Mont Ventoux Trail Chaos

The weekend’s championship took place in Bédoin on March 29, 2026, as part of the Trail du Ventoux programme. (trailduventoux.fr) Florian Bernabeu‑Seguy was crowned men’s long champion and Pierre Galbourdin won the men’s short title, while Audrey Tanguy and Cécile Jarousseau took the women’s long and short national crowns. (www2.u-trail.com) A lead group of six — identified by riders as Mathieu Delpeuch, Rémy Brassac and Antoine Charvolin among them — followed flagging from the previous day’s 70 km route after the summit and ran an extra 4–5 km off the official trace, a detour the group estimates cost them about twenty minutes. (lequipe.fr) Rémy Brassac, who finished sixth, told reporters the wrong turn occurred near the Chalet‑Reynard after 500 metres on the wrong track and that crossing fanions from the 70 km misled the leaders; he said the error likely cost a podium place and a shot at European selection. (lequipe.fr) Organisers published a communique on March 30 denying that balisage had been ripped away by the wind and rejecting claims that a course marker (jalonneur) had misdirected the leaders, saying sweep teams had rechecked the route before the race. (ledauphine.com) Event documents and race reports list the long championship course at roughly 50 km with somewhere between about 2,350 and 2,600 metres of positive elevation, and the short course at about 28–29 km with ~1,300 m D+; those figures were used in the roadbook and post‑race summaries. (trailduventoux.fr) Organisers and local coverage say roughly 2,000 competitors raced across the weekend formats and that course modifications were made at points for safety amid difficult high‑altitude conditions. (ledauphine.com)