The World Mountain Operating Affiliation World Cup sequence strikes on to probably the most iconic races of the sequence.
After the drama of Sierre-Zinal, the Mountain Operating World Cup returns this weekend with a special form of check. Vertical Nasego and Trofeo Nasego carry a double-header to northern Italy, drawing a lot of this season’s main contenders alongside a few of the sport’s most embellished names – and a seven-nation workforce competitors that provides an additional edge to proceedings.
From group race to world famend occasion
Trofeo Nasego’s rise has been quietly outstanding. What started in 2002 as a neighborhood fixture inside a circuit of group races within the Brescia valleys – a run as much as the Rifugio Nasego mountain hut – has grown into probably the most revered weekends on the mountain operating calendar, pulling in prime runners from throughout the globe.
The turning level got here in 2015, when the course was redesigned right into a 21km route beginning in Casto, climbing to Rifugio Nasego, and ending within the alpine village of Famea. The brand new format gave the race a little bit of all the pieces: quick operating early on, a protracted, punishing climb, technical terrain underfoot, and a sweeping descent to the end – the form of course that rewards all-round capacity.
Its standing was cemented a yr later, in 2016, when Nasego hosted the Italian Championships and added a Vertical Kilometre race to the weekend. Vertical Nasego has since turn into a fixture on the WMRA World Cup circuit, rising extra aggressive and extra worldwide every year whereas holding on to its native character.
The roll name of previous winners displays that stature. Trofeo Nasego’s champions embrace Andrew Douglas (GBR), Sylvain Cachard (FRA), Alice Gaggi (ITA) and Joyce Njeru (KEN), alongside world champions equivalent to Grayson Murphy (USA), Patrick Kipngeno (KEN) and Philemon Kiriago (KEN). Then there’s Andrea Mayr (AUT) – a seven-time world champion who has received Trofeo Nasego and added 5 Vertical Nasego titles to her assortment. Kipngeno, in the meantime, has three victories on the vertical race to his title.
Kenyan dominance and a discipline able to problem
Within the final two years, Kenyan runners have owned the Trofeo Nasego podiums. On the lads’s facet, Philemon Kiriago, Paul Machoka, Michael Selelo Saoli and Patrick Kipngeno have stuffed the highest three locations between them. Within the ladies’s race, Philaries Jeruto Kisang and Joyce Muthoni Njeru had been separated solely by Scout Adkin (GBR) in 2025, with Susanna Saapunki (FIN) in third in 2024. Kisang accomplished the vertical-and-classic double in 2025, simply as Kipngeno had achieved the yr earlier than.
That Kenyan presence seems simply as robust this time round. Ruth Mwihaki Gitonga and Richard Omaya Atuya, the main names on this yr’s World Cup standings, will contest each races, as will final yr’s males’s champion, Kiriago. Muthoni Njeru – a perennial contender having fun with one other remarkably constant World Cup marketing campaign – traces up alongside Gloria Chebet and Miriam Chepkirui in a robust ladies’s contingent. For the lads Saoli, Machoka and Kipngeno all return, joined by Ephantus Mwangi Njeri, winner of the Vauban Mountain Path, and Elijah Karuiki, who has collected three third-place finishes on the World Cup circuit this yr.
However the depth in these fields runs far past Kenya, and loads of runners will likely be lining up with real hopes of disrupting the favourites.
Males’s race
Jacob Adkin (GBR) arrives in kind, having taken fourth at Sierre-Zinal and received the European Championships Uphill race. Brayan Rodriguez Flores (MEX) has been one of many breakout tales of this yr’s World Cup, with top-10 finishes at Damaged Arrow, Vauban and Sierre-Zinal. Martin Nilsson (SWE) might pose a risk over the longer distance, whereas Andrea Elia (ITA), third right here in final yr’s uphill race, will likely be one to look at once more.
Andrew Douglas, a previous winner at Nasego, returns on the again of a robust season that has included podiums in Portugal and China. French runners Theodore Klein and Alric Petit have additionally impressed wherever they’ve raced this yr. On residence soil, Italian favourites Andrea Rostan and Henri Aymonod stay athletes to look at, significantly within the vertical race, whereas British duo Matthew Knowles and Oscar Subuh-Symons – third at São Brás Cross – might additionally characteristic.
Girls’s race
The sharpest problem within the ladies’s race might come from the British runners. Kirsty Skye Dickson is having an excellent 2026, with two podiums at Transvulcania and one at Vauban, plus a gutsy efficiency at Sierre-Zinal the place she led within the early phases. Elle Twentyman has additionally proven robust kind at São Brás Cross and Vauban, whereas Ellen Crombie has posted two fifth-place finishes at Grossglockner and Vauban. Eden O’Dea rounds out a robust British group after a string of strong outcomes this season.
As with the lads’s race, although, Italy brings actual depth on residence floor. Benedetta Broggi has been quietly glorious all yr, ending prime 10 in each World Cup race she’s entered. Francesca Ghelfi has an excellent historical past at this occasion, with podium finishes at each Trofeo and Vertical Nasego. Martina Falchetti might make her mark within the uphill race, and Arianna Dentis within the longer one.
Elsewhere, Christel Dewalle (FRA) will likely be price watching, particularly uphill, whereas Courtney Coppinger (USA) can also be anticipated to characteristic. After which there’s Andrea Mayr (AUT) – by no means a runner to depend out at Nasego, regardless of the distance.
Methods to comply with the motion
Vertical Nasego is on Saturday September 5, ladies set off at 10am and the lads at 10.45am.
Trofeo Nasego is on Sunday September 6, with a mass begin at 9.30am.
