LIGURIAN CANTALOUPE. For an event called «Porte di Pietra», staying «at the window» is not a play on words but a way to try to plan the 2022 edition until the last minute after the 2020 test was skipped due to the pandemic.
Today the danger of cancellation is called African swine fever and the problem is the ministerial order that prohibits almost all human activity in the woods, including trekking and running. And the “Porte di Pietra” are an ultra trail (three tests of different distances on the crests of the peaks that delimit the territory) of the Borbera valley scheduled for mid-May.
A race (17 editions were run) with a significant following of adhesions from all over Europe. For some, the most attended event of the year in Val Borbera, an event that attracts a thousand people without counting the related activities: an event that loses purely sporting value and represents an important moment for the local economy. Trails by definition are run on mountain paths: the “wood lockdown” meant putting the “Stone Gates” at risk.
For now, the organization awaits the course of events as explained by Fulvio Massa, soul of the Gli Orsi team and inventor of running: “With Checco Galanzino of Azalai Tortona (another association that makes the trail its creed and sets up races in the province) we asked an urgent meeting with the institutions. We have some ideas but we are waiting to discuss with the administrators. Time is running out for us because running in mid-May means collecting registrations in recent weeks and the trend is at a standstill.
In past years, membership in January increased on weekends. This year, however, last weekend we collected zero registrations and opened hundreds of e-mails from those who asked us if the race would take place or not. An answer that we cannot give but before giving up we expect to be received by the institutions ».
Registrations at the Stone Gates remain open with the number of adherents stopped at 68. Those who decide to compete plan preparation well in advance and uncertainty does not facilitate the organizers. “We have a few weeks to understand what to do, but I remain confident”, concludes Fulvio Massa who conceived the event at the beginning of the millennium after having examined another territory, that of Val Lemme where Atletica Novese has planned a mini trail in mid-June. Also in this case, everything is on stand-by.