The beauty of the interior of Castellon surprises the Trail World Championships runners

Castellón will live the historic fact of hosting the Trail World Championships next May 12th. Therefore, in recent weeks, many of the best trailrunning runners in the world have come to the province to recognize the route. And they go back enjoying the landscapes, the mountains, the paths and the towns of our province.

Luis Alberto Hernando, Azara Garcia, Ragna Debats, Sylvain Court, Lucie Jamsin, Diego Pazos, Marcin Swierc… there are many runners who have already recognized the route. And some of them have explained on their social networks their surprise with what they have found: a very hard route, complete, with many ups and downs, with technical areas…

But, in addition, some runners who have visited us, have explained the beauty of Castellón. Some sentences that you can read are “the interior is very mountainous and it’s worth knowing” or “the second part of the race is wonderful, with magical landscapes”. Many have explained their personal experiences, noting that they have spent some wonderful days in Castellón.

Undoubtedly, the beauty of the interior of Castellón is surprising the runners, who go back with many technical information for when they return to dispute the Trail World Championship, but also a great personal experience, having enjoyed the beauty of this region. These landscapes and the passion for sport that exists in the province, make Castellón a perfect sports scene.

ANALYSIS OF THE ROUTES OF PENYAGOLOSA TRAILS HG: MIM, LES USERES – FINISH LINE

Perfil MiM 2018

We continue with our analysis of the routes. A few days ago, we published the track Castelló-Les Useres and know we are going to continue with the MiM until the finish line. From Les Useres we go straight ti the GR33-Camí dels Pelegrins continuing the general tour, on a slight slope and through paths, until passing Serra de la Creu hill. It is important to remember that the Natural Monument of Camí dels Pelegrins is a route that immerses us in the Penyagolosa and that goes through the municipal districts of Les Useres, Llucena del Cid, Xodos y Vistabella del Maestrat. Its paths and ways have constituted the main communication ways between villages and farms through the history and in between goes one the most ancestrals rituals of the Valencian Community. The path goes through hills and steep beatifull ravines with a great environmental importance.

After Serra de la Creu, we will go down through path until el Barranc de la Vall and we will go uphill to la Mas de la Vall, overcoming a hill, to go down again trough paths to Barranc de Sant Miquel and continue going hard uphill to Sant Miquel de Torrocelles hermitage by path.

This section is STRAVA timed with the name Sant Miquel de Torrosselles and it has 2,67kms y 141m+. 

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We we cross the fortification, we go up to lloma Bernat by path, in an ascension of 4,81kms and 490m+, timed in STRAVA as Lloma Bernat. 

We will continue in a runneable downhill, combining path and track, until arriving to the base of the ascension to Xodos that is almost always hard at this point of the MiM. They are 3,22kms and 129m+ almost all of them at the end. In SRAVA you will find them as Xodos.

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From Xodos you will go out by track, remqaining on Marianet base, to to go uphill to Pla de la Creu path. This section are 3,51kms and 376m+ timed in  STRAVA with the name of Marinet.

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We cross the tracks and continue a kilometer until finding a change from the last edition track. At the level of the junction, toward Mas de Vela, we will follow an old path to arrive clove to the Tossal de les Mallades and arrive to la Banyadera. This uphill are Esta subida son 2,18kms and 150m+ in STRAVA we find it as Banyadera.

In Banyadera we enter in the Natural Park of Penyagolosa, an incredible natural space, that represents a geographical milestone  and a Deep-rooted cultural referent in the valencian tradition. The Park has 1.094.45 hectares and its highest peak, Penyagolosa, is the second highest mountain in Comunitat Valenciana. This space extends over the townships of Xodos, Vistabella del Maestrat y Villahermosa del Río.

From Banyadera, practically all by path and wavy downhill through Lloma del Conill until arrivint to Sant Joan de Penyagolosa, by the PR79. There you will find the big reward for the effort: the finish line.

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ANALYSIS OF THE ROUTES OF PENYAGOLOSA TRAILS HG: CASTELLÓ – LES USERES

With this post, we start a range of publications aimed to explain technically the three Penyagolosa Trails HG races of this yea: MiM, CSP and Trail World Championships. Tours whereby lost paths have been recovered, after listening to our elders and study our mountains. In this first post, we are going to talk about Castelló- Les Useres section, it is the same for the three races, except for the CSP that will start from the centre of Castelló to reach 2km later with the MiM and CSP, at the UJI.

From the UJI, the race goes direction to Magdalena Hospital and in a few metres start the firts climb (hike) of the day, the Tossal Gros de Castellón.

