LIVE TRACKING AND INCREASED SAFETY FOR BOTH RUNNERS AND VOLUNTEERS WITH THE TORX® LOCALISATION SYSTEM
A dedicated tracking system developed by VDA Trailers ensures the safety of the TORX® competitors and volunteers. A form of technology that also allows the live tracking of competitors on route.
Following a challenging night, which saw the competitors taking part in the TOR450 - Tor del Glaciers encountering snow at high altitudes and having to resort to crampons in certain sections of the trail set up by Alpine guides, the second day of TORX® began with the good news that yesterday’s bad weather has improved. The provisional rankings, which are constantly changing, currently show the Swiss Jules Henry Gabioud, winner of the TOR330 - Tor des Géants®, in the lead, followed by the Canadian Stephanie Case.
In the meantime, the race village set up at the Courmayeur Sport Centre in Dolonne is seeing the arrival of competitors enrolled in the TOR330 - Tor des Géants®, which is due to begin on Sunday morning in two stages; at 10 a.m. and 12 p.m.
A sporting event of the importance of TORX®, which brings thousands of people to the mountains for a number of days, highlights the importance of safety. VDA Trailers has developed its own localisation system, an infrastructure based on a satellite system that guarantees the utmost safety for the runners taking part in the TOR450 and TOR330, who have all been provided with a GPS transmitter that is monitored 24 hours a day by the operations centre.
The timekeeping system has also been developed specifically for the race and is based on NFC technology, detecting the passage of the athletes at each of the 60 active points set out along the route and recording their times, rending the data visible in real time on the website www.tordesgeants.it. The tracking system, which has also been extended to cover the staff, volunteers, photographers and video-makers, provides immediate contact tracing in the unfortunate event that COVID cases are detected.
As previously reported, the TORX® programme continues tomorrow, Sunday 12 September, with the start of the TOR330 - Tor des Géants®, which will see on the starting line athletes from 50 nations and for which two starts have been programmed (at 10 a.m. and 12 p.m.) in order to guarantee social distancing. Tuesday the 14th, at 9 p.m., will be the turn of the TOR130 - Tot Dret, which will begin in Gressoney Saint-Jean, while the final event is scheduled to begin on Saturday the 18th, from Saint-Rhémy-En-Bosses, with the TOR30 - Passage au Malatrà, the shortest race in the TORX® programme.
As well as on Facebook and Instagram, the website www.tordesgeants.it will offer the opportunity to follow the progress of all the races and the individual athletes thanks to an updated live-tracking system.