It is added to a long list of Parisian shopping. This Sunday, January 18, the very first edition of the 10 km of Montmartre AG2R La Mondiale will be held with the promise of an event that is both friendly and legendary.
In the streets of Montmartre, there will be a little air of the Olympic Games and the Tour de France. The 10,000 participants expected for this first edition will take the famous rue Lepic, which was taken by storm in 2024 and 2025 for the two global events.
“We were looking for a unique location for this new race,” explains Thomas Delpeuch to ASO, the race organizer. We started to imagine it last June with the town hall of the 18th arrondissement of Paris which was pushing for this race. She wanted to highlight the entire district, which is not just Montmartre. There is also the Porte de la Chapelle and lots of other nice places that the runners of this first edition can visit. »
For this first major race at the start of 2026, the 10,000 runners (64% of whom are men) will start from Boulevard d’Ornano for a 10 km loop in the 18th arrondissement. Before arriving at the 18th century town hall, rue Ordener, the competitors will inevitably pass in front of the Basilica of the Sacré-Cœur with its beautiful climbs.
“We want to make this race a celebration”
“The Montmartre hill is obviously the starting point for a fairly smooth route,” explains Thomas Delpeuch. We climb the hill in two stages. First there is a climb, then a descent, then an ascent. This will be done without problem (Editor’s note despite a positive altitude difference of 153 m all the same). We designed this course for amateurs. »
The departures are organized around nine SAS from 8:15 a.m. for the preferential ones until the runners aiming for 1h5 and more at 10:09 a.m. “There is no elite field,” confirms Thomas Delpeuch. We want to make this race a celebration for all fans. We are less in the competition than in the other races coming this year, such as the half or the Paris marathon. »
Called long-term, the 10 km of Montmartre is the latest addition to the ASO group, but not the least important. “In an increasingly busy calendar and races that sweep almost the entire capital, it was not necessarily easy to identify an iconic place,” recognizes Thomas Delpeuch. Montmartre lent itself well to this. We chose to place it at the start of the year so as not to compete with the other great races there are in Paris. »
Proof of the enthusiasm surrounding this race, the organizers opened the sale of bibs in mid-October only to close it a month later. “We could have had more but we preferred to stop at 10,000…”
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