The 2021 Tenerife Bluetrail will serve as the Spanish Ultra Championship for individuals and regional teams

The Tenerife Bluetrail, Spain’s highest-altitude mountain race—organized by the Cabildo through the public company Ideco—will serve as the Spanish Ultra Championship for both individual runners and regional teams. This competition, scheduled for June 5, is a major draw for the Tenerife race, which will celebrate its tenth anniversary next year.

The island’s Sports Minister, Concepción Rivero, considers this to be “excellent news,” as this is the first time the Tenerife Bluetrail has been chosen as the flagship event for this championship. “It’s a great opportunity because it means it will attract the best Spanish runners in this discipline, and furthermore, the fact that it’s the Spanish championship provides an excellent promotional showcase for the island as an ideal destination for outdoor sports and also as an organizer of major sporting events.”

Rivero also points out that a brand-new route has been selected for the race, crossing the Cañadas del Teide. “The Tenerife Bluetrail is a unique event considered one of the most varied on the national and international trail running scene, not only because of the diversity of the landscapes it traverses but also because of its technical demands.”

For its part, the Spanish Federation of Mountain and Climbing Sports (FEDME), which organizes the Spanish Championship, believes that Tenerife offers the perfect conditions for hosting this national event due to the variety of its routes and the unique setting through which they pass—Teide National Park. Rogelio Macías, the Federation’s mountain racing coordinator, explains that “selecting the Tenerife Bluetrail for the Spanish Individual and Regional Team Championships brings together all the elements needed to make this one of the best races of 2021 and, therefore, one of the most important events on the FEDME calendar.”

Tour

The race course, which is 71 kilometers long, will include more than 30 kilometers at elevations above 2,000 meters—a feature that sets it apart from other races held in Spain. The race will start in the town center of Vilaflor, from where the runners will set off into the Corona Forestal Natural Park along the Camino Real de Chasna, a road with more than 500 years of history that crosses the island from south to north.

Participants will pass very close to the Lunar Landscape and then, from the Degollada de Guajara—at an altitude of about 2,500 meters—they will head toward the Parador and continue on to the Cañadas del Teide along trails that cross volcanic lava flows.

The route out of the National Park will follow the GR-131 until it reaches Asomadero. From there, the race will continue along the coastal road until it ends at Martiánez Beach in Puerto de la Cruz.

The organization has set aside three prizes for the fastest runners in both the men’s and women’s categories. First place will receive 1,500 euros; second place will receive 700 euros; and third place will receive 400 euros.

The Tenerife Bluetrail, which will take place from June 3 to 5, 2021, will feature seven race categories for its 10th anniversary: the Ultra, at 103 kilometers; the Trail, covering a distance of 71 kilometers, which also includes a relay category; the Marathon, at 42; the Half, covering a distance of 20 kilometers; the Bluetrail Challenge for people with disabilities, which includes three distances of 8, 3.7, and 1.2 kilometers; and a new 3.1-kilometer nighttime vertical race to be held on June 3.