Dream comes true for Cape Town trail legend Ryan Sandes as he finally wins world’s oldest ultra trail event!

After finishing runner-up in 2012 Ryan Sandes finally secured the biggest win of his career when he won the Western States 100-miler (160km) – the oldest ultra trail event in the world and arguably the most prestigious along with Europe’s Ultra Trail Mont Blanc (UTMB).

Sandes – who last won a 100-miler in 2011 in Leadville after a string of desert stage-race victories – started off conservatively as race favourite Jim Walmsley of the US started fast. At one stage Walmsley had a lead of almost an hour over Sandes and looked set to break the course record. But while all eyes were on Walmsley, the 36-year-old Sandes used his experience and started to catch the faltering American.

Sandes eventually passed Walmsley with 40km to go and maintained his lead to win the iconic trail event in 16:19.39.

“This is the one race I’ve always dreamed of winning,” Sandes told irunfar.com. “Obviously, a race like UTMB is huge, but there’s something special about this race; it’s the original and its history is really special.”

Sandes has had a love-hate relationship with the Western States. “I came here in 2012, and finished second to Timothy Olson. For me, it was the best or easiest 100-mile race I’ve run, in the sense that everything clicked and I felt so good. But Timmy was just in another league that day.”

In 2013, Sandes sprained his ankle close to the race and then in 2014 battled with form after racing too much.

“I really tried to focus on it in 2015, but I woke up the day before the race with a stomach bug. Last year, I actually skipped it, and I kind of thought that was the end. But missing it for a year made me realise how much the race means to me.”

So what’s next for the ultra champion?

“I’m going to go to Chamonix for the UTMB. I’m down for the shorter Courmayeur Champex Chamonix (CCC) although I’m toying with the idea of upgrading to UTMB,” Sandes said.

“But I think it would be stupid for me to do that, considering I suffered from over-training syndrome in 2015. CCC will be my next focus, and then I’ll take it from there. I may do Ultra-Trail Cape Town at the end of the year, which is now part of the Ultra-Trail World Tour.”

RACE DAY STATS (Suunto)

 GALLERY

Images courtesy of irunfar.com Twitter, Facebook pages as well as Ryan Sandes Facebook and Twitter pages.

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