SaintéLyon - Course Data, Night Running and Cutoffs
- Saint-Étienne, France
- 80 km
- 1,963 m D+
- 5 aid stations
Map, checkpoints and cutoffs Map · checkpoints · forecast opens Nov 19 Race-day forecast is live
Race-day conditions
Weather, daylight and your arrival time at all 7 checkpoints, set to the 23:30 start.
- Start
- 23:30
- Daylight at the start
- 07:58-17:03
- Aid stations
- 5
Course profile
Saint-Étienne, France Lyon, France · point-to-point
- Distance
- 80 km Finishes 327 m lower than it starts
- Elevation
- +1,963 m -2,290 m About 25 m of climb per km
- Highest point
- 885 m Monts du Lyonnais
Next edition Sat 28 Nov 2026 · 23:30
- Start
- Winner ~5h36 5h36 after the start
- Sunrise Lyon, France 8h29 after the start
- Median finisher 2025 median 10h59 after the start
- Cutoff 16h30 after the start
A median finisher runs 8h29 in the dark.
SaintéLyon is an 80km night trail from Saint-Étienne to Lyon with around 1,963m of elevation gain and 2,290m of loss. The 2026 edition starts Saturday 28 November at 23:30 and closes at Lyon on Sunday at 16:00, a 16.5-hour limit. The median finisher took 10:58:47 in 2025 and the winner 5:36:33.
This is the biggest night race in Europe - close to 8,000 runners in six or seven waves, head torches strung out across the Monts du Lyonnais. The route is redrawn every year and 2026 is published in the autumn, so the checkpoint table here carries the official 2025 measurements with the 2026 barrier times matched to each village. It climbs steadily out of Saint-Étienne to 885m on the crest, then gives most of the height back over the second half into Lyon: net downhill, but on cold, muddy, rolling ground rather than alpine passes. Assistance is banned outside an elites-only zone and the one bag you leave runs start to finish, so plan to be self-sufficient between stations.
Data is approximate and courses change between editions - always verify against the official race guide.
Other distances at SaintéLyon
| Race | Distance | D+ | Cutoff | Next start |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LyonSaintéLyon | 156.7 km | 4,239 m | 31h00 | Nov 28, 2026 |
| SaintéLyon (this page) | 80 km | 1,963 m | 16h30 | Nov 28, 2026 |
Plan against the cutoffs
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Course math
Four numbers worked out from this course's distance, elevation and checkpoints.
TrailMath effort-km
111 effort-km
About 10 h for a mid-pack finisher (index 500). Not a pacing guarantee.
Distance + gain ÷ 100 + loss ÷ 200, beside ITRA's gain-only km-effort. Model TM1.0.
How TrailMath works →UTMB Index category
50K
99 km-effort (distance + gain ÷ 100). Calculated from the course figures, not an official classification.
Estimate your UTMB Index →Biggest climb section
+615 m
Saint-Étienne → Saint-Christo-en-Jarez · km 0–19.2
The largest gain between two checkpoints, not one continuous climb.
Biggest descent section
−497 m
Le Camp - Saint-Genou → Soucieu-en-Jarrest · km 45–58.8
The largest loss between two checkpoints. ITRA's km-effort ignores descent; TrailMath counts it: 111 km-effort.
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SaintéLyon · 2025
Finish times, 2025 edition
6,912 runners started. 6,152 came back. Half of them took longer than 10:58:47.
Median finish
10:58:47
Half of the 6,152 finishers were still out there at this point.
The start line
89.0%
6,152 of 6,912 starters made it; 760 did not.
Men and women
Two medians on the same scale. The bars run from the start to the cutoff, so the gap between them is the gap in time.
Men
10:53:39
median finish; average 10:58:48
5,366 finishers, 87% of the field
Women
11:51:27
median finish; average 11:53:01
786 finishers, 13% of the field
0:57:48 separates the two medians, across 5,366 men and 786 women.
Where the finishers came from
97% of the finishers came from France alone.
| Nation | Finishers | Share |
|---|---|---|
| France FR | 5,980 97.2% | |
| Belgium BE | 45 0.7% | |
| Switzerland CH | 28 0.5% | |
| Italy IT | 14 0.2% | |
| Spain ES | 8 0.1% | |
| United Kingdom GB | 8 0.1% | |
| Morocco MA | 7 0.1% | |
| Portugal PT | 6 0.1% | |
| Canada CA | 5 0.1% | |
| Germany DE | 5 0.1% | |
| Netherlands NL | 5 0.1% | |
| Brazil BR | 4 0.1% | |
| Algeria DZ | 4 0.1% | |
| Luxembourg LU | 4 0.1% | |
| Poland PL | 3 0.0% | |
| Romania RO | 3 0.0% | |
| Sweden SE | 3 0.0% | |
| United States US | 3 0.0% | |
| Colombia CO | 2 0.0% | |
| Tunisia TN | 2 0.0% | |
| Austria AT | 1 0.0% | |
| Bulgaria BG | 1 0.0% | |
| Finland FI | 1 0.0% | |
| Gabon GA | 1 0.0% | |
| Guinea GN | 1 0.0% | |
| Monaco MC | 1 0.0% | |
| Mexico MX | 1 0.0% | |
| Slovakia SK | 1 0.0% | |
| El Salvador SV | 1 0.0% | |
| Togo TG | 1 0.0% | |
| Ukraine UA | 1 0.0% | |
| 21 other nations 11 other nations 1 other nation All other nations | 46 0.7% 13 0.2% 3 0.0% 2 0.0% |
Showing 20 of 31 nations. Showing 30 of 31 nations. Showing 31 of 31 nations. Showing 31 of 31 nations.
