Jiaju Zhao sets a Tor des Géants record of 65:55:22; Katharina Hartmuth is third overall

The Tor des Géants left Courmayeur at 10 am on Sunday for its loop of the Aosta Valley: 330 km, 24,000 m of climbing, beneath some of the highest peaks in the Alps. The weather, for once, was kind, with light wind and only a few spells of rain. Early on Wednesday morning both course records were gone.

Jiaju Zhao of China led almost from the start. His one long stop came at Gressoney, 203 km in, where he arrived at 35 hours 42 minutes, slept briefly, had a massage and lost the lead to Jonathan Schindler of Switzerland, who arrived 34 minutes later and left sooner. Zhao was back in front after Valtournenche at 236 km; Schindler cut the gap to 18 minutes at Col Brison, 280 km, then Zhao ran away over the last 50 km. He finished in 65:55:22, 13 minutes inside Victor Richard's record from last year. Schindler ran 66:55:06, Weiqiang Zhang 71:53:56 and Galen Reynolds of Canada 72:53:23.

Katharina Hartmuth was third across the line in 67:10:09. She ran in second overall for much of the first night, settled into third and stayed there, 75 minutes behind Zhao, the first woman on the overall podium of this race. Her own women's record from 2024 fell by 12 hours. She told Trail Runner she had set out to narrow the gap between the women's and men's records; it is now 1.8 percent. She slept a total of 15 minutes. Huiping Zhang was second woman in 80:35:31 and Manuela Vilaseca third in 82:31:56.

Two hundred and five miles with a quarter of an hour's sleep. The gap she wanted to close is nearly shut.

Sources: iRunFar; Trail Runner; Finishers.