Ben Dhiman of the United States won UTMB on Saturday 29 August 2026 in 18:16:29, the first man to finish under 19 hours. He is only the second American man to win the race, after Jim Walmsley in 2023, and lives in France.
A redemption story
Dhiman’s first two UTMB starts ended in DNFs. In 2025 he was second to Tom Evans in 19:18:58 and was determined to win in 2026. He did, by 31:09.
How the race was won
Thunderstorms were forecast around the Mont Blanc massif, so organisers delayed the start two hours and removed the Pyramides Calcaires section. At Saint-Gervais (22.9 km), Vincent Bouillard, Rod Farvard and Paul Cornut-Chauvinc led, with Dhiman six seconds back. Freezing temperatures and high winds made the night hard. Dhiman moved to the front around La Balme with Baptiste Chassagne nearby, then opened a gap of more than seven minutes on the descent to Les Chapieux (about 52 km).
His lead grew to 19:25 at Courmayeur (81.3 km), 22:15 at Grand Col Ferret (2,537 m, the highest point), 24:29 at La Fouly and 28:12 at Champex-Lac. Chassagne briefly cut it to 25:53 at Trient, but Dhiman restored it to 30:47 by Vallorcine (155.3 km). About 12 km from the finish he tripped on a rock, recovered quickly and finished strongly.
Podium and top 10
1. Ben Dhiman (USA) 18:16:29. 2. Baptiste Chassagne (FRA) 18:47:38. 3. Caleb Olson (USA) 18:48:24, 46 seconds behind Chassagne after passing Joaquin Lopez of Ecuador before Vallorcine. 4. Virgile Moriset (FRA) 19:00:23. 5. Joaquin Lopez (ECU) 19:06:48. 6. Hannes Namberger (GER) 19:13:51. 7. Gautier Bonnecarrere (FRA) 19:23:16. 8. Antoine Charvolin (FRA) 19:40:33. 9. Yannick Noël (FRA) 19:51:42. 10. Jean-Philippe Tschumi (SUI) 19:58:24. The United States took two podium places.
Why the time is not a course record
The route was 173.6 km (107.9 miles) with about 9,700 m of climbing, the longest but least climbing of the three recent versions. Because weather forced route changes, the time cannot officially count as a course record. Depending on the yardstick, Dhiman beat François D’Haene’s 19:01:54 from 2017 by 45:25, or Jim Walmsley’s 19:37:43 from 2023 by 1:21:14.
Who was missing
Kilian Jornet and Jim Walmsley were absent through injury, and 2024 winner Bouillard started but dropped down early and withdrew. Of 2,407 starters, 368 withdrew, compared with 827 of 2,492 in 2025.
Sources
Updated November 14, 2026.
Photo: Ximonic, Simo Räsänen (CC BY-SA 3.0), via Wikimedia Commons
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