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Tor des Geants is known as the hardest trail running challenge in the world. Within a few years it has become a legendary race and the most coveted race in the mountain trail running world. In order to fully understand the meaning of these words, it's important to start from the beginning of the TOR. Tor des Geants was born from the passion of a few people within a unique sport that combines a love of exercise wth a love of the mountains. Trail-running is a sport that came into existence more than 20 years ago in the United States and was introduced here in Europe about 15 years ago. In a very short time the number of runners has greatly increased, in fact many races have thousands of entrants. The races pass through the natural environment and are usually of medium to long distance, from 25 to 100 kilometers. The huge increase in the number of runners over such a short period of time, is partly due to the desire of each athlete, professional or beginner, to have the opportunity to test themselves and test their own resistance to sleep and both physical and
mental stress. These races are generally non-stop, from start to finish. The TOR was the very first event of over more
than 200 kilometers. In fact it's more than 330 km (200 miles) with 24.000 meters of positive height gain, with a maximum time limit of 150 hours. No one had ever attempted to introduce a race like this due to its complicated nature, the length
and the difficulty in choosing a suitable route. Our organization was able to launch this ambitious project, thanks to the indispensable help from the Regione Valle d'Aosta. During the entire week the whole Valley, its people, administrators and mountain guides, stop to host, look after and encourage the runners to accomplish such a big goal. The book of Francesco talks about his adventure as a "normal" runner during his TOR. Each runner has THEIR OWN TOR and expresses it in a different way from others. Each feeling, emotion, view, attempt, pain felt by each competitor in the race, makes one TOR different from the other. What comes from reading the following pages is a full immersion in the Tor
experienced by Francesco like all the other runners living the TOR. It's not about a sports challenge anymore: it's a life challenge. A journey in the middle of a unique natural environment, with unexpected encounters, while discovering
our own limits, both physical and mental. It's the chance to think about ourselves and our own world, the opportunity to understand how small we are compared to what surrounds us and becoming conscious of our role in life. There are many people working on this event, each one of them with a different task, but all of them ready to share and cooperate. Each person's role makes the TOR how it is, so thanks to more than 1500 volunteers, thanks to the medical assistants, to Civil Defence, to the Regione Valle d'Aosta, without its help this event would never have been possible, and to the people of the Aosta Valley who open their homes to support the runners. But first of all thanks to the people like Francesco who gave us their trust and joined us in our dream. Alessandra Nicoletti
Event Director, VDA Trailers Ssdrl President.