A big year for innovation, new projects and collaborations. VDA Trailers have an exciting year ahead for 2020 - an experience that’s set to be extraordinary and extreme in equal measure.
Registrations now open for Arrancaslimba, Winter Vertical Courmayeur and Gran Trail Courmayeur
We start the year on 8 February wearing skis and smiles on our faces for the Arrancaslimba, a non-competitive trek to be undertaken in pairs, using climbing skins (with splitboards and Telemark skis), crampons and snowshoes over a 6km course with beer-themed refreshment points along the trail, in Flassin, Saint-Oyen.
A little over a month later, 7 March sees the first major innovation of the year when the Courmayeur Winter Eco Trail by Night sheds its skin and becomes Winter Vertical Courmayeur, a single ascent race in two sections, both run at night by the light of the moon and head torches. The first section is 3km with an altitude difference of 500 metres, starting in Dolonne and finishing in Plan Chécrouit, and the second is 5km with an altitude difference of 100 metres, also starting in Dolonne but finishing at Col Chécrouit.
The length and intensity of the races picks up in July with the Gran Trail Courmayeur, a race that’s attracting increasing attention worldwide. An extremely technical race over some of Italy’s most famous Alpine trails in face of Mont Blanc. Representing the importance of technical races of international standing in the Valle d’Aosta, and in preparation for 2021 - the year in which Courmayeur is set, along with other communities in the Valdigne, to become the European Sports Community, the Gran Trail Courmayeur stands out as an international Alpine race that embodies and radiates the Best of the Alps philosophy (Courmayeur being one of the 12 Best of the Alps destinations as of last October), due to its combination of strong traditional principles and a desire to achieve excellence, producing an event with a local dimension that is open to the whole world.
Big news for the longest of the GTC races: previously 105km D+ with 6600 metres altitude gain, now 100km D+ with 7900 metres gain, and a change to the route that sees the life base moved from the Courmayeur Mountain Sport Center in Dolonne to the Pavillon du Mont Fréty, the intermediate station for Skyway, incorporating a diversion. There’s also a change to the start, which will now be midnight between Friday 10 and Saturday 11 July, with a maximum time of 33 hours to complete the race. The two shorter races will start on the morning of 11 July: the 30km 2000 metre D+ and the 55km 3800 metre D+, and the overall finish for the GTC will be 12 July. In a further important development, the GTC100 will now be a qualifying race for the TOR X, with 100 finishers eligible to register for the Tor des Géants® 2021.
All four TOR X races confirmed
After dominating the scene for the last ten years, the four races that constitute the TOR X are again confirmed for 2020. TOR X gets underway on 11 September with the Tor des Glaciers, the extreme endurance trail over 450km with 32,000 metres elevation gain on Alte Vie routes 3 and 4. Two important changes: the number of runners will be doubled this year from 100 to 200, and a draw will be held before registration opens if there are more than 200 pre-registrations.
The classic Tor des Géants® will of course take place again this year, starting on Sunday 13 September and following the usual 330km route with 24,000 metres positive altitude difference. Next is the TOR 130 - Tot Dret, starting Tuesday 15 September in Gressoney-St-Jean, a 130km trail with a positive altitude difference of 12,000 metres; 200 places on the Tor des Tor des Géants® 2021 will be reserved for TOR 130 finishers. The final race will once again be the TOR 30 - Passage au Malatrà, a 30km trail with 3000 metres altitude gain starting on Saturday 19 September in St-Remy-en-Bosses and finishing in Courmayeur on 20 September. The awards ceremony for all four races will be held on Sunday 20 September.
