“I knew if I wanted to give myself a chance, I had to go out a bit harder and run a little more aggressively than I did last year,” Croft told media after the race.
“But once the weather came in and it got cold, I knew I had to just survive for the night.”
Croft won the CCC 100km – one of the premiere races – in 2015 and the OCC 50km in 2018 and 2019. She finished second in the UTMB race last year.
With this latest victory, Croft has become the first woman ever to win all three. She is also the first New Zealander to win the title.
When she passed three-time UTMB champion Courtney Dauwalter around the 100km mark, she said she never looked back.
Once the weather came in and it got cold, I knew I had to just survive for the night.
Ruth Croft
Dauwalter entered the race with three UTMB wins under her belt (2019, 2021, 2023) and a nearly unbeaten track record since 2019, a span in which she had won 25 of the 26 races of 50km or longer that she finished.
But it was only the weather and not Dauwalter that could match Croft once she got into her stride.
Ruth Croft taking out the UTMB ultradistance race in France yesterday. Photo / @ruthcrofty
She was formidable through the first half of the race and ran a time of 22h 56m 23s to take out the victory.
The race was shortened slightly because of the bad weather and sent runners through parts of France, Italy, and Switzerland, before completing the rugged 165km loop around the Mont Blanc massif, which included about 9450m of elevation gain and loss.
“It wasn’t necessarily the main goal, just kind of like [the] cherry on top,” Croft said.
“I think it’s interesting to look back in 2015, [which] was my first year at the Chamonix, when I won the CCC, and so it’s taken 10 years to get to this point and win UTMB,” Croft said.
French runner Camille Bruyas finished second in 23h 28m 48s, while Germany’s Katharina Hartmuth was third in 24h 16m 39s.
British runner Tom Evans won the men’s race in 19h 18m 58s, outrunning American Ben Dhiman (19h 51m 37s) by about 43 minutes.
Women’s Top 10 Results – UTMB Mont-Blanc 2025
Ruth Croft (New Zealand) – 22h 56m 23s
Camille Bruyas (France) – 23h 28m 48s
Katharina Harmuth (Germany) – 24h 16m 39s
Anna Carlsson (Sweden) – 24h 39m 42s
Maëlle Deruaz (France) – 24h 43m 02s
Magali Mellon (France) – 24h 48m 12s
Lucy Bartholomew (Australia) – 24h 51m 32s
Lauren Puretz (United States) – 24h 54m 57s
Claudia Tremps (Spain) – 25h 05m 07s
Courtney Dauwalter (United States) – 25h 50m 38s