French favourite Frederic Tranchand secured the men's trail race title at the European Athletics Off-Road Running Championships in Ljubljana-Kamnik 2026 on Saturday (6), winning in 3:55:14 with a perfect strategy ahead of Italy’s Daniel Pattis (3:59:54) and French compatriot Antoine Charvolin (4:05:13.)
This was France's third gold medal of the championships after Yannick Memheld won the U20 uphill mountain race yesterday, leading France to the team title as well.
Tranchand, the reigning world short trail champion, left no doubts that he would be the man to beat in the 52 kilometre trail race. He took the lead after the first six kilometres as runners left the outskirts of Kamnik and headed up the first climb on gravel roads together with Pattis, Norway’s Stian Angermund and Charvolin.
After 12 kilometres, Angermund and Charvolin couldn’t keep up with the pace anymore and Tranchand and Pattis opened up a gap.
Changing the lead position from time to time, Pattis and Tranchand flew over the hills and down the hills. Starting into the last major climb, Tranchand pushed harder and left the Italian trailing. After the halfway point he had an advantage of 1:12 which he extended to over three minutes at the last intermediate, some nine kilometres before the finish-line.
Still, Tranchand was not entirely confident of his lead despite receiving messages from his coaches on the course that he was way ahead. "I only trust myself though," he said with a big smile. "It was only when I crossed that last bridge in Kamnik that I realised that I was going to win."
On his race strategy, he said: "At the beginning we were a group of four and that was very good. But we knew that at some point we had to be in a line, so it was good I was in the lead. Then I was quite a long time with Daniel Pattis. I felt that he was strong on the flat parts, so I didn’t want to fight with him on the last 15 kilometres so I attacked after a plateau, because I thought I had my chance there.
"The muddy downhill was quite technical with wet stones and roots so I had to take the risk. In the end I was struggling a bit, but I could enjoy the last metres to the finish line."
Pattis, on the other hand, was far from enjoying the second part of the race. "I got problems with my stomach and couldn’t or take gels anymore." he said. "I suffered a lot from that one.” After 28 kilometres it was a lonely race for him. "At some point I heard that the others were five minutes behind me. Still I didn’t think I could bring it home, so I am super happy."
Charvolin managed to bring home the bronze medal ahead of Alain Santamaria from Spain to embellish France’s prospects of the team title. "It was tough, as is every race. In the end I gave that extra push you don’t often give," he said. "Twelve kilometres before the finish-line a French coach told me to push, and go for the podium. Santamaria was with me and I said: Okay let’s try and it went well."
With two medalists, the team competition went to France ahead of Poland with Alain Santamaria gaining some consolation for missing out on an individual medal by leading the Spanish team to team bronze.