Pre-registration for the Tor des Glaciers and Tor des Géants® will be open between 1 and 14 February, and registration will open on 1 March for TOR130 - Tot Dret (closing 30 June or until all 500 places are taken) and TOR 30 - Passage au Malatrà (closing 31 August or until all 500 places are taken). The registration procedure for all VDA Trailers races is published as usual on the website: www.100x100trail.com
TOR X: an eXtreme, eXtraordinary eXperience
To say that TOR X is just a series of trail races would be an understatement and would give no idea of what the runners and their assistants, and all the people involved in organising the races, cheering the runners on and taking part in lots of other ways, go through over the ten days. Of course, there's no match for the sporting element. The Tor des Glaciers and Tor des Géants® are extreme endurance trails requiring a great deal of physical and mental preparation. As do the TOR130 - Tot Dret and TOR30 - Passage au Malatrà; shorter races that are nonetheless technical, along demanding and uncompromising routes. But all these races also arouse extraordinary emotions, and it’s the contact with nature and the wilderness, the feeling of being part of a community - the Valle d'Aosta - which is extended to the world and unites more than 70 nations under the same sky every year, added to the festival atmosphere, that brings on the famous 'TOR blues' as soon as it’s over. An international event; a unique experience.
As Alessandra Nicoletti says: "That's why the TOR brand has been regenerated as TOR X, a receptacle in which the four TORs come together, along with the things that define them: X as in eXtreme, because that's exactly what they are; X as in eXperience, because being part of them is always an experience; X as in eXtraordinary, because the emotions they arouse are definitely out of the ordinary".
Sport and sustainability: the challenge for VDA Trailers
All VDA Trailers races are events that go beyond sport and competition. They are events where everyone pushes themselves to the limit and must be approached with the ultimate athletic preparation by enhancing and maximising physical and psychological fitness. Anyone who takes part in it enters into a close, privileged relationship with the mountain, and must respect it and embrace its culture to come through it safely.
VDA Trailers have always been considerate of the environment when organising races, to ensure they are ecologically sustainable. Differentiated collection and the reduction of waste is extremely important, as evidenced by the EcoloTor project run in collaboration with the ERICA Cooperative and now in its fourth year, and the use of electric cars; activities that are supported by sales of eco bibs (10 available for the Tor des Géants® on sale from 20 March to 30 June from www.100x00trail.com).
For the 10-year anniversary of the TOR last year, VDA Trailers conceived and endorsed the Charter for Sustainable Sporting Events, otherwise known as the Charter of Courmayeur; a document designed to assert the importance of protecting the environment and the need to adopt measures to ensure that temporary pursuits such as sporting events that bring people into contact with nature, especially outdoor events, are ecologically sustainable. The Charter sets out a series of principles that promote a sports culture based on sustainability and recyclability when using natural resources, to be taken into account when planning, organising and managing sporting events.
2020 PROGRAMME
Arrancaslimba
8 February 2020 - Flassin - 6km
Registration open on 100% Trail
Winter Vertical Courmayeur
7 March 2020 - Courmayeur - 6.00 pm
Starting in Dolonne
WV1000 - 5km (finishing in Col Chécrouit)
WV500 - 3km (finishing in Plan Chécrouit)
Registration open on 100% Trail
Gran Trail Courmayeur
10-12 July 2020
GTC30 - GTC55 - GTC100 (new 100km race through Skyway Mont Blanc, starting at midnight on the Friday)
Registration open on 100% Trail
TOR X
11 - 20 September 2020
Award ceremony 20 September for all races.
TOR450 - Tor des Glaciers
11 - 19 September 2020
PRE-registration 1 - 14 February
200 runners, draw as for TOR, no wild card
TOR330 - Tor des Géants®
13 - 19 September 2020
PRE-registration 1 - 14 February
TOR130 - Tot Dret
15 - 17 September 2020
Registration 1 March - 30 June or until all 500 places are taken
TOR30 - Passage au Malatrà
19 September 2020
Registration 1 March - 31 August or until all 500 places are taken
CHARITY and ECO bibs
TOR330 - Tor des Géants®
20 charity + 10 eco
TOR130 - Tot Dret
20 charity
on sale at 100% Trail 20 March - 30 June or until all bibs are sold
Arrancabirra®
10 October 2020 - anticlockwise race (Trappa, Bertone, Tête de la Tronche, Ermitage)
Registration from 1 June at 100% Trail