GOLDEN TRAIL CHAMPIONSHIP 2020 - A STRATEGIC BATTLE - THE MOVIE

THE 2020 GOLDEN TRAIL CHAMPIONSHIP - A STRATEGIC BATTLE - THE MOVIE!
AVAILABLE IN ENGLISH/SPANISH/FRENCH ON THE GTS KZbin CHANNEL
Here it is, the race of the year - athletes from 32 different countries converged on Faial Island in the Portuguese Azores, in the middle of the Atlantic, to participate in this hair-raising, adrenalin-fuelled, excruciating race week of blood, sweat, and tears that was - the 2020 Golden Trail Championship.
All around the world this year we watched race after trail race get cancelled due to the COVID pandemic. This event was conjured up out of this catastrophic year to reunite the world’s best trail runners and terminate this 2020 season in a positive way. We had a window of opportunity and with the unwavering support of Azores Trail Run® and Azores Tourism, it came together and the GTC rose out of the Azores Archipelago like a beautiful new volcano.
Experience the trail-running event of the year and take a look behind the scenes with four of the world’s best athletes, Jim Walmsley (Team Hoka One One), a long distance specialist, Stian Angermund (Team Salomon), a short distance and vertical race expert, Maude Mathys (Team Salomon), a fast and runnable race specialist, and Tove Alexandersson (Team Icebug), a world orienteering champion, giving an inside feel of this unique stage race, and showing the evolution of their strategies and the mental and physical obstacles they had to overcome.
These runners are not used to accumulating such extreme races over 5 consecutive days, usually they only run one tough race per month. The Golden Trail Championship is challenging; it is 5 intense days with 113km accumulated distance and 6,050m of vertical elevation, split into 1 prologue (to define day 1’s start-line grid), followed by 4 consecutive race stages (between 22-32km distance each day), where the Championship winners are those with the least accumulated times at the end of the week’s racing. As well as simply vying for the Overall position (represented by the yellow bib), each day, these gruelling course routes also include 3 inter-race timed sections: a Climb, a Downhill, and a Sprint (red, blue and green bibs respectively) that are timed from one point to another along the course route. Each day, the accumulated inter-race times provide the respective bib leaders for the following day and at the end of the week, the winners of each specialised section are those with the lowest accumulated time
Each runner had a strategy, one goal, or maybe several! Stian reveals, “I feel like I could be in the first or second position, but in the same time I could also be fifth or sixth…”. So, what should they aim for? An overall win, or focus on winning a climb, downhill or sprint category? "I would love a stage win, but I think I need to figure out kind of a sneaky way to do it!”, joked Jim Walmsley. For Maude Mathys, her aim was simple, “...of course the aim is to win… I would love to win the overall ranking” Who would know how to best manage their effort over so many days? Who had the best strategy? Would there be any injuries? Tove Alexandersson interjected “for sure I can handle one more day, but two more days?!"
This race had so many factors, so many runners with different skill sets, the outcome couldn’t be clearly decided from the outset - you had to wait till the very end to be sure - because anything could happen!
www.goldentrailseries.com

[@NomadTerraCrawlers]

Stian is one humble creature. My respect for him went up 1000%

[@jesuskenneth4318]

instablaster.

[@dominofuel8050]

I'm just super impressed at how fast they run the technical downhills. Especially Tove, she just throws caution to the wind.

[@DirkJ.]

I was in such awe! Watch Maude go down after she looked like a grandma.

[@lylejustinegay7810]

Stian saying "Ok, let's help them" in the end is the cherry on top.

[@craighammond5918]

My ankle just rolled watching this.

[@John-cu7dv]

Wait until you see orienteering :p This rough, tough terrain is just normal for them.

[@adamcallaghan7313]

ha ha thats funny craig hammond

[@rientjevaniperen3116]

Wat een tocht. Fantastisch om te zien.

[@CsabaTothMr]

We need more of such races for trail running! The videography was awesome, I don't know how some single trail downhill shots were possible at all! Very good views!

[@lutze5086]

Bike?

[@CsabaTothMr]

@@lutze5086 I was exagerating. I think many places were too rugged for a bike. Possibly they hired some good enough runners. For example since this is a Salomon event Jam Jam has such a track record for videographing races while he can run super fast as well.

