Though many members of the 2026 Winter Backbone Race in England are nonetheless out on the 268-mile course on the time of this text’s publishing, the leaders have made their method by frigid circumstances and arrived on the end line in Kirk Yetholm on the Scottish border. Racers set off at 8 a.m. native time on Sunday, January 11, within the village of Edale in Derbyshire on the southern finish of the Pennine Manner, a route sometimes called the “spine of England,” and which traverses among the nation’s most iconic wilderness areas.
Each the boys’s and girls’s occasions noticed shocking late retirements within the race that determined the last word outcomes. Within the males’s race, Eugeni Roselló Solé (Spain) led for many of the race, nevertheless it was finally Sébastien Raichon (France) who ran a measured effort and moved by the sphere because the race progressed to achieve the end within the lead as Roselló Solé dropped on account of exhaustion close to the end. Raichon crossed the road within the early hours of Thursday morning, ending in 95 hours and 43 minutes. Within the girls’s race, Johanna Antila (Finland) and Anna Troup (U.Ok.) discovered one another in the midst of the second day and ran collectively till Antila was pressured to drop with foot issues about 25 miles from the end. Troup received in 106:19.
Sébastien Raichon, the 2026 Winter Backbone Race males’s winner. Picture: The Backbone Race/Adam Jacobs
The Winter Backbone Race is thought for its brutal climate, and this 12 months’s version was no exception. The race set off within the wake of Storm Goretti, which introduced freezing temperatures, snow, and gale-force winds throughout the nation. Rising temperatures over the next days did little to enhance circumstances, with melting snow turning to slush and ice, creating unstable terrain and treacherous ice sheets. The circumstances led to loads of DNFs because the snow, ice, and chilly acquired the higher of runners.
Earlier within the week, British runner and human-rights advocate Sarah Porter was pulled from the 108-mile Winter Backbone Challenger South race, which was additionally held alongside the Pennine Manner.
Learn on to see how the race performed out.
2026 Winter Backbone Race Males’s Race
Chris Cope (U.Ok.) led the sphere into the primary checkpoint at Hebden, 46 miles in, with 9:03 on the clock. He was adopted inside an hour by Eugeni Roselló Solé (Spain) and James Hargreaves (U.Ok.). Hargreaves received the 160-mile Summer time Backbone Challenger North race in 2025 — final summer season. Roselló Solé isn’t any stranger to the occasion, having lined up 13 occasions, successful in 2013 and inserting second in 2017. However he’s failed to complete each different try, together with a heartbreaking DNF in 2019 when he was pressured to cease lower than 4 miles from the end whereas main the boys’s race behind general champ and girls’s winner Jasmin Paris. Behind them by 20 minutes was James Nobles (U.Ok), and John Kelly (U.S.) rounded out the highest 5, arriving on the checkpoint round 90 minutes after the chief.
Cope and Kelly’s races ended prematurely. Cope didn’t make it out of the primary checkpoint after a fall on his knee, whereas Kelly retired not lengthy after, additionally injuring his knee on the ice. Each have been agency pre-race favorites, Cope having received the 2024 Summer time Backbone Dash South, and Kelly the 2020 Winter Backbone Race in a then-record time.
Roselló Solé was first to the second checkpoint at Hawes, with 109 miles lined, arriving in 25:25. He was adopted by Nobles about half-hour again, Hargreaves about an hour again, and James Leavesley (U.Ok.) about 4 hours again. Sébastien Raichon (France), who received the 280-mile Tor des Glaciers in 2022, 2023, and 2025, rounded out the highest 5, arriving on the checkpoint about 4 and a half hours after Roselló Solé, simply forward of Pawel Cymbalista (Poland) and James White (U.Ok.). White completed fifteenth on the race in 2023 and was second within the 108-mile Summer time Backbone Challenger South in 2024.
James White was second on the 2026 Winter Backbone Race. Picture: The Backbone Race/Adam Jacobs
Roselló Solé continued to increase his lead all through the second day, arriving on the third checkpoint at Langdon, about 152 miles raced, in 37:46, and over six and a half hours earlier than Hargreaves. Raichon additionally made regular progress by this part to reach at Langdon in third place, 90 minutes behind second. By the fourth checkpoint at Alston, with 186 miles lined, he had moved previous Hargreaves into second place.
Nobles and Leavesley succumbed to the troublesome circumstances, dropping out at 165 and 200 miles, respectively, with Nobles exhibiting indicators of hypothermia and shortness of breath. These DNFs left the door to the highest 5 broad open. White, who had overtaken Cymbalista close to Alston, was now in fourth place, eyeing up Hargreaves in third.
James Hargreaves completed third on the 2026 Winter Backbone Race. Picture: The Backbone Race/Adam Jacobs
Roselló Solé got here into Bellingham at 224 miles in 66:19, nearly 10 hours forward of Raichon. White adopted, an extra 4 hours again, with Hargreaves three hours behind him.
