Festival des Templiers

The Festival des Templiers fills a long October weekend at Millau, in the Aveyron, with sixteen races on the limestone causses above the gorges of the Tarn and the Dourbie. Three of them are ultras. The Endurance Trail, created in 1999 and billed by the organiser as the pioneer of the festival's ultras, covers 99.5 km with 4,304 m of climbing and goes on the Friday, and the Intégrale des Causses, 62.6 km with 2,689 m from Peyreleau, starts two and a half hours later the same morning. The Grand Trail des Templiers, the race the weekend is named for, covers 80.7 km with 3,443 m and goes on the Sunday. Both start and finish at the Domaine de St-Estève in Millau.

The 2026 festival runs Thursday 15 to Sunday 18 October, and entry is first come, first served: the organiser states that it is subject neither to prior qualification nor to a lottery. It goes fast enough that the date matters more than the plan: ten of the festival's races filled inside ten minutes of the 2026 opening. The Endurance Trail started 1,490 runners in 2025, the Intégrale 779 and the Grand Trail 2,643, and the Endurance Trail is a Western States 100 qualifier under 19 hours. The event is titled HOKA les Templiers for its sponsor.

The Endurance Trail and the Grand Trail start and finish at the Domaine de St-Estève in Millau and cross the causses above the Tarn and Dourbie gorges. The Endurance Trail covers 99.5 km with 4,304 m of climbing, starting Friday at 4:00 a.m. in two waves; the Grand Trail des Templiers covers 80.7 km with 3,443 m, starting Sunday at 5:10 a.m. in three waves. For 2026 the organiser says it has made the late cut-offs more generous and added a fallback course at the last barrier, at Massebiau. It publishes intermediate cut-offs for both races and no closing time at the finish. The Intégrale des Causses starts in the village of Peyreleau on the Friday at 6:30 and 6:50 a.m., climbs onto the Causse Noir by the St-Michel hermitage and the corniche path above the Jonte, crosses the Larzac and finishes in Millau over the Pouncho d'Agast: 62.6 km with 2,689 m, 600 places.

Entry is first come, first served, and the organiser says so plainly: the system is subject neither to prior qualification nor to a lottery. The 2026 entries ran in four phases from December 2025, with group entries first, a partner pre-sale, a local window for Millau residents, and general entry opening on 19 January behind a queue. The organiser reported 23,000 connections at that opening, ten races full in under ten minutes and 11,000 bibs issued. No field cap is published for any individual race, and the organiser declines to publish entry numbers per race because they change daily.