It was around 3:55 a.m. local time on Wednesday 16 September when Jiaju Zhao crossed the finish line in Courmayeur. Having set off on Sunday at 10 a.m., he had just completed the 330 km and 24,000 m of elevation gain of the Tor des Géants in 65h 55min 22s. Thirteen minutes faster than Victor Richard's record from last year, and a first: no non-European runner had ever won the longest race on the Alpine calendar.
Three and a quarter hours later, another line in the history books fell. Katharina Hartmuth finished in 67h 10min 09s — third overall, men included. No woman had ever stood on the Tor's outright podium. And she wiped twelve hours off her own women's record from 2024. Exactly twelve.
The race in numbers
| Start | Sunday 13 September, 10 a.m., Courmayeur (Aosta Valley) |
| Official distance | 330 km (336.1 km measured), roughly 24,000 m of elevation gain |
| Format | Non-stop race, no stages — every runner manages their own sleep |
| Life bases | Valgrisenche, Cogne, Donnas, Gressoney, Valtournenche, Ollomont |
| High point | Col Loson, 3,299 m |
| Cut-off | 150 hours |
| Starters / finishers | 1,117 / 690 (427 DNFs) |
| Conditions | Almost uninterrupted fine weather, hot days |
The Tor is not an ultra like any other. Three times the distance of UTMB, no stages, no mandatory night stop: sleep strategy is as much a part of the competition as pacing the effort. The best runners sleep a few dozen minutes across three days. Some don't sleep at all on the first night — and sometimes not on the second either.
Men: Zhao leads from La Thuile to Courmayeur
Jiaju Zhao took the lead as early as La Thuile, after the first pass. Six minutes ahead at the 50 km mark, eleven at Valgrisenche, the first life base. He never really let go of the race again, with one exception.
He covered the first 150 kilometres in about 24 hours, without sleeping on the first night. His first proper stop came at Gressoney (203 km), after 35h 42min of racing: around fifty minutes, massage included. Switzerland's Jonathan Schindler took advantage to move ahead. The lead didn't last: between Champoluc and Valtournenche (236 km), Zhao regained the front, then pulled away — 18 minutes at Col Brison (280 km), 22 at Oyace. Schindler finished an hour behind in 66h 55min, also inside the old record.
Behind them, China's Wei-Qiang Zhang completed an unexpected national one-two. Three Frenchmen made the top 10: Jérémy Goguet (5th), Aurélien Jacoutot (7th) and Martin Perrier (9th).
| Place | Runner | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jiaju Zhao 🇨🇳 | 65h 55min 22s — record |
| 2 | Jonathan Schindler 🇨🇭 | 66h 55min 06s |
| 3 | Wei-Qiang Zhang 🇨🇳 | 71h 53min 56s |
| 4 | Galen Reynolds 🇨🇦 | 72h 53min 23s |
| 5 | Jérémy Goguet 🇫🇷 | 74h 10min 55s |
| 6 | Corneliu Buliga 🇷🇴 | 76h 50min 46s |
| 7 | Aurélien Jacoutot 🇫🇷 | 77h 07min 42s |
| 8 | Ismael Röthlisberger 🇨🇭 | 77h 20min 06s |
| 9 | Martin Perrier 🇫🇷 | 77h 51min 23s |
| 10 | Gianluca Galeati 🇮🇹 | 78h 05min 24s |
Italy's Simone Corsini, one of the local favourites, dropped out at Pontboset (139 km) with his knee and quads shot.
Who is Jiaju Zhao?
Born in February 1995 in Guizhou, a rural province in south-west China, Zhao has worked as a security guard, a food delivery rider in Wuhan in 2016, and a florist. He has been running marathons since 2014 and has made a living from running since 2017. In China he is known for winning the Chongli 168, the country's benchmark ultra, four times.
He first discovered the Tor in 2025 — and dropped out around the 200 km mark, just two weeks after running UTMB. For 2026 he changed his approach: three 168 km races in the spring, then two months of training in the Alps before the race.
