Tor des Géants

Tor des Géants
Event	Race
Sport	Trail running
Nation	Italy
Region	Aosta Valley
Participant	1100 from all over the world (2023)
Date	yearly, mid-September
Length	about 330km (205mi)
Men's Record	Franco Collé, 66h43' (2021)
Women's Record	Sabrina Verjee, 80h19’ (2022)
Site	Official site

Tor des Géants (meaning Tour of Giants in Valdôtain, the dialect of Arpitan spoken in Aosta Valley) is an endurance trail race which takes place in Aosta Valley, Italy, in September.

Description

The start and the finish are in Courmayeur. The total length of the race is 330 km (205 mi) which must be completed in less than 150 hours. There are 43 refreshment points at which the runners can eat, sleep, and, if needed, obtain medical care. There are also 7 life bases, which are bigger than refreshment points. They are placed about every 50 km (31 mi). Because of its difficulty, many athletes do not complete the race. The completion rate is about 60%. Around 2000 volunteers are used to organize the race. Weather can be a challenge, given the large elevation changes over the course and competitors can encounter sun, rain, wind, and even snow. The number of participants is limited because of the complexity of managing people over the 330 km trek. For the 2015 edition there were 2291 pre-registrations. The 2016 race was conducted under ITRA regulations.

The inaugural edition was in 2010.

The 2012 edition was interrupted on the fourth night and stopped on the fifth day at Saint-Rhémy-en-Bosses (303 km). About 70 runners completed the whole course.

The 2013 edition was marked by the death of the Chinese runner, Yang Yuan. He fell and hit his head on rocks during the rainy first night of the race. The site of the accident has a cairn inscribed with a poem written by Yang Yuan.

The 2015 edition was interrupted on the third night due to severe weather and stopped on the fourth night, because Col Malatra got covered by ice. Only six runners completed the race.

In 2016, local authorities organized a competing race 4K VDA. The suspected reasons were concerns for runner's safety and the costs. The race started and ended in Cogne and went clockwise (unlike Tor).

The 2017 edition introduced a GPS tracking system. The Tor des Géants website,^[1] shows live data for each athlete including time of pass at specific points along the path, overall ranking, median speed, distance and elevation gain traveled. There is also a map that shows the athletes live position.^[2]

Path

The trail is a tour of Aosta Valley following the two "High Routes" of the region, the Italian: Alta Via n.2 or French: Haute route n°2^[3] for the first half of the race, and the Italian: Alta Via n.1 or French: Haute route n°1^[4] for the second half of the race. During the tour, the runners cross 34 municipalities, 25 mountain passes over 2000 metres, 30 alpine lakes and 2 natural parks. The minimum altitude is 300 m (985 ft) and the highest is 3,300 m (10800 ft). The total elevation gain is about 24,000 m (78700 ft).^[5]

Hall of Fame

Year	Winner (M)	Time	2nd place	Time	3rd place	Time	Winner (F)	Time	2nd place	Time	3rd place	Time
2010	Ulrich Gross	80:27:23	Salvador Calvo Redondo	86:47:54	Guillaume Millet	87:17:37	Anne Marie Gross	91:19:13	Julia Böttger	100:03:51	Corinne Favre	114:40:37
2011	Jules Henri Gabioud	79:58:26	Christophe Le Saux	84:09:46	Pablo Criado Toca	89:43:07	Anne Marie Gross (2)	91:28:21	Patrizia Pensa	102:25:42	Giuliana Arrigoni	102:26:05
2012	Óscar Pérez	75:56:31	Grégoire Millet	78:50:03	Christophe Le Saux	80:14:14	Francesca Canepa^{[Ris 1]}	85:33:56	Sonia Glarey^{[Ris 1]}	96:59:54	Patrizia Pensa^{[Ris 1]}	97:06:15
2013	Iker Carrera	70:04:15	Óscar Pérez	70:29:41	Franco Collé	72:05:23	Francesca Canepa (2)	88:12:17	Nerea Martinez	91:01:42	Emanuela Scilla Tonetti	94:45:59
2014	Franco Collé	71:49:10	Nick Hollon	76:29:38	Christophe Le Saux e Antoine Guillon	79:02:29	Émilie Lecompte	85:53:14	Lisa Borzani	94:43:46	Denise Zimmermann	98:27:16
2015	Patrick Bohar	80:20:35	Gianluca Galeati	80:44:34	Christophe Le Saux	81:19:25	Denise Zimmermann^{[Ris 2]}	79:12:35	Lisa Borzani^{[Ris 2]}	80:16:53	Marina Plavan^{[Ris 2]}	85:55:00
2016	Oliviero Bosatelli	75:10:22	Óscar Pérez	81:14:50	Pablo Criado Toca	83:40:10	Lisa Borzani	91:09:44	Stephanie Case	98:15:27	Maria Semerjian	106:29:21
2017	Javi Dominguez	67:52:15	Olivero Bosatelli	69:16:19	Andrea Macchi	74:51:14	Lisa Borzani (2)	89:40:24	Silvia Ainhoa Trigueros Garrote	97:43:06	Marina Plavan	106:29:21
2018	Franco Collé (2)	74:03:00	Galen Reynolds	74:40:36	Peter Kienzl	77:31:11	Silvia Ainhoa Trigueros Garrote	87:50:31	Scilla Tonetti e Jamie Aarons	95:54:35
2019	Oliviero Bosatelli (2)	72:37:13	Galen Reynolds	77:06:12	Danilo Lantermino	79:09:46	Silvia Ainhoa Trigueros Garrote (2)	85:23:15	Jocelyne Pauly	94:22:02	Chiara Boggio	96:55:05
2020	COVID −19
2021	Franco Collé (3)	66:47:57	Jonas Russi	67:03:00	Petter Restorp	74:36:00	Silvia Ainhoa Trigueros Garrote (3)	87:57:50	Melissa Paganelli	91:35:07	Nicky Spinks	99:16:50
2022	Jonas Russi	70:31:36	Simone Corsini	75:27:33	Andrea Macchi	76:43:50	Sabrina Verjee	80:19:38	Silvia Ainhoa Trigueros Garrote	84:58:55	Sandrine Béranger	89:40:04
2023	Franco Collé (4)	66:39:16 (Record)	Olivier Romain	69:49:38	Galen Reynolds	71:22:30	Emma Stuart	82:21:44	Jocelyne Pauly	84:36:21	Elisabetta Negra	88:37:42
2024	François D'Haene	69:08:32	Beñat Marmissolle	73:10:18	Martin Perrier	75:35:59	Katharina Hartmuth	79:10:40 (Record)	Sabrina Verjee	84:03:21	Claire Bannwarth	85:02:47