The course tilted downward off Washeshu Peak, and Mădălina Florea moved. For most of the climb she had run in the shadow of Joyce Njeru, the two-time champion who had led from the gun. On the descent that gap closed, then vanished, then reversed. Flower power, Florea called to the on-course cameraman as she surged past. She did not look back. The Romanian won the 2026 Broken Arrow Skyrace 23k in Palisades Tahoe in 2:02:18, one year after finishing second on the same ground.
How the race turned
The elite women left the line at eight in the morning.
Reigning champion Joyce Njeru of Kenya took the early lead up the initial climb to the race's first peak, KT-22.
The early miles saw a tight lead group of four, with Njeru and American Makena Morley both in contention, but as the course climbed higher, the race distilled to just two names: Njeru and Florea.
The pair ran together for much of the uphill section, including the iconic Stairs to Heaven, before beginning the descent towards Siberia still locked in the fight for victory.
Njeru crested the ladder first, as she had in the Ascent two days earlier. Florea sat on her shoulder and waited for the ground to fall away.
It was on the descent that Florea ran into the lead past Njeru, shouting "flower power" to the on-race cameraman as she flew past. At 10.4 miles, her lead was 16 seconds and ballooned the rest of the way.
Behind, the podium fractured.
Njeru appeared to be clutching her left side on the final descent, and Lauren Gregory capitalized, launching from fourth place to second in the closing stretch.
Gregory finished in 2:03:56, just ahead of Njeru, who completed the podium in 2:03:59. Tabor Hemming of the United States was fourth, also in 2:03:59.
Florea's time
just missed Njeru's 2:01:16 course record from 2025.
The step it marks
The win completes a story left open a year ago.
In 2025, Florea was second at the 23k behind Njeru, and proved her consistency by winning the Golden Trail World Series overall in a breakthrough year.
Early that season she placed second at the Kobe Trail and won the Il Golfo dell'Isola Trail, then finished third at the Tepec Trail and second at the Ledro Sky Trentino, the series finale.
She has long favoured steep, technical ground, and here she used it to close a race she had once only chased.
The margin she gave away last year, she took back this time on the same descent. She told reporters afterwards it had been a dream to win at Broken Arrow. Now the dream has a time next to it.