Careful with this new route, we have just started running and we have one of the first important hikes, with 234m+, 2,66kms of distance and a 9% of average increase. The last ramps are going to put our pulse rate very high if we don’t know, ¡it’s just the beginning!

Strava Section https://www.strava.com/segments/17051370

 

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Once this first hill is out of the way we continue direction to Borriol. First, on a technical path, followed by a runnable one, to continue through a track until the last section of technical path before arriving to Borriol.

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Here we can recover a Little of our effort because we have in front of us an explosive and challenging climb (hike). With less distance that Tossal Gros, the climb to the Pedra de Borriol has 2,5kms, 356m+ and a 14% of average increase. We will have to use our quadriceps! The uphill soil, as well as in the Tossal Gros, has technical parts with live rocks and more runnable sections, with earthen floor

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Strava Section https://www.strava.com/segments/17027302

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Until here, MiM and CSP have suffered important differences in the distance and elevation gain respect the last edition and also the kilometres of path has increased at the expense of asphalt. In the MiM, we have 12km, 14 last years, the elevation gain was 678m+ the last edition and 811 this year. These data indicate an increase first section hardness.

The main differences on the CSP are on the new start line from Castellón, that increase 3,8km on the beginning and the hike to Tossal Gros in this year edition. Last year we hike to Collet through tracks and asphalt leaving Tossal on our right.

We continue moving forward until la Pedra de Borriol, to continue the race through the original GR33, passing el Pou del Mollet, el Mas de Panero, la Font de la Canal… all, combining tracks and asphalt sections very runnable with an easy path that we will leave at the CV-160. Here we will cross under the road and we will connect with the new GR33 by tracks.

We will keep forward through the riverbed of the Barranc de les Parres to find out another novelty on the route.  At the junction of the riverbed with the GR33, we will start the hike to Mas de Polinario, an old recovered path for this editions that will make us gain elevation rapidly to run through the ridge until the named masía and link again with the GR33. With this we gain more path, reduce distance, from 2,5 to 1,4km, and lose 34m+ of elevation, that you can not appreciate on the track. We have called this section Pujada a la Talaiota https://www.strava.com/segments/17027310

 

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Once overcome this hurdle, we fly to La Bassa aid station through a track. One more surprise is waiting for us after the aid station. In 2017 edition, the routes leave el Mas de Valdesca on its right going on asphalt and track. Now, we can tour the same section through tracks and paths, leaving the mas on our left, a 190m cut off, not much, but it is always more pleasant to run on track and paths rather than on asphalt.

If we remain on the GR33 on the famous way to rambla de la Viuda, on a slight slope by path until the Tossal del Segall to go downhill trough an ancient track converted to path.

In previous editions,  the route left the watercourse in 1km; now, we will follow 700m more, approximately, to find another recovered path, the Pujada al Vilamboc (https://www.strava.com/segments/17027324).  A path section with an elevation of 170m+ and a distance of 1,74kms, with a 9%  of average. We will leave the watercourse behind to continue going downhill and… ¡surprise! Another new path that leave us at the Barranc de les Olles. Be careful with the downhill section, it has a firm floor, but technical.

We will follow the route to overcome the last serious hurdle before arriving to Les Useres, la Pujada del Barranc de les Olles (https://www.strava.com/segments/17027335).  A challenging uphill kilometre with 114m+, to leave us overlooking the village and the next aid station. A shortly runnable and technical terrain will leave us at the foot of the village, to arrive to les Hortes uphill.

To sum up, this section of the Rambla de la Viuda to Les Useres has less tan 100m of distance respect to 2017, but 178m+ more. And what it is more important, almost all the route to Les Useres will go through trails, winning more beauty and toughness, leaving the old GR33.

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Until here the first analysis of the route. In a few days we will explain you the peculiarities of each race, as from Les Useres they take different routes.

Transgrancanaria HG will assign six places to participate in the Penyagolosa Trails HG Trail World Championships

Transgrancanaria HG is ready to live its big week of the year. This edition is the most international of the event, but this year it stands out especially because it will host the Spanish RFEA Trail Championship. The first three runners of the Advanced (64 km) will get six places for the Penyagolosa Trails HG Trail World Championships. It should be remembered that Transgrancanaria HG is in the main international and national circuits, such as Ultra Trail World Tour and Spain Ultra Cup.

