The hub for marathon mountain biking
Registrations are about to open, and the Transalp Race Organisers have revealed the route for next year’s route crossing the European Alps. The 21st edition of the world’s classic paired mountain bike stage race kicks of in Imst, Austria on July 15 and finishes in Arco, Italy seven days later on July 21. In total, the […]
“I will not rest until I sip cappuccino in starting block A” This was a strong statement, delivered by a friend I made at my first mountain bike stage race, the 2008 Transalp. Thomas Dooley had uttered the sentence with the mix of determination and irony that I would come to learn typified his personality. […]
Transalp Stage 7: Trento to Arco – 53.6km and 2042m climbing The Transalp 2016 ends today, and with it almost a thousand people go from facing the simple struggles of pushing bikes and bodies over the mountains back to the complexity of every day life. We will all take away different memories from the final […]
Transalp Stage 6: Mezzano to Treno – 88.24 with 2364m climbing Day 6. It’s when you can start to smell the finish. You know that, barring unmitigated disaster, there’s a very good chance you’ll make it to the end of the race, but everyone’s tired and tempers are a little frayed. Back when I was […]
Transalp Stage 5: Bormio to Mezzana – 86.32km with 3073m climbing. Stage 5 is the queen stage of the 2016 Bike Transalp and we were suitably scared about how we would find it. Our first question this morning was whether we would even be able to start today after Chris had a bout of tummy […]
Transalp Stage 4: Livigno to Bormio. 73.55km with 2573m climbing Today’s transalp stage made a little bit of history, as despite starting many times in Livigno, and crossing the Umbrail pass, Bormio has never before featured as a stage town. Perhaps the fearsome ascent of the Gavia necessary to leave Bormio and head towards Lake […]
Transalp Stage 3: 72.30km and 2598m of climbing Stage 3 takes us to familiar territory. Both times Chris has done the Transalp he has ridden from Scuol to Livigno and we have returned here for training camps/holidays for the last 3 years. We have come to know and love the trails around this beautiful part […]
Transalp Stage 2: 56.17km with 2126m climbing Today’s transalp stage once again treated riders to perfect racing weather, with beautiful sunshine and mild temperatures greeting sleepy riders in the tiny border town of Nauders, sandwiched between Austria, Italy and Switzerland. A compact stage, there was still plenty of ascent waiting in the form of two […]
Transalp Stage One: 88.85km, 2960m climbing Chris and I were just saying yesterday as we were stuck in a traffic jam in Germany on the way to TransAlp that we are much more chilled out about bike racing than we used to be. Years ago we would carb load on pasta the night before and […]
In July, Chris Pedder and Rachel Fenton will be tackling the BIKE Transalp as it travels from Austria to Italy, over the Alps in seven days of glorious mountain biking. But first – training camp! Over the years Chris and I have done a lot of cycling together. You might argue that neither of us […]
