Victoria Stanfield rode 329km around Mont Blanc. 8,300m of climbing, seven cols. Then, without stopping, lined up at the start of the iconic UTMB trail race. A further 177km and 10,000m of elevation.
She rode every kilometre of the loop. She ran 143km of UTMB before her hip flexors made the decision for her, 34km from the finish and 48 hours 59 minutes after she set off. This is what happened in between, in her words.
Saying yes to the absurd
Out of everything you could have taken on, why this?
"Honestly, it was the complete absurdity of it. I spent so many years thinking that becoming a professional athlete was what I wanted, and this felt like the furthest thing from that structure. It didn't really scare me at first. It was a beautiful synergy between the sport that brought me to find home in France and the sport that means we're staying."
Was there a moment when it clicked?
"It was more luck than anything. The email came through saying UTMB entries were opening. I assumed I'd be looking at OCC or CCC, as I'd only done two 50ks and one 100km. But it said I could enter UTMB. So I thought, well hell, two stones. I won't get in, but at least I tried."
"Actually getting in was a bit of a laugh. Then the grey matter stirred, and I realised I could make this about more than just trail running."
What were you hoping to find out about yourself?
"Where my body and my head would go when things were beyond my physical and mental capability. How I'd respond under true challenge. The reality is that physically, I'd never met my limit. Nine to twelve hours of exercise is comfortably uncomfortable. But what happens when the comfortable leaves? When you're sleep deprived?"
"I've always been intrigued by the night. Bar pre-race nerves, I've never had a sleepless night. Sorry, other parents out there. So I had no idea what going through the night would feel like."
The numbers
Victoria planned to cover 506km and 18,300m of climbing in one continuous push. She completed 472km in 48 hours 59 minutes.
The ride: 329km around Mont Blanc, with 8,300m of climbing over seven cols, five of them major mountain passes. She finished it in 13 hours 27 minutes.
The run: UTMB, 177km with 10,000m of climbing. She reached 143km before stopping, 34km short of the finish.
The total: 472km of the planned 506km, in 48 hours 59 minutes elapsed.
How does that compare to anything you've done before?
"I raced Mallorca 312 this year: 312km with 4,516m of climbing, in 9 hours 30. In 2024 I raced the Swiss Alps 100, which is 100km with 6,000m of climbing, over 15 hours."
Was there a number that surprised even you?
"The total duration. With everything going perfectly, it would have taken me 48 hours. That was terrifying."
Into the night
How did you feel on the start line?
"My body felt pretty battered going in. Three weeks before, I fell in training and injured my right knee and left rotator cuff. I hadn't run since, apart from one test run six days out where I managed 10km in a significant amount of discomfort. So my body felt crap already. But my head wanted it so badly."
What surprised you about the ride?
"How well it went, given the conditions. I thought 13.5 to 14 hours would be a good time in good weather, and we flew round in the same time despite it."
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What was the toughest part?
"The pain in my hip flexors, which started 40km into UTMB. That was horrid. Mentally, honestly, I can't believe how good it felt. The mountains really spurred me on, and I enjoyed the process of working through it alone."
Was there a point where you thought about stopping?
"Twice. The first was Courmayeur. I fell about 10km before the aid station, at dawn, and landed on both knees. They blew up massively. Everything was hurting, my hips weren't working, and I couldn't see how I was going to get going again. But I did."
"The second was Champex. I saw the physio again for my hips, and they were screaming after treatment. I couldn't get off the table. They had to lift me off it. But I knew I had to try."
What didn't you see coming?
"My legs giving up like they did. I really didn't. I thought this would be a mental challenge, not a biomechanical failure."
How did your body and head compare by the end?
"Mentally, I was amazed by the strength throughout. Cracking jokes and screaming in pain, a strange combination. Even after I withdrew, when my hip flexors meant I couldn't take one more step and I was being carried off the Col de la Forclaz, I was still cracking jokes."
"My head never went. It was my body. That surprised me, because I honestly thought I was slightly unbreakable physically."
Tunnels, hail, wind, rain. One pair of lenses.
Was there a piece of kit that made a real difference out there?
"Photochromic sunglasses. Game changing, especially on the bike. Tunnels, hail, wind, rain, all in the same day, and you are not taking a hand off the bars to change lenses."
IRIS™
Our IRIS™ photochromic lenses haven't been pushed through a harder stretch of weather than the one Victoria rode. That's not a claim we're making, it's just what 329km around Mont Blanc, in one challenge, happens to prove.
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Looking back
What did you love most, even in the hard moments?
"The mountains. The feeling of being insignificant. Realising that those mountains don't move for you, you have to move through them. Seeing the head torches ahead of me in the night during UTMB was mind blowing."
If you could relive one moment, which would it be?
"All of it, minus the hip flexors. I felt so alive, so connected to the earth, and deep in the knowledge that I was exactly where I should be."
What's the biggest lesson?
"Run a bit more. Seventy hours and just 600km of running this year wasn't enough to run 177km after cycling around Mont Blanc."
And for anyone considering something similar?
"If it excites you, if it scares you, if it makes you doubt yourself, all of those are reasons to do it. Life is for the living, and we need to do the things that make us feel most alive."
What's next: Project Rainbow
So, what now?
"Project Rainbow. That's what I'm calling 2027."
"Cycling Weekly called me the best gran fondo rider in the world. I'd like to know whether they were right, or just being kind. There are five moments where I have to bring my A-game, and they build to one Sunday in August."
"Mallorca 312 in April, the only gran fondo I didn't win this year. No woman has ever gone under nine hours. I think it might just be possible."
"Then the Route des Grandes Alpes in June. Lac Léman to the Mediterranean, 720km and 17,100m, in a single push, unsupported. Two targets: fastest woman ever to do it, and reach the sea before the sun goes down on the longest day of the year. I can pace one of those. The sun doesn't negotiate."
"La Marmotte six days after that, defending a course record. Then L'Étape du Tour and the Femmes in July and August. Three on the bounce already. Two more makes five."
"And then Sunday 22 August: the Gran Fondo World Championships, forty minutes from my front door, on roads I ride every week. If I'm the best in the world at this, that's where I have to prove it. If I'm not, I'll find out in front of my family and everybody I train with."
"I might not win any of it."
Follow Victoria's Project Rainbow through 2027. Gear up for your own long days with IRIS™ photochromic lenses.
