Jean-Philippe Tschumi kept pace for a long time at the head of the race, the start of which was given Thursday evening, the Swiss even temporarily took the lead of the event but his main opponent Mathieu Blanchard “Koh Lanta” took the ascendancy in the climb towards the Piton des Orangers which he crossed with more than four minutes to spare.
Arrival scheduled around 7:30 p.m.
Under humid and heavy heat, the competitors progress towards the finish which will be judged at the La Redoute stadium, in Saint-Denis, after 175 kilometers of a course marked with just over 10,000 meters of positive altitude difference. At 1:45 p.m., Mathieu Blanchard was 35 kilometers from the goal. But according to observers, Jean-Michel Tschumi has not yet said his last word and he would still be able to come back on his opponent. It is in any case faster on the descent.
The American Ben Dhiman occupies third place in the ranking, more than twenty minutes behind. Germain Granger (4th) is thirty-seven minutes away, Aurélien Dunand-Pallaz (5th), winner in 2023, is even further away.
