I did Vermont Overland last weekend for the first time and was genuinely surprised at how difficult the course was. I knew it was going to be super tough, just not necessarily in the way I expected. There was a ton of climbing up some pretty steep, loose grades and such, but what really made it extra difficult was that it was mentally exhausting because there was nowhere to rest.
When you weren’t climbing you were navigating rock gardens, and there were some very steep, rocky, washed-out gullies that came up with little to no warning. It sounds like the crash happened on one of the roads, but the stress of the course would definitely have taken a toll running at pro race pace.
I’m still pretty shell-shocked by this, and it’s all so awful. Admittedly, I came through that section quite a bit later than Sule did, but there was no indication that anything happened. It also didn’t get mentioned during the podium announcements post-race, at least that I heard.