The 2024 Backbone Race was one for the document books, with Jack Scott (U.Ok.) taking redemption for his slender defeat to Damian Corridor (U.Ok.) in final yr’s race, by claiming a decisive win and a brand new course document. 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 document.
Claire Bannwarth (France) turned the primary lady 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 successful time from 2023.
The 268-mile race runs the size of the Pennine Manner in England, from south to north, ending in Kirk Yetholm on the Scottish border. It takes racers by way of among the most distant components of the nation, in invariably brutal circumstances.
Circumstances for this yr’s race have been brilliant and clear for the primary a part of the week, however bitterly chilly, with a diversion compelled as a result of excessive ice on the course. Within the second half of the week, the blue skies gave solution to heavy snowfall.
Learn on to see the total breakdown of the lads’s and girls’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.Ok.) and Damian Corridor (U.Ok.) pushing the tempo laborious on the entrance of the race, earlier than each sadly succumbed to damage and have been compelled to withdraw.
This yr’s race began in a considerably comparable vein, with Collison taking over the lead from early on. By means of the primary checkpoint, 44 miles in, the highest three have been Collison, Konrad Rawlik (Poland, lives in U.Ok.), and Dave Phillips (U.Ok.), 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 document holder and Barkley Marathons finisher, John Kelly (U.S.), retired at CP1, simply 9 hours and 27 minutes into his Backbone Race journey, as a result of damage. Over the period of the primary night time, the attritional course additionally claimed sturdy contenders Pavel Paloncy (Czech Republic) and Simon Roberts (U.Ok.).
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 by way of this level with James Nobles (U.Ok.), relaxed in joint fourth place, 40 minutes again of the lead.
The tip of the second day noticed additional disruption when, paying homage to final yr, race chief Collison was compelled to retire at CP3 Langdon, 143 miles into the race, leaving Corridor to take up the lead.
However earlier than the following 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 document, and Corridor’s males’s course document 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 finest time of 82:25:10, additionally beneath each earlier course information. Konrad Rawlik rounded out the lads’s podium in 85:47:12.
An emotional Jack Scott after successful the 2024 Winter Backbone Race in a brand new males’s course document time. Photograph: Backbone Race/Wild Aperture Images
2024 Backbone Race Males’s Outcomes
- Jack Scott (U.Ok.) – 72:55:05
- Damian Corridor (U.Ok.) – 82:25:10
- Konrad Rawlik (Poland, lives within the U.Ok.) – 85:47:12
- Dougie Zinis (U.Ok.) – 87:48:47
- Orran Smith (U.Ok.) – 94:48:36
- Rory Harris (U.Ok.) – 98:41:29
- James Leavesley (U.Ok.) – 98:41:39
- Mark Potts (U.Ok.) – 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 Images
2024 Backbone Race Ladies’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 — successful 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.Ok.), who positioned second behind Bannwarth eventually 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.Ok.) entered the checkpoint in third place, simply 6 minutes behind Rickman, however took a while to recoup and put together for the following part. Lucy Gossage (U.Ok.) was in subsequent, and made a swift turnaround within the checkpoint to emerge in third place, with fell operating 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 tug away in entrance, by CP3 Langdon, Gossage had moved into second place by a margin of 51 minutes.
Lucy Gossage on the best way to a podium end on the 2024 Winter Backbone Race. Photograph: Backbone Race/Wild Aperture Images
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 finally touched the wall, victorious, in a time of 92 hours, 2 minutes, and 23 seconds — taking 5 hours and 37 minutes off her earlier successful time.
Rickman actually 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 doubtful.
Claire Bannwarth on her solution to successful the 2024 Winter Backbone Race. Photograph: Backbone Race/Wild Aperture Images
2024 Backbone Race Ladies’s Outcomes
- 1. Claire Bannwarth (France) – 92:02:23
- 2. Hannah Rickman (U.Ok.) – 104:41:07
- 3. Lucy Gossage (U.Ok.) – 106:05:26
- 4. Elaine Bisson (U.Ok.) – 111:40:56
- 4. Nicky Spinks (U.Ok.) – 111:40:56
[Editor’s Note: At the time of this article’s publishing, only five women have finished. We will update this results article accordingly as more women finish.]