This 12 months was Roselló Solé’s thirteenth participation within the Winter Backbone Race, however he’d solely completed it twice. With solely 40 miles left to the end line and a staggering lead below his belt, it appeared that this 12 months was going to be one other end. Nevertheless, affected by excessive exhaustion, Roselló Solé withdrew from the race at Burness at 240 miles, having raced for 78:45.
Roselló Solé’s exit was a dramatic upset and opened the door for Sébastien Raichon to achieve the end in first place in 95:43. James White got here second in 101:52, and James Hargreaves rounded off the rostrum in third place in 105:20.
Sébastien Raichon crossing the road because the 2026 Winter Backbone Race winner. Picture: The Backbone Race/Adam Jacobs
2026 Winter Backbone Race Males’s Outcomes
Sébastien Raichon (France) – 95:43:52
James White (U.Ok.) – 101:52:13
James Hargreaves (U.Ok.) – 105:20:53
Pawel Cymbalista (Poland) – 106:25:35
Radmer Schalkx (The Netherlands) – 115:56
Tijmen Schalkx (The Netherlands) – 115:56
Andrew Reeves (U.Ok.) – 117:48
James Riley (U.Ok.) – 119:22
Benjamin Potts (U.Ok.) – 119:34
Henry Robertshaw (U.Ok.) – 119:34
Full outcomes.
2026 Winter Backbone Race Girls’s Race
The ladies’s race additionally ended unexpectedly.
It was Finland’s Johanna Antila who took the lead early on, streaking throughout the snowy hills of the Peak District towards the primary checkpoint at Hebden, 47 miles into the race with simply over 11 hours on the clock. Anna Troup (U.Ok), who received the Summer time Backbone Race in 2021, 2022, and 2025, got here into the checkpoint 45 minutes later, half-hour forward of Sophie Grant (New Zealand) and Fiona Horsfield (U.Ok.), who had received the 160-mile 2024 Summer time Montane MRT Problem North, which covers the identical route because the Summer time Backbone Challenger North race, and is for members of England’s skilled mountain rescue service.
Fiona Horsfield completed the 2026 Winter Backbone Race because the second lady. Picture: The Backbone Race/Adam Jacobs
Over the course of the following 37 miles and 12 hours, Troup continued to chase down Antila on their method to Malham Tarn. They joined forces simply earlier than the second checkpoint at Hawes at 109 miles, arriving collectively in 31:50. Grant and Horsfield additionally arrived on the checkpoint collectively, in 34:17. Victoria Morris (U.Ok.) rounded out the highest 5, arriving just below two hours behind the Grant and Horsfield duo.
Antila and Troup continued to cowl floor collectively on the entrance, whereas Horsfield pushed on forward of Grant by the second evening. The leaders handed by the third checkpoint at Langdon, 152 miles in, with 50 hours on the clock. They have been about 2:45 forward of Horsfield, who was three hours up on Grant. Alyssa Godesky (U.S.) had handed Morris and was in fourth, about two hours behind Grant.
Sophie Grant was the third lady within the 2026 Winter Backbone Race. Picture: The Backbone Race/David Murch
There was no change to the race standings as runners took on the notoriously troublesome Cross Fell climb out of Dufton, round 170 miles into the race, and continued all the way down to the fourth checkpoint at Alston at 186 miles. Antila and Troup continued to forge their method by the distant Northumberland countryside, passing by Bellingham at 224 miles in 84:53. They have been about 5 hours up on Horsfield and 12 hours forward of Grant. After greater than 100 miles operating close to one another, it appeared that the main duo would cross the end line collectively. However simply over 25 miles from the end, Antila was pressured to withdraw on account of ongoing foot issues.
Anna Troup continued on to win the race in 106:19, turning into solely the third particular person to win each the winter and summer season editions of the race.
With the late retirement of Antila, Fiona Horsfield, who had been operating in third for the reason that second day of the race, earned herself a second-place end in 112:48, and Sophie Grant, in her Winter Backbone Race debut, completed in third in 117:32.
Anna Troup trying happy along with her 2026 Winter Backbone Race win. Picture: The Backbone Race/Adam Jacobs
2026 Winter Backbone Race Girls’s Race Outcomes
Anna Troup (U.Ok.) – 106:19:12
Fiona Horsfield (U.Ok.) – 112:48:49
Sophie Grant (New Zealand) – 117:32
Alyssa Godesky (U.S.) – 119:34
Victoria Morris (U.Ok.) – 121:50
Linda Hubbard (U.Ok.) – 127:47
Allie Bailey (U.Ok.) – 130:22
We’ll proceed to replace the outcomes as extra girls end.
Full outcomes.