Undoubtedly, this great incentive will be cited in the race much of the best spanish runners. Among them, Castellón runners Cristobal Adell, Víctor Bernad, Juanan Ruiz, Laia Cañes and Sonia Escuriola, who have the participation in the World Championship at home as one of their great goals of the season. Besides them, very prominent names of the national trail running appear in all the pools as candidates to be in Penyagolosa Trails HG, such as Pablo Villa, Pablo Villalobos, Yeray Durán, Efrén Segundo, David López Castán, Sebas Sánchez, Albert Pujol, Manuel Anguita, Santi Mezquita, Diego Manuel Camacho or Chema Martínez in the men’s category and Azara García, Gemma Arenas, Teresa Nimes, Nuria Domínguez, Montse Martínez, Melisa Gali, Noelia Camacho, Silvia Puigarnau, Yolanda Fernández or Irene Fuertes, in the female category.

The only two Spanish runners who have guaranteed their place in the Penyagolosa Trails HG Trail World Championships are Luis Alberto Hernando and Cristofer Clemente, in his condition of champion and second place in the 2017 Trail World Championship.

All the Spanish trail running focus will be in Artenara next Saturday at 10 am. Place and time at which this 64-kilometer race will start, with 3200 meters of positive height difference, which will pass through emblematic places of Gran Canaria and which will be decisive to meet six more representatives of the Spanish team that will compete in the Penyagolosa Trails HG Trail World Championships.

Available the Foundation for Medicine & Science in Ultra-Endurance Sports health bibs for Penyagolosa Trails HG

The Foundation for Medicine & Science in Ultra-Endurance Sports, thanks to Penyagolosa Trails HG donation, offers CSP and MiM health bibs. This will help to finance investigations and studies linked with ultra resistance sports and encourage its dissemination. From today on it is possible to collaborate with this initiative.

For Penyagolosa Trails HG, athlete’s health is a priority. The organization goes to great lengths to guaranty the security and the runner’s medical monitoring. To that end, the organization carries out numerous communication and prevention actions in health care issues. As example, in 2014 Penyagolosa Trails Saludable was born, it was developed as part of the health research projects of the Sports Service of the Universitat Jaume I of Castellón. A pioneer project in national level with few international references that emerged with the aim of deepen in long distance races from the health point of view. The CSP has been a test bed to study the runner’s health improvements through psychological factors, training habits, or physical parameters, as well as the weight evolution, blood pressure, blood tests, etc.

Because investigation must be at the service of this discipline as a whole, Penyagolosa Trails HG supports the new “Foundation for Medicine & Science in Ultra-Endurance Sports“. This organism has a purpose obtain funding for global investigation projects linked to ultra resistance sports and promote the dissemination of the results achieved. The interest of a foundation to finance the investigation is to protect itself from any conflict of interest thanks to the independence created between the donors and the investigation projects.

To collaborate in this investigation funding, in 2018 Penyagolosa Trails HG donates health bibs in favour of the foundation and invites to all those who wish it to make a donation. The foundation has the exclusive management of the health bibs. Those runners interested in getting one of those bibs could make their donation through the link:

https://www.njuko.net/ussdonation/select_competition

Important: The donor, in any case, won’t be able to reimburse his/her donation neither totally or partially. From the moment that runner is registered, he or she depends on the same regulation that the other runners.

https://youtu.be/cqbSJDZt5kA

Penyagolosa Trails HG anounces the routes of MiM, CSP and Trail World Championship

Penyagolosa Trails HG anounces the routes of MiM and CSP. In this edition, the main novelties are the startline of CSP will be from Aulas Square, three races will pass by Tossal Gros and Borriol or improving trails. These novelties join those at the general information sheet of the Trail World Championship, which it knew last week. In this way, only 100 days are left to live a historic day for the event and for the province of Castellón.

The three races have been adapted to be held simultaneously, following the guidelines of the Coordination and Safety Plan, as well as the optimization of resources and volunteers.

 

MIM

The MiM will start from the Universitat Jaume I Saturday May 12th at 7am. The race will have a distance of 60 kilometers, with 3200 metres cumulative elevation. In the twentieth anniversary, for the first time it will pass through the Tossal Gros and the center of Borriol. From there, the race will continue until Les Useres. Precisely, The Rambla-Les Useres section has been improved and will pass by trail, instead of track. Next, the runners will continue towards Torrosselles and Xodos. In the last section of the test, the part of Pla de la Creu-Banyadera has also been improved, including more paths before reaching Sant Joan de Penyagolosa. The MiM will be part of the calendar of the Spain Ultra Cup and will be scoring in the Ultra-Trail of Mont Blanc, with 4 points.