Bar length is against the largest nation. The smallest counts are drawn at a minimum visible width, so their bars are not to scale.
How these numbers were computed
These are times for runners who finished. They exclude everyone who started and did not, so they describe how long finishing took, not how long the race takes. Bands with only a handful of finishers move a lot from one edition to the next.
We plot the median, not the average. A handful of very quick runners drags the average well below the time half the field actually beat, so the median is the honest number to plan against.
Nationality here shows who travels to this race, not who runs it best. That alone is why a host nation tops almost every list.
Computed from the full official results, verified September 18, 2026 - Official results
Ask the course
Ask SaintéLyon anything about climbs, pacing, crew or cutoffs.
Answers come from this course's data, your plan and your training.
Which climb should I respect most?
Saint-Étienne to Saint-Christo-en-Jarez: +615 m over 19.2 km, straight from the gun. Hike the steep sections at an effort you could hold for hours - the race is decided after this climb, not on it.
Where can my crew meet me?
Saint-Christo-en-Jarez, km 19.2 - your first checkpoint, and no crew can meet you there or further on: the organiser lists no crew access on SaintéLyon. Carry your own warm layers: the course tops out at 885 m, through the night, in November.
Is 10h a realistic finish for me?
10h would put you in the faster half of 2025 finishers - the median was 10:58:47. It means holding 7:30/km overall.
The assistant answers that once it can see your training.
Build your SaintéLyon plan and your question is the first thing waiting in the TrailMath Assistant. Your first 5 questions are free, no card.
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To answer this for you, the Course Assistant uses your training and your race plan.
Example answer
Your long runs peak at 25 km, so the plan builds to 4-hour long runs, two of them at night. Cutoff buffer at Le Camp - Saint-Genou: 4h09.
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~7 weeks · peak ~7 h/week · 5 run + 2 strength days
For a 80 km race, aim for about 11 h/week at peak. Set your availability to 13 h/week in the app for the headroom to build there gradually.
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Aid stations and checkpoints
| Checkpoint | Km | Cumulative gain (m) | Cumulative loss (m) | Cutoff |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Start - Saint-Étienne Services not published | 0 | 0 | 0 | - |
| Saint-Christo-en-Jarez | 19.2 | 615 | 348 | Sun 04:00 |
| Sainte-Catherine | 34 | 1,012 | 812 | Sun 07:00 |
| Le Camp - Saint-Genou | 45 | 1,377 | 1,255 | Sun 09:30 |
| Soucieu-en-Jarrest | 58.8 | 1,625 | 1,752 | Sun 12:00 |
| Chaponost | 65.4 | 1,717 | 1,901 | Sun 13:30 |
| Lyon - Halle Tony Garnier (Finish) | 80 | 1,963 | 2,290 | Sun 16:00 |
Data is approximate and courses change between editions - always verify against the official race guide. Source: official race guide, verified September 18, 2026 - Official race website
FAQ
How long is SaintéLyon?
The SaintéLyon headline race covers 80km from Saint-Étienne to the Halle Tony Garnier finish in Lyon. The 2025 course measured 79.62km and the organizer describes 2026 as around 80km.
How much elevation gain does SaintéLyon have?
SaintéLyon has around 1,963m of cumulative elevation gain and about 2,290m of loss over 80km - a net downhill night race topping out at 885m on the Monts du Lyonnais crest.
What is the cutoff time for SaintéLyon?
The 2026 limit is 16.5 hours: the first wave leaves Saint-Étienne at 23:30 on Saturday and the finish at Lyon closes at 16:00 on Sunday. Intermediate barriers run KM17 at 04:00, KM32 at 07:00, KM48 at 09:30, KM60 at 12:00 and KM67 at 13:30.
How long does it take to finish SaintéLyon?
Half the 2025 field finished inside 10:58:47, from 6,152 finishers of 6,912 starters - an 89% finish rate. Sylvain Cachard won in 5:36:33 and the last finisher took 16:57:19.
Can crew help at SaintéLyon aid stations?
No. Assistance at aid stations is banned outright, and tolerated only for elites in a designated zone. The one bag you can leave travels from the start to the finish, so the checkpoint table is a list of self-sufficient resupply points.
Training for this race?
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