[@lutze5086]

@@CsabaTothMr someone else said the same in other comments, the dude can't be running backwards can he lol

[@CsabaTothMr]

@@lutze5086 You can hold a stick backwards possibly. But I'm just guessing. Given so rugged terrain maybe that's more likely than bike, but who knows. I hope some officials will chip in.

[@papolymerchemist]

15:43 I love this reckless downhill section with Tove. Reckless might be the wrong word. Amazing? Inspiring? Curageous?

[@The_Reality_Filter]

She's a fearless Viking and they can't understand that.

[@craigkelly7288]

"In F1 If you start at the back you're not going to win". - Sergio Perez enters the chat

[@IsaacVanos]

Y’all mind if I overtake

[@thatboyscotty]

Glad to see this race happened, and Salomon is still putting out great content. Would love to see more (and even longer!) stage races of this nature. Love the idea of different bibs for best descender, climber, sprinter etc. Would be awesome to see more of that. Definitely makes for more interesting, and strategic racing, in my opinion. Film quality was amazing. Thanks!

[@mynameisMadameGeorge]

This should 100% be the format going forward! I’d love to see this model of trail running expanded to something like the Grand Tours in cycling, with brands sending teams to work together.

[@gudboyngdisyerto]

i like the format but i don't like team members working together. everyone should have their own strategy based on individual strengths and weaknesses

[@CouchtotheSummit]

While I enjoyed watching this, I think this format would be extremely hard on the athletes and lead to greater burn-out in the sport. Just one day of hard racing can take weeks and months to recover from, let alone 4 days in a row of it. Elite trail running has seem a bunch of elites come and go within the space of 5 years and stage races would only further accelerate this. The video showed how exhausted some of these athletes were becoming in stage 4 and while I respect the athletes commitment - these guys will just run themselves into the ground if asked - the organisers need to take the well-being of the athletes into consideration. I think races like this should be the exception not the norm.

[@mynameisMadameGeorge]

@@CouchtotheSummit I don’t think it would be any harder than grand tour racing is in cycling, and those guys do it for 3 weeks at a time! I suppose the difference is that cycling has a lot more money to spend on resources for their riders during stage races. Team buses, massage, rest and recovery etc. I agree that ultra trail running in particular has seen a lot of elites burn out very quickly but I think this could be greatly improved with more money in the sport to support the runners. I think this style of stage racing could bring a lot of excitement to the sport and give the casual fan something to follow rather than a bunch of disparate larger races. Love what Golden Trail do though.

[@CouchtotheSummit]

@@mynameisMadameGeorge this is comparing apples with oranges. Trail running is a lot harder on the body than cycling. Plus in cycling there are greater slip-streaming benefits and long stages where riders are not riding at their limit the entire time unless they are breakaway riders - and there are no breakaway riders that ride at their limit for 4 stages straight. i've never seen it in pro-cycling grand tours. The GC riders are going hard up climbs, but there are flat stages allowing for recovery and other team members that protect them and do the work for them for bulk of stages, so in 4-5 hour stages, they only need to work at their limit in spurts or up to 30 mins at a time on large HC climbs. Running trails you are at your limit the entire time of a 3-4 hour race, and the impact loading on the body adds to the stress on the body that doesn't exist in cycling. The athletes can survive these type of races, but it does not bode well for a long career of these athletes if they had to do it every year, or multiple times a year.

[@ellismccoy]

​@@CouchtotheSummit Riders finish grand tours absolutely smashed to pieces, you definitely underestimate the intensity of the GTs. Some climbs are at least an hour long and with multiple in single stages. In any case, it's still accumulative fatigue over a longer period. You also can't really call injuries being a reason either. Crashes in cycling causing serious injuries are unfortunately just a way of life in the Pro Peloton What I entirely do agree with you on, is that running does damage to your body beyond just fatigue but I'm assuming runners are capable of multiple days out in a row?

[@sedcanlas2420]

Tove is definitely my favorite athlete on this event.

[@Goggsy08]

She's so interesting isn't she. I fucking love seeing aggressive runners. Makes it more entertaining than watching the wrinkly runners 😂

[@mikelbenson2901]

Jim Walmsley all the way

[@sedcanlas2420]

@@Goggsy08 Yup, the best application of "live today like it's your last" I love it.