He describes “fragmented” sleep, vision that blurred at times, slapping himself in the face and biting his tongue to stay awake on the descents of the third night. And an unambiguous conclusion: in the years to come, he will not race beyond 168 km again. He won the Tor, and the Tor was enough.
Women: Hartmuth, twelve hours better
The Tor women's record already belonged to Katharina Hartmuth: 79h 10min 40s in 2024, the first woman under 80 hours, 7th overall. Two years on, she finished in 67h 10min 09s. Twelve hours less. Sleep: fifteen minutes in total.
American Mika Thewes, tipped as her rival, dropped out at Champorcher (131 km). From then on, Hartmuth raced alone against the men. At Gressoney she came through in 37h 02min, barely 1h 20min behind Zhao, and already ten hours ahead of the second woman, China's Hui-Ping Zhang (47h 09min). Claire Bannwarth, fourteen minutes behind her at that point, later slipped back to fifth.
She spoke of Monday's heat and sore feet, then of disorientation at the Frassati refuge on the final night. And of the phrase she kept repeating to herself: “OK, let's see what happens if you keep pushing like this every day.”
| Place | Runner | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Katharina Hartmuth 🇩🇪 | 67h 10min 09s — record, 3rd overall |
| 2 | Hui-Ping Zhang 🇨🇳 | 80h 35min 31s |
| 3 | Manuela Vilaseca 🇧🇷 | 82h 31min 56s |
| 4 | Melissa Paganelli 🇮🇹 | 82h 55min 29s |
| 5 | Claire Bannwarth 🇫🇷 | 88h 37min 07s |
| 6 | Wen-Fei Xie 🇨🇳 | 95h 38min 38s |
| 7 | Chiara Innocenti 🇮🇹 | 96h 11min 14s |
| 8 | Gladys Jaussaud 🇫🇷 | 98h 55min 24s |
| 9 | Anna Troup 🇬🇧 | 100h 27min 35s |
| 10 | Raffaella Canino 🇮🇹 | 104h 15min 57s |
Hartmuth is 31, lives in Zurich and defended a PhD in climate science at ETH on the Arctic. She has been trail running since 2016. Her recent results show just how consistent she is over the very long distances: 2nd at UTMB 2023 behind Courtney Dauwalter, 3rd at the Hardrock 100 in 2024 and 2025, 3rd at UTMB 2025, winner of MIUT in 2026. But the Tor is her race: it is here that she is the only person in the world doing what she does.
Two weeks after the Tor's 24,000 m of climbing, Claire Bannwarth will be on the start line of the Diagonale des Fous on 15 October.
Franco Collé, 450 km and the Glaciers
While the Tor330 was being decided, the TOR450 Tor des Glaciers followed its own rhythm on the valley's high trails: 450 km, 32,000 m of elevation gain, twice the time. Franco Collé, four-time Tor330 winner and an Aosta Valley icon, won in 122h 01min 57s. The event record still belongs to Frenchman Sébastien Raichon, 114h 29min 01s in 2023.
What to take away
The 2026 edition overturned two certainties. The first, that the Tor was the preserve of Europeans steeped in the Alps: Zhao and Zhang put China, whose 168 km ultras have forged a generation of runners, in the front rank. The second, that the gap between men and women held even over the very longest distances: Hartmuth finished ahead of 1,114 men. The longer the race, the smaller that gap becomes — and the Tor has become its most spectacular demonstration.
The next major ultra date is on Réunion Island on 15 October, on the new course of the Diagonale des Fous.
Read on: the Diagonale des Fous 2026, new course and favourites, the Hardrock 100, UTMB, the pinnacle of world trail running and Baptiste Chassagne's victory at UTMB 2026.
Main sources: iRunFar – results · Référence Trail · Aostasera – rankings · Aostasera – Katharina Hartmuth profile · Global Times – Jiaju Zhao profile · South China Morning Post · Canadian Running – Katharina Hartmuth