Virgile Moriset

Virgile Moriset shifts gears ⚙️

Ten years of cycling, a zigzagging school career, then a 180° turn: Virgile Moriset decides to teach himself training and planning to take his running to the next level. The Lyon native pinned on his first recorded bib in 2019 at the "15 km" of the Lyon Urban Trail by Night, finishing in 140th place. Not exactly the profile of a future champion.

His progress can be traced through the SaintéLyon 🌙. On this night-time crossing between Saint-Étienne and Lyon, he climbed from 19th place in 2022 to 7th in 2023, before reaching the top 4 in 2024. In between, wearing the colors of the Athletic Club du Lyonnais, he won the title of French Espoirs runner-up in long trail in 2023, over the 68 km of the Cité de Pierres 📈.

A sharp mind in endurance legs 🧠

Coming from a family of teachers, Virgile went through a math degree, lived through the Covid period, then switched to three years of philosophy. This taste for analysis shows in the way he runs: a calendar built with nothing left to chance, sensations listened to right at the limit, without ever blowing up. Deliciously paradoxical, he feels at ease on technical terrain, the kind that allows not a single second of inattention. The result: three second places in demanding races 🥈. The "X-Traversée" in Verbier in 2023, the "Lavaredo 80K" in 2024, then the "90 km du Mont-Blanc" of the Marathon du Mont-Blanc in 2025, devoured in 10h59'11" despite 7,000 mD+ that sting severely. His DNF at the CCC 2025 serves as a lesson: he reads in it a cocktail of mental management, recovery, training mistakes and brand-new media exposure. A clarity he now passes on to the runners he supports as a coach.

Mont-Blanc in the rearview mirror 🏔️

September 2025, everything aligns: freshly integrated into the Asics Trail team, he wins the "100K" of the Nice Côte d'Azur by UTMB, 109 km and 5,400 mD+ all the way to the Promenade des Anglais, in 11h54'45" 🌊. Two months later, he finishes 2nd at the SaintéLyon in 5h39'39".

2026 starts with a steep climb 🩹. Hip and calf pain, food poisoning at the Trail du Saint-Jacques: the season strings together three DNFs, at Chianti, at the Saint-Jacques and then at Verbier. Enough to doubt himself? On August 28, Virgile Moriset sets off for his first UTMB, the final of the UTMB World Series circuit: 174 km and 9,700 mD+ around Mont-Blanc. He crosses the line in Chamonix in 4th place, in 19h00'23" ⏱️, at only 25 years old.

His UTMB Index now stands at 928, and what comes next promises altitude. Follow his upcoming outings, plot your own route on MyTrails and find your bib among the mountain races on the calendar.