Okay.) pushing the tempo arduous on the entrance of the race, earlier than each sadly succumbed to damage and had been pressured to withdraw.
This yr’s race began in a considerably comparable vein, with Collison taking on the lead from early on. By the primary checkpoint, 44 miles in, the highest three had been Collison, Konrad Rawlik (Poland, lives in U.Okay.), and Dave Phillips (U.Okay.), with the chasing pack not far behind.
Konrad Rawlik on the course of the 2024 Winter Backbone Race. Photograph: Backbone Race/Wild Aperture {Photograph}
The primary shock of the race got here when former males’s course file holder and Barkley Marathons finisher, John Kelly (U.S.), retired at CP1, simply 9 hours and 27 minutes into his Backbone Race journey, resulting from damage. Over the length of the primary night time, the attritional course additionally claimed robust contenders Pavel Paloncy (Czech Republic) and Simon Roberts (U.Okay.).
By the second checkpoint at Hawes, 103 miles in, Collison was nonetheless within the lead, with 23 hours and 41 minutes on the clock. Corridor and Rawlik adopted in second and third, about quarter-hour again. Eventual champion Jack Scott got here via this level with James Nobles (U.Okay.), relaxed in joint fourth place, 40 minutes again of the lead.
The tip of the second day noticed additional disruption when, harking back to final yr, race chief Collison was pressured to retire at CP3 Langdon, 143 miles into the race, leaving Corridor to take up the lead.
However earlier than the subsequent checkpoint, the race once more started to reflect final yr’s, as Scott caught up with Corridor earlier than mile 156, with the pair sharing among the path earlier than Scott pulled away.
Coming into CP4 Alston, round mile 175, with a lead of just about an hour, Scott was totally in race mode — reportedly out and in of the checkpoint “in F1 trend” and with “razor sharp focus.”
For the near-100 miles that adopted, Scott continued to place extra distance on Corridor — but in addition, transfer additional forward of each Jasmin Paris’s general course file, and Corridor’s males’s course file of 84 hours, 36 minutes, and 24 seconds.
After 268 miles, Jack Scott touched the wall in Kirk Yetholm with 72:55:05 on the clock. Damian Corridor adopted in second, in a private greatest time of 82:25:10, additionally below each earlier course information. Konrad Rawlik rounded out the lads’s podium in 85:47:12.
An emotional Jack Scott after profitable the 2024 Winter Backbone Race in a brand new males’s course file time. Photograph: Backbone Race/Wild Aperture Pictures
2024 Backbone Race Males’s Outcomes
- Jack Scott (U.Okay.) – 72:55:05
- Damian Corridor (U.Okay.) – 82:25:10
- Konrad Rawlik (Poland, lives within the U.Okay.) – 85:47:12
- Dougie Zinis (U.Okay.) – 87:48:47
- Orran Smith (U.Okay.) – 94:48:36
- Rory Harris (U.Okay.) – 98:41:29
- James Leavesley (U.Okay.) – 98:41:39
- Mark Potts (U.Okay.) – 99:38:18
- Esteban Díaz (Spain) – 100:17:29
- G Brian Hutchinson (Eire) – 103:41:00
Damian Corridor smiles in second place on the end of the 2024 Winter Backbone Race. Photograph: Backbone Race/Wild Aperture Pictures
2024 Backbone Race Girls’s Race
There have been fewer attritions on the sharp finish of the ladies’s race, with eventual winner Claire Bannwarth (France) asserting her dominance early on.
At CP1 Hebden, 44 miles in, Bannwarth had already established herself in entrance, with 10 hours and 56 minutes elapsed. Bannwarth, who received final yr’s Winter Backbone Race, went on to have an outstanding 2023 — profitable amongst others the Trailcat 200 Mile, the Kodiak Ultramarathon by UTMB 100 Mile, and the Tahoe 200 Mile, in addition to putting fifth on the Hardrock 100 and sixteenth at UTMB.
Hannah Rickman (U.Okay.), who positioned second behind Bannwarth finally yr’s Winter Backbone Race, and received the 2023 Summer time Backbone Dash (on a 46-mile part of the route), adopted in second, about 19 minutes again of the lead.
Hannah Rickman on the course of the 2024 Winter Backbone Race. Photograph: Backbone Race
Elaine Bisson (U.Okay.) entered the checkpoint in third place, simply 6 minutes behind Rickman, however took a while to recoup and put together for the subsequent part. Lucy Gossage (U.Okay.) was in subsequent, and made a swift turnaround within the checkpoint to emerge in third place, with fell working legend Nicky Spinks among the many chasing pack. Crossover athlete Gossage beforehand competed in triathlon earlier than transitioning to ultrarunning, and has many Ironman victories to her title.
Whereas Bannwarth continued to drag away in entrance, by CP3 Langdon, Gossage had moved into second place by a margin of 51 minutes.
Lucy Gossage on the way in which to a podium end on the 2024 Winter Backbone Race. Photograph: Backbone Race/Wild Aperture Pictures
Rickman, nonetheless, was later awarded a 1-hour and 46-minute time bonus for a Good Samaritan act. She and one other runner (G Brian Hutchinson, who was tenth within the males’s race) reportedly delayed their race to help a fellow competitor who was affected by fatigue alongside on a difficult a part of the route, and escorted him to security.
By CP 5 Bellingham, Bannwarth was now virtually 7 hours away from Gossage in second, who now additionally had a sizeable lead — of greater than 5 hours — on Rickman in third.
Bannwarth ultimately touched the wall, victorious, in a time of 92 hours, 2 minutes, and 23 seconds — taking 5 hours and 37 minutes off her earlier profitable time.
Rickman really rallied within the later phases of the race, closing in on Gossage. Gossage crossed the road earlier than her, in a time of 106 hours, 5 minutes, and 26 seconds — however the time bonus meant that Rickman was awarded second place in a time of 104:41:46. The shut battle and dynamic race for second place made for nail-biting dot-watching, even when Bannwarth’s victory was by no means unsure.
Claire Bannwarth on her technique to profitable the 2024 Winter Backbone Race. Photograph: Backbone Race/Wild Aperture Pictures
2024 Backbone Race Girls’s Outcomes
- 1. Claire Bannwarth (France) – 92:02:23
- 2. Hannah Rickman (U.Okay.) – 104:41:07
- 3. Lucy Gossage (U.Okay.) – 106:05:26
- 4. Elaine Bisson (U.Okay.) – 111:40:56
- 4. Nicky Spinks (U.Okay.) – 111:40:56