[@The_Reality_Filter]

@@sedcanlas2420 She's a fearless Viking warrior

[@korneltoniak2624]

Where the heck is Martina who used to give us so much positive energy?! :)

[@SamirMishra6174]

such a beautiful documentary already watched it twice.

[@EMLRecordings]

This was brilliant, a true celebration of running and freedom. cant wait to see what 2021 brings, I love this format too.

[@andreeiermann7638]

I started watching some ultra trails to get motivated. After seeing this one, I feel ready to go out and do my first 200km! When the snow is gone, I will be on the trail.

[@Fabienne1983girl]

Omg, this gys can‘t come from this planet 🙈 they are so strong. Thank you to let us particilate on this event 😘

[@bretta1937]

Bravo Salomon. This was incredibly done. One of the best running videos on KZbin.

[@franklehouillier8865]

I kind of wish there were more focus on the other race categories, KoM and Sprint. Nice Video.

[@barlowwe]

It’s unbelievable how fast they run across that terrain. I’ve been binging ultra docs and this type of race is completely different. So hard.

[@ososdechengdu]

Orienteers are clearly the future of trail running. Go Tove and Frederic!

[@domino18]

Bartek 💪🤙

[@benm9901]

I totaly agree! running and just exploring is so much fun! not having to worry about pace. but at the same time love improving and getting faster. and sometimes it feels good to compete

[@waltwood5394]

It doesn't speak for Salomon that they criticize their athlete Elhousine publicly, no matter what he has done. A real team would do this internally..

[@Extolguitarest]

Agreed. They lost a fan today

[@wegalsziel]

Thought absolutelly the same. Also "teaming up" against Jim in the race briefing didn't make Salomon more sympathic to me... I am aware that's how professional sportsmanship works nowadays but trail running is still very individual sport.

[@veritybreen8546]

AGREED

[@TalkativeMime1]

I mean he wouldn’t take the front for a whole 3 hour races that’s a huge no no in any distance race. The other athlete barley said anything bad he just said he was frustrated which would be 100% understandable

[@jhesth9894]

Don't understand how the Salomon team manager can say: "We are a team. We are training together. Living together etc..." I mean, they live all around Europe and even the united states. The only times they meet are in events or competitions. Anyways, thanks for making this event happening! Cool concept and fun that you make such a great coverage of it

[@rajan14061974]

Bro , runners life & it’s the feeling inside 😎😎

[@jhesth9894]

@@rajan14061974 Bro, living together and training together is not a feeling

[@FlorianChristoph]

Thank you - been waiting for this eagerly. Great work, putting the race together in these times, and bringing us this amazing footage! I like the idea with the segments or different "jerseys" type scenario, bit like in cycling, with KOM for example. I feel this has a future, as has stage racing. The learnings for me would be to see more focus on those segments, and KOM in particular is perhaps the one that has biggest potential. Focusing on the type of climb in a preview, etc.. I wish there would be a bit more focus on the racing itself in general, the course/route. etc. and footage of the racing. But I understand this was probably difficult here with the conditions and everything. Thanks for bringing it together, amazing commitment from Salomon!

[@juanestebanromero7413]

The soundtrack is epic!! Can you help us with a playlist please?!

[@phyrkiel]

I second that, any info on the soundtrack?

[@josephlassen909]

This is a cool format - like half Tour de France, half Formula 1. Enjoyed it!

[@fastinradfordable]

Yea except you aren’t sitting down

[@1088933]

Amazing, thank you!

[@Sanko1960]

Excellent, exciting coverage. Congratulations to all the competitors and the videographers and commentators too for a wonderful film.

[@letoatreides5165]

Those bloopers at the end are the best thing ever😂😂😂

[@reysaj]

I am inspired every time I watch UTWT races. I have watched this video many times.

[@usedwigs]

Great video and race coverage and incredible shots of the island.

Great movie of a awesome Race!!! Congrats.

[@ellismccoy]

Definitely more of this! Awesome!

[@Theninjaonthemountains]

great to see so many great athletes back at it!!

[@patdecode]

Thanks, awesome coverage!! Great job!

[@catreadsabunch]

The elhousine scenes of him just staying behind stian really got to me. Like he help stian up one time and now he owes him a race? So crazy.

[@SeeChadRun]

Awesome running and a great film!

[@idmarts1]

Love every second of this vídeo thank you.

