2026 Gorbeia Suzien Skyrunning World Series Race Preview

So let's actually start talking about Gorbia Susien Sky Race.

It's in the Basque country of Spain.

It is a 32 kilometer race with 2,400 meters of climbing and descending or in Freedom Units, 19.6 miles with approximately 7,400 feet of climbing and descending.

Like I said, it's in the heart of Basque country, Spain.

It's about dead west of the region where Zagama is held, uh, in Ascori.

It starts in the town of Zianuri and goes up Gorbia Peak with a, it begins the race with an 8.6 mile climb that includes about 5,700 feet of climbing, but there's also a little bit of a, of two rolling descents in there as well.

Uh, the Strava segment for that climb, that 8.6 miles and 5,700 feet is, uh, is on the men's side, Alain Santamaria Blanco, uh, has the, has the, crowned for that in about an hour and a half, hour 29, 32.

And then on the women's side, the fastest time, uh, for that section is Nair.

You're going in, uh, has a female crown and one 52 49.

So Gorbia is a peak.

It's a high point of the race and it's about 4,800 feet above sea level.

After which the racers have a steep 1,700-foot descent and then one more 1,200-foot climb.

After that, basically the last seven miles of the race are almost entirely downhill where runners lose about 3,800 feet of elevation back down to the town of Zianeri.

The terrain is very Zagama-like.

I included a video on the show notes from YouTube of one of the Skyrunning World Series recaps to kind of show you what it looks like.

Very picturesque course.

Downloads, forest paths, stone huts and stone shepherd buildings.

And then once you get above and lots of tree cover and then once it uh you get above scott assuming tree line opens up to rocky and grassy terrain um but seemingly it doesn't have at least the last three editions from what i can tell they don't have the bad spring weather that sagama is kind of subject to with um either it being really really uh rainy or really really hot it seems like it's been pretty temperate and well run the past couple years Finish that long downhill finish.

Definitely plays to technical descender strengths like Mano Marias and Sara Alonso.

From what I can tell, I only saw times from the last three years or four years.

I want to say 2022.

The fastest man's time that I found was Alon Santamaria Blanco.

In 2023, he won the race in 2.57.08. And so I included that Strava file in the show notes.

And then I also included the Strava file for Clementine Joffrey, who won in 2023 in 3.34.24.

Although in 2024, Lide Uristarazu, a basketball runner, ran it in 3.34.16.