Perfil MiM 2018

MiM Page

CSP

The Provincial Palace of the Diputación de Castellón will be the scene of the startline of CSP. This race will pass through the streets of the town at 00:00 a.m. on Saturday, May 12th. From there, it will go to the UJI and the race will take the same route as the MiM to Les Useres. From this town you will go to Atzeneta through recovered paths, such as the Camí del Piló de la Creu. The race will pass through the municipalities of Benafigos, Culla, Vistabella, Xodos and Villahermosa del Río, to end in Sant Joan de Penyagolosa. The CSP will have 108 kilometers, with 5600 meters cumulative elevation. This race will be part of the circuits Spain Ultra Cup and Ultra Trail World Tour and will be scoring in the Ultra-Trail of Mont-Blanc with 5 points.

Perfil CSP 2018

CSP Page

TWC

The World Championship is the great novelty of this edition. The departure will be at 6 a.m. of Saturday, May 12th, from the UJI. In total, 85 kilometers with 5000 meters of cumulative elevation, which will pass through the municipal districts of Castellón, Borriol, Les Useres, Atzeneta, Benafigos and Vistabella. The best trail runners will be cited and in which the male, female and team world champions will be decided.

Perfil-TWC-2018

TWC Page

There are different novelties in the program, like that the first selections will arrive on Tuesday, May 8th. On the 10th, Thursday, there will be a parade of national teams that will compete in the Trail World Championships through the streets of the center of Castellón, in a great welcome show. On Friday, the Runner Fair will be organized again in Aulas Square, where the numbers of MiM and CSP will also be collected.

On Saturday will take place the three race and on Sunday May 13th, the awards ceremony and the closing ceremony to put the finishing touch to a sports week par excellence in the mountains of Castellón.

Official comunique- Adverse Analytical Result

The results of the analyzes carried out by the Spanish Agency for the Protection of Health in Sport (AEPSAD) in the last edition of Penyagolosa Trails have confirmed an Adverse Analytical Result, in the runner D. Remigio Queral Ibáñez. In application of the provisions of Article 30 of the Organic Law 3/2013 on Health Protection and Fight against Doping, the results obtained by the runner are canceled, leaving the final classification as follows:

Clas. Dors. Nombre Apellido Club Cat. Clas.
cat.
Tiempo Diferencia/
1ero
País
1 2019 Timothy OLSON THE NORTH FACE SE M 1 12:23:58 00:00:00 USA (Estados Unidos)
2 2018 Yeray DURAN LOPEZ BUFF PRO TEAM VET M 1 12:45:34 00:21:36 ESP (España)
3 2026 Jose Esteban MARTINEZ TECLES LIKE SPORT LURBEL VET M 2 12:52:53 00:28:55 ESP (España)
4 2028 Alejandro FRAGUELA STUDIO54 VET M 3 13:09:32 00:45:34 ESP (España)
5 2007 Victor BERNAD BLASCO TEAM SPORTHG – AMLSPORT VET M 4 13:24:08 01:00:10 ESP (España)

FIB y Penyagolosa Trails HG se unirán para organizar un gran concierto entre las salidas de CSP, MiM y Campeonato del Mundo

La celebración Penyagolosa Trails HG se convertirá en un gran espectáculo los próximos 11 y 12 de mayo. El FIB y esta prueba deportiva se unirán para organizar un macroconcierto entre las salidas de CSP, MiM y Campeonato del Mundo de Trail. El cartel aún está por confirmar, pero los organizadores han asegurado que “la esencia del FIB estará en los grupos que actúen este día”. Se prevé que sean más de diez bandas nacionales e internacionales, de las cuales, algunas de ellas han sido cabezas de cartel en las últimas ediciones del FIB.

Esta iniciativa conseguirá una internacionalización aún mayor de Penyagolosa Trails HG. Se espera que a los aficionados del mejor trailrunning se les unan miles de fibers llegados desde todo el mundo para disfrutar de una jornada que será histórica.

El festival comenzará el viernes 11 de mayo por la tarde en la UJI y se alargará hasta las 7 de la mañana, hora de salida de la MiM. Precisamente, las salidas de las diferentes carreras serán un auténtico espectáculo, ya que los corredores podrán salir con la mayor motivación escuchando a sus grupos favoritos en directo. También se está trabajando en poder hacer una zona de acampada para todos aquellos que se desplacen únicamente al festival e, incluso, en una firma de discos de estos grupos, que tendría lugar el domingo 12 de mayo, antes de la entrega de trofeos.

We closed the registrations process for Penyagolosa Trails HG 2018.

Penyagolosa Trails

The period to validate the registration has finished for the lottery winners. Now, we have contacted the runners rejected in the last three draws to offer them the released places. So, we closed the registrations process for Penyagolosa Trails HG 2018.

We want to thank you all for your interest in running in Penyagolosa.

We regret that we can not offer numbers for all of the pre-registrations, but respect for the environment, safety and attention to runners are the main factors to limit the máximum number of numbers.