M20-29 Ascent: Kiriago Wins a Tight Three-Way Battle at the Top

• Kiriago takes it in 25:07 (11:33/mi), with Delorenzi just 5 seconds back and Leroux 3 seconds further — the top three separated by only 8 seconds across the entire climb.
• Delorenzi made the biggest late move, surging from 12th to 8th among the men on the Snow King→Finish segment — the 5th-fastest closing split on that stretch in the field.
• Kiriago and Leroux were more measured finishers: Kiriago posted the 11th-fastest closing split, Leroux the 9th-fastest — both strong, but Kiriago's earlier advantage held.
• Jeret Gillingham (23, Flagstaff) charged from 16th to 12th among the men on the final segment to lock up 4th in M20-29, just 53 seconds off the win.

Philemon Ombogo Kiriago, 22, from Naivasha, Kenya, crossed first in M20-29 with a 25:07 — averaging 11:33 per mile up a course that climbs through thin air between roughly 6,300 and 8,000 feet. He held 7th among the men from the first checkpoint to the finish, a picture of controlled aggression: no dramatic surge, no fade, just steady pressure applied all the way up.

The real drama was immediately behind him. Roberto Delorenzi (27, Monteceneri) was the race's most aggressive closer in this group, moving from 12th to 8th among the men on the Snow King→Finish leg — that was the 5th-fastest split on that segment in the entire field. He crossed in 25:12, five seconds short of Kiriago. Remi Leroux (28, Waterloo) slotted in third at 25:15, having been 9th among the men at the Snow King checkpoint and posting the 9th-fastest closing split. Eight seconds covered all three of them — a finish that tight on a mountain ascent is genuinely rare.

Further back, Lukas Ehrle (20, Villingen-Schwenningen) was the youngest man in the top five and finished 5th in 26:16, while Henri Aymonod (29, Rhemes Saint Georges) rounded out the top six at 26:31. Of the 47 finishers in M20-29, the bottom of the top 20 still came in under 30:07 — a competitive field top to bottom on a demanding day at altitude.