Two Vietnamese finishers at Tor des Géants 330 km, and a 70-hour gap to the winner

In Courmayeur, in Italy's Aosta Valley, the Tor des Géants timing board carried two Vietnamese names less than an hour apart. Luu Duc Toan finished in 137 hours 50 minutes. Le Thi Hang came in behind him at 138 hours 40 minutes. Both had just covered 330 km of mountain trail in a single stage, with no staged rest, and more than 24,000 metres of cumulative climbing, inside the 13–19 September race window.

The organiser's cut-off time is 150 hours, which means they finished with roughly 11 to 12 hours to spare: safe enough, but not so comfortable that a major incident would have been absorbed. Among the three Vietnamese entrants, the third — a Vietnam-born runner resident in France — dropped out mid-course. That result sits quietly in the results list, and to me it says more than most celebratory headlines.

A race of an entirely different category from road marathons

Tor des Géants belongs to a different category from road marathons. It is a mountain trail race, with a 330 km main distance, held in the Aosta Valley, and its reputation rests on the format: continuous running, no fixed stages, no mandated rest hours. Athletes manage their own running, eating and sleeping, and take responsibility for their own pacing across several days and nights. Seven large support stations sit along the route at roughly 50 km intervals, providing water, food and medical assistance.

The difficulty lies in altitude more than in distance. The route crosses more than 20 passes above 2,000 metres and accumulates over 24,000 metres of climbing. September weather in the Alps changes character within a single day: harsh sun at noon, biting cold at night. At the front of the race, Jia Ju Zhao of China won the men's field in 65:55:22, and Katharina Hartmuth of Germany won the women's field in 67:10:09. The completion rate is roughly 60% — about four in ten starters do not reach the finish.

What the timing sheet actually says

The timing sheet states plainly what most domestic reports choose not to mention: the two Vietnamese runners finished in roughly double the winner's time. The gap between 137 hours 50 minutes and 65 hours 55 minutes is more than 70 hours. This is a mid-to-back-of-field finisher result, a long way from the group contesting placings.

Placed in its proper context, however, the picture shifts. At Tor des Géants, elapsed time measures raw endurance more than it measures speed. More than 20 passes above 2,000 metres and wide day-to-night temperature swings inflate elapsed time systematically; comparing 138 hours here with 138 hours on flat asphalt compares two different things. The value of this result lies in completing a race with a near-40% dropout rate, with more than 11 hours inside the 150-hour limit — a measure of durability rather than a speed contest.

The two runners' race histories confirm this. Le Thi Hang has previously finished Prenn Trail 250 km, Son La Ultra Trail 100 km and VMM 100 km. Luu Duc Toan has completed UTMB, Mantra 116 km, ULJU Trail 9 Peaks 100 km and Mt Fuji 100 km. This is a trajectory built over years rather than a single gamble. Toan himself told reporters that Tor des Géants is 'many times' harder than UTMB — a technical judgment from someone who has run both, and therefore worth more than any praise from outside.

Having followed mountain ultra racing for many years, one small detail in the results caught my eye: the gap between Le Thi Hang and Luu Duc Toan is just 50 minutes across 330 km. Over a race lasting nearly six days and nights, that figure is almost negligible. The small girl with the worn-out shoes does not appear in the report, but I have seen her in every number.

There is a part of this race that the results sheet does not display. In 2026, a competitor died at Tor des Géants after slipping, falling and striking his head on rock. Toan described narrow paths along cliff faces with no safety ropes. To an outside observer, that is the easiest detail to overlook and the most important one: here, error is not permitted a second chance.

Competitive value and commercial value run on separate tracks

Most debate around a result like this circles the word 'conquest'. I want to look from another direction. In sport, commercial value and competitive value often diverge, and a race like Tor des Géants sits outside the Olympic system, outside federation championships, outside broadcast-rights money. It offers no medals, no national-team selection, no world ranking. Its only asset is the prestige of difficulty — and that prestige does not convert into cash.

A result like Toan's and Hang's therefore generates little sponsorship value and lifts nobody up any ranking. Its weight lies elsewhere: it shows that the domestic trail-running circuit — Prenn Trail 250 km, Son La Ultra Trail, VMM, ULJU, Mt Fuji — is now deep enough to send people into international competition. That is a story about infrastructure more than a story about a medal.

One gap deserves to be named: the results carry no finishing positions and no checkpoint splits. Without split data, nobody can assess how well they distributed their effort, and readers can easily read this result at a level higher than reality. Information gaps should be stated rather than filled with emotion.

The sporting world always wants a ranking. I only want to understand why they run, and why they cry. The year 2026 taught me that the truest star is not the fastest runner, but the one who holds himself together in silence. At 61, I have learned that sport never grows old; only our way of looking at it wears out. What I am waiting for in the seasons ahead: as more Vietnamese runners appear at the start lines of races like this, will we learn to celebrate a finish without inflating it?