The 17th edition of the Madeira Island Ultra-Trail took over the Portuguese island from April 25 to 26, 2026, gathering some 3,500 runners from more than 60 nations and 700 volunteers. Two years after wildfires forced major reroutes, the course returned to a layout very close to the original, sending the headline 110 km Legend race off from Porto Moniz at midnight on Saturday April 25 toward Machico, with 7,165 m of elevation gain and a passage through the UNESCO Laurisilva forest, Pico Ruivo, and the exposed Pico do Areeiro ridge.
MIUT Legend 110 km: Vincent Esmiol's lesson in pacing
On the queen race, the MIUT Legend, France's Vincent Esmiol delivered a textbook performance to win in 12h48:03. The 30-year-old from Digne-les-Bains never panicked: 3rd at km 12, in front by km 20, and never threatened thereafter. He was first into the Casa do Pico Ruivo checkpoint at km 69 in 8h56 and managed the technical Pico do Areeiro ridge cleanly. Compatriot Gautier Airiau took second in 12h56:52, just under 9 minutes back, and American Tyler Green completed the podium in 13h02:10.
Pre-race favourite Aurélien Dunand-Pallaz never found his rhythm and finished 4th in 13h24:07, ahead of Ethan Peters (5th, 13h36:46) and Pavel Serov (6th, 13h41:26).
The women's race produced one of the stories of the weekend. Germany's Katharina Hartmuth finally tamed the MIUT after three failed attempts (a 2023 priority shift to the Trail World Championships, a 2024 bicycle accident, a 2025 femur bone bruise), and she did it in style. Hartmuth led from the very first checkpoint at Fanal (km 12) and only kept pulling away. By km 30 her lead was over an hour. She crossed the line in 14h54:53, almost an hour clear of the field.
"It feels almost unreal after everything that went wrong here. Today, finally, the legs and the head were aligned." (Katharina Hartmuth, post-race)
Behind her, the fight for second place went to the wire. American Helen Mino Faukner held on for second in 15h50:00, just 56 seconds ahead of a fast-closing Jazmine Lowther (Canada, 15h54:22) who passed Mino Faukner in the final 13 km but ran out of road.
MIUT Advanced 80 km: Daniel Jung makes it count
On the MIUT Advanced 80 km, Italy's Daniel Jung (Team Alpenplus-Altra) sealed a tight men's race in 8h52:50, fending off Frenchmen Martin Pariente (8h57:24) and Nicolas Muselet (8h59:49) inside a 7-minute window.
Among the women, American Lindsay Allison (Altra) was simply on another level, winning in 10h26:41 and finishing 10th overall, more than 1h20 ahead of Germany's Nicole Kessler (11h47:55).
MIUT Discover 56 km: Antoine Charvolin's stunning 5-day double
The MIUT Discover 56 km produced the cult performance of the weekend. France's Antoine Charvolin won in 5h03:14, just five days after finishing 2nd on the 87 km Grande Épopée at the Grand Raid Ventoux. A back-to-back at this level borders on the unreasonable.
The women's race went to the United States, with Rachel Drake (ACG) winning in 5h54:03 and an excellent 9th overall, ahead of compatriot Jane Maus in 6h04:54.
Conditions and the bigger picture
The weather was a typical Madeira mix: temperatures around 16°C overnight, low 20s°C in the day, with alternating drizzle and sun on the high ridges. Demanding rather than extreme, but unforgiving for any pacing mistake on the technical sections.
For the organizers, this 17th edition is also a sporting and emotional return to form: a course finally restored to its identity, a record-deep international field, and headline winners who delivered in style. With Madeira's place on the World Trail Majors confirmed, MIUT keeps hardening its status as one of the most beautiful and most competitive ultras in Europe.