Vibram, leader in high-performance rubber sole manufacturing, is back again at the most important trail running race in the world: the Ultra Trail Du Mont-Blanc® from 28 August to 3 September in Chamonix. Once again this year, there are over 8,000 participating trail runners meeting at the foot of Mont Blanc to compete along the various trails on the programme. Among the registered participants for this 2017 edition, the athletes on Vibram’s Trail running Team are all fired up and excited about the chance to repeat last year’s victories.
Vibram athletes at the starting gate of the Ultra Trail Du Mont-Blanc®, the queen of the races featured on the Ultra Trail World Tour® circuit, include: Lithuanian Gediminas Grinius (2016 UTWT champion), French Juliette Blanchet and the Russian-born and “naturalized” Italian Yulia Baykova making her debut at the 171 kilometre-long race. Italy’s Marco Zanchi, Stefano Ruzza and Lara Crivelli along with England’s Carlton Rowlands are racing in the 119 kilometre TDS trail. The new entry Audrey Bassac, born in France in 1984, is giving all she’s got along the 101 kilometre CCC trail while Sylvain Montagny is racing on the 56 kilometre OCC trail.
Each of these athletes is running with shoes featuring the Vibram Megagrip compound, the best solution for grip on the most challenging wet and dry terrains – a true ally for competitions as demanding as the ones scheduled at Chamonix where the changes in weather conditions and the most gruelling trails really put runners to the test.
Vibram, the sole specialist that is celebrating the 80th anniversary of its famous Carrarmato lug sole design this year, has chosen the occasion of the Ultra Trail Du Mont-Blanc® to introduce Vibram Litebase to all the trail runners and aficionados. This new technology was developed specifically to drastically reduce the sole’s weight (up to 30%) while maintaining Vibram’s traditional characteristics of grip, traction and durability. This is an exclusive opportunity for those present to learn more about and test this technology before the launching on the market of the first official models (available to the public as of March 2018). Tests are carried out on footwear featuring Zegalite LB, the first sole in the world that combines the lightness of the Litebase technology with the incredible grip of the Megagrip compound.
The Vibram Sole Factor truck will be Vibram’s base camp in the UTMB village (from August 28 to September 1) as it continues its world tour to promote an “awareness project” that familiarizes final consumers with the importance of soles. Vibram Sole Factor also offers its visitors the option to upgrade and customize their footwear by applying Vibram soles and the first ones to come to the truck will have the good fortune of being able to request their trail running shoes be resoled with the high-performance sole. In fact, there are expert shoemakers on board ready to carry out the sophisticated process of resoling shoes with the new Vibram Zegalite LB. About 15 resoling processes on trail running shoes are scheduled every day.
Vibram wishes all of the “ultra runners” the very best of luck!
Follow the event on Trailrunning Team Vibram page