photos from marchons.com

ladies 50km:

Full report of the race on the French website marchons.com  (in French, naturellement)

28 men in the 100km and 5 ladies in the open 50km. plus ca change.

COMMENT: The French ultra race walking scene has been the mainstay of 24hour/200km racewalks for decades, culminating in the famous Paris-Colmar.

Only a handful of British walkers have succeeded in the the PC - all Centurions (naturellement).

The Paris Colmar has already been cancelled (a couple of years ago) for lack of sponsorship, and it seems that the 2009 event will be transformed from the usual endurance race as we know it, to a stage race cum relay.

To mitigate their losses (so it would seem) the French have not only cut down on the number of PC qualifying races, but have changed the 200km PC qualifiers to 24 hours (except Roubaix 28 hours- but how long will this last?).

In addition they have introduced relay races as part of the package. No bad thing on the face of it. If you can't face a 24 hours race -  get a team together to do a shorter distance. This also introduces newcomers to the world of ultra/24 hour racing.

On the down side, of course,  it is a big let out for those of us who want an easy ride (myself included, I admit)

However, having witnessed the relay races at this year St Thibault and Roubaix - they are hotly contested! Top racers take part (for whatever reason - using the relay as speed training for the next 24 hour race...) and no prisoners taken!

Watch this space....