Lyon SaintéLyon

Lyon SaintéLyon

The format is the SaintéLyon twice. By day, runners take the course in reverse, from Lyon to Saint-Étienne, unranked and at their own pace — but inside a 13-hour limit with clock-time cut-offs: Soucieu-en-Jarrest (km 19) at 12:15, Sainte-Catherine (km 48) at 17:00, Saint-Christo-en-Jarez (km 62) at 19:30 and Saint-Étienne (km 82) at 22:30. A meal and a dedicated rest area wait there.

Then the part that counts begins. Wearing yellow bibs, the 160 km runners start on the front row with the 80 km field at 23:30, and only the return time is ranked. The night has the main race’s cut-offs: 04:00 at Saint-Christo-en-Jarez, 07:00 at Sainte-Catherine, 09:30 at Le Camp-Saint-Genou, 12:00 at Soucieu-en-Jarrest, 13:30 at Chaponost and 16:00 at Lyon. Entry is capped at 800, and the format has been official since 2019. Climbing and aid for the outbound leg are not yet published.

It is a race of more than a day, and the people following it need more than a results list that moves at checkpoints. With the runner’s Livebib link they see the position on the line, the distance so far and an estimated finish. When the phone drops out on the ridges, the position is carried forward along the course and marked as estimated. Whoever is meeting the runner in Saint-Étienne in the evening can see when it is time to go.