Monday 12th September: Weather: 17°C to 26°C:
Pont St Martin: 12k: Back and forth between Donnas, Pont St Martin and La Grange Agriturismo
Ascent/Descent: Nil
Accommodation: Agriturismo la Grange, Pont St Martin
Sebastian Raichon was 5 hrs ahead and had passed through Donnas at 4am in the morning.
Walking Pont Sit Martin to Donas
A bit like watching the Tour de France, we spent the whole day bouncing between our “home” at La Grange Agriturismo, the Pont Romano in Pont St Martin and the refreshment Centre for both the Tor des Geants and Tor des Glaciers in Donnas. An exciting day marvelling at these amazing athletes, knowing what they have run and about to run because we spent 3 weeks and 3 days hiking the Giants trail. Then checking on the live feeds to see which runners were where and when on both the Giants and Glaciers races. The Tor des Geants TOR330, is really 350k around the Aosta Valley and the Tor des Glaciers TOR450 is 450k also around the Aosta Valley but more extreme, longer and at a higher Altitude.
We’er awake at 6am, have our own home made breakfast of Muesli and yoghurt with a hot cup of tea, then pack a small backpack with our morning tea - Jetboil, coffee tea, powdered milk, cream and biscuits. It’s about 2.5k from Pont St Martin down the main road to Donnas, the route the Tor des Geants will take, and it’s noticeable that the TOR signs on the road have only been painted in the past 3 days or 20. They weren’t there when we went through two week ago. It’s a lovely cool morning, about 17°C with blue skies and at 7.30am we arrive at the sports centre which is loaded with the runner's bags, each numbered and racked, containing anything from a change of clothes to sandwiches, and bottles of warm coke.
It’s quiet, with no runners in site, but an hour later at 8.30am, Luca Papi, running 2nd in the Tor de Glaciers and winner of two previous years, emerges from the hall and trots off up the mountains behind Donnas. The lead runner, Sebastian Raichon went through 5hrs earlier at about 3.30am in the morning. We could see from the live feed that he was a long way ahead, but we weren’t getting up at 2am to walk down to see him. He’s such a casual amazing athlete in his late 40’s, and wears New Balance Trail Running Shoes.
Soon after, the lead two runners from the Tor des Geants appear - Jonas Russi (3) and Roman Ricek (4) and after their helpers (wife or mother) retrieves their bag from the hall, they sit at the table and chairs under a tent and consume as much food as they can, Russi also drinking almost 1 litre of coke - caffeine and sugar I suppose. Other runners come in, a mix of Geants and Glaciers runners. The Geants runners leave via the main road instead of going straight up the mountain side.
There’s a gap in the runners coming through so we find a seat in the shade to have a coffee and biscuit - just a plain old biscuit like an Arnott’s Marie - I’ve run our of Spice Fruit Rolls. Then back to La Grange for Lunch before walking up to Pont St Martin to watch the first girl Pink Silvia come through about 2.30pm, except she’s had a change of clothes to blue. Back to La Grange, where we check teh results to see that Sophie Grant, New Zealand born runner is due in Pont St Martin at 5pm. So back we go again and wait for her to come through.
At Donas Refreshment stop
Luca Papi in Tor des Glaciers leaves Donnas at 7.30am
Jonas Russi (3) and Roman Ficek (4) in Tor des Geants run into Donnas Refreshment cents
Russi and Ficek eating as much as they could in Donnas
Morning coffee with a view in-between runners at Donnas
Waiting for Tor des Geants runners at pont Romano in Pont St Martin
Lead female Silvia Garrote. She was overtaken near end and came 2nd
Back to La Grange for dinner of ham salad with a beer and red wine. We do some packing as we’ve decided to stay and extra night at La Grange, except that we need to move to a small er apartment next door because a family has pre booked our unit. That’s OK, it was a last minute decision any way. Bed at 9pm after an exciting day following the TOR.