[@kaffefrallan]

Really enjoyed watching this!

[@p5rsona]

I live for the amazing footage of these locations. Really makes me wanna take up trail running around the world.

[@mauriciobravosoldevilla8831]

Golden Trail Series never disapoints, the waiting was worth it!

[@tymanot]

What a great race of incredible people. Thanks for the video.

[@steveruppel]

Incredible video, well done!

[@raqueltorres6862]

That was amazing. Super technical, absolutely beautiful. The best aspects of competition.

[@jimalpin]

the footage, narrative and music is insane on this one

[@1234sure1234]

How did you get the shots while running down hill? Those were amazing

[@JonathanJScottFilms]

By the looks of it a mountain bike with a GoPro mounted on it facing backwards

[@ozenfant_ozn]

fast runner with a cam, respect to thoes guys! obviously they don't go the distance but nonetheless.

[@bikeinmotion]

I'm sure it was Greg Vollet with a gimbal. He is one heck of a downhill runner

[@cempalaz3397]

Amazing!! This is why I run trails

[@philipeick-vocalmusic]

Amazing footage of an amazing race!

[@Northernerdownsouth]

Great footage. Dynafit are kicking out some impressive shoes this year.

[@chrisprosser5055]

Great video, really enjoyed watching this.

[@dabrowka1999]

Great movie! Great emotions!

[@Mega1989]

What a fantastic film documenting an incredible race. The visuals, camera-work, and music were superb and the story telling was really well done. Thank you for putting such effort into a high-quality piece. Can't wait for more!

[@cordeiropedro]

Wow Tove!!! 💪🏼 Amazing

[@bettinapoulos7891]

Absolutely incredible

[@vol9329]

Props to the cameramen for keeping up with the athletes so well.

[@DanRuns]

A superb video and a fascinating and insightful watch

[@alfredohernandezlara3848]

Tove tackling those trails so gracefully is way too pleasing to watch. Such pristine technique is proper to wild animals alone!

[@alvindichoso3228]

3737737373745

[@amblincork]

Very enjoyable video - some great running shots

[@nowackichiro]

Great video however.... no single interview with Bart...??? We see a lot of Jim and Stian, also the top 1-4 ladies but there's pretty much nothing from Bart... Any reason behind this? I would assume we should see much more of the winner, especially that Bart does speak English ;)

[@Klaus_678]

Brilliant content. Thank you very much for sharing.

[@churnetvalleyrunner3635]

This is awesome

[@stangiles2001]

It's amazing that records can be broken, many will stand forever. Can't beat new rules and politics. So happy to see women and men competing. With 2 feet, going one step forward.

[@CarpeDiemMDItv]

Congratulations!

[@dbzc98]

It would have been nice also translated into Italian. But thanks a lot anyway. Good trail to you all, a big hug from Italy

[@javiwalk]

Wow awesome video Saludos desde Zamora Ecuador 🇪🇨

[@shaunilemmens5735]

Did anyone else do a double take when they heard Jim pronounce Hoka One One as Oney oney? Is that how it's pronounced???

[@SleepyPanda-DougBurbidge]

That is how it's pronounced. It's a Hawaiian phrase meaning "fly over the Earth."

[@NARRASSAFilmes]

Well done video!

[@alexbond7]

Very nice video !

[@philippwickey9484]

Where are the music credits?

[@yanshi34]

camera guys are the real MVPs of this race

[@maestegenduro]

great video subbed

[@desmanjaras9844]

Trail running have different feel, we can enjoy the nature.. downhill is my favorite part

[@OmarAbdulMalikDHEdMPASPACPAPro]

This is so BEAUTIFUL😭❤ and EXCITING😃💓! MAN, I think I could run trails forever!🏞🏃🏽‍♂️ However, I have to work (student loans and mortgage🤑). I'll do the best I can. I run in HOKA ONE ONE because the cushioning is awesome. 😁☁️👣 I'm so happy for those folks who have found a way to become professional trail runners! You guys are AWESOME!🏞⛰🏔🏃🏼‍♀️🏃‍♂️🏃‍♀️🏃🏼‍♂️

[@danielrodgers3002]

Cool movie. Great job. Would love to have it twice as long in order to see more of the runners. Found it hard to believe how rough the trails were in the first couple of stages. Not sure you could really call those trails... Thanks.

[@brushandbird]

This was a great little doc and would love to see more like it.

[@logisthenewlinear]

There’s a series from the Golden Trail Series last year with a very similar format (7 videos, on Amazon Prime free).

[@brushandbird]

logisthenewlinear Oh awesome! Will definitely check this out, thanks (:

[@georgerichard6946]

Awesome. Maybe race in Australia, very little covid here ;)

[@danielfarrugia3884]

Yes! And loads of amazing trails all over the country!

[@maciejtumulec]

So proud of Bart Przedwojewski!

[@The_Reality_Filter]

Tove showing her fearless Viking warrior spirit.

[@danikacbass9438]

A minute in and I was taken aback by Stian swimming in socks and shoes 😅

[@RussiasSufferingInUkraine]

The lead women's battle on day 3 was quite awesome to watch. I wish it could have been longer, but very happy to be able to watch it nontheless. Maude Mathys, Rachel Drake, Blandine L'Hirondel, Tove Alexandersson. We're in a golden era for trail running races and I'm loving it.

[@jeremybergeron3527]

16:20 I never saw hard footage like this. It's an extreme race sh'''''t! 😳😳😳 C'était spectaculaire de voir ces conditions météos, les chutes, la vitesse wow!

[@hanhanlin2582]

I think Taiwan is a good place to trail running! Welcome!

[@phyrkiel]

Can You please explain why you list Bartlomiej Przedwojewski, in the Golden Ticket Winner section, as being Czech (CZE), when he is 100% Polish, and listed so throughout the entire film?

[@JustOneWolf]

I'd love to see more of the running and less of the talking! But still enjoyable to watch, nicely done.

[@RussiasSufferingInUkraine]

Love the LH reference to Formula 1.

[@gmv03013]

Are they using kinesiology tape, or it's something else? The pieces are a bit small to support a whole muscle and I was wondering what that might be.

[@TheAtl0001]

I can't believe Tove and Maude age difference is only 5 yrs. Tove 28 yrs, Maude 33 yrs. Tove looks much younger, Maude much older. Great Athletes, participants ... Salomon management, organization not so great and full of air.

[@veritybreen8546]

PROBABLY BECAUSE MAUDE IS A LEGEND AND HAS MORE TRAIL LINES ON HER FACE DUE TO ABSOLUTE BAD ASS EXTRA YEARS OF EXPERIENCE.

[@SiCvIdEoS1]

That lady just tested his brain with that covid swab

[@MichiGombocz]

well, if it's not done like this, it's done wrong ^^ Happy Holidays!

[@Isdel]

Awesome video! Anyone know the music that plays around 1:55-20:10? Thanks

[@Heisen_WW]

Chyba nie spodziewali się wygranej Bartka, bo jest go mało w materiale. Polska górą!!! Dumni z Bart'a :) Pozdro

[@cubadacub]

Tove is huuuge!

[@AaSinSin137]

39:50 nice footage..

[@marylandflyer5670]

And as amazing as Ches was in college, surely the most dominant NCAA distance runner in history, never beat Lukas Verzbicas in a race. What a tragedy that Verzbicas never realized his potential. I’m

[@familyguy9995]

Nice to watch but not even 1 interview with the winner is really disappointing for me.

[@chrisdecu6422]

I kind off see this video is only about salomon beating Jim. But I get it, its a competition so it happens.

[@MrMrSaldana]

What a bunch of monsters..how and why these people are not more main stream in the public eyes is beyond me..people scream and cheer for someone throwing a ball into a basket or bouncing a ball off your head into a goal though that sport takes some endurance nothing like this..I believe that winning and being number 1 in a competition such as this would bring the winner a couple millions as the winning purse..idk if they do or not I’m just assuming they don’t..my point is these people are not getting the attention someone that endures what they do is more noticed by a normal day to say civilian such as a football player would

[@jt0308]

the commentary on this is a bit OTT

[@veritybreen8546]

AGREED.

[@howardc6657]

Let's see Bart do a 100 miler

[@alummilk2354]

😊

[@charlierunner6958]

Wamsley e' inguardabile a correre in salita... Uno spreco di energie assurdo. Mi sembra strano non gli abbiano ancora detto come correre. Ora capisco perche quando viene in Europa a fare le gare vere, sparisce...