Race across the roof of Europe.
The Trans Alp Bike Race claims to be the toughest amateur Mountain Bike stage race in Europe. Six hundred teams, each made up of two riders, set out from Imst in Austria on a seven-day epic that ended this year in Arco, Italy. Of the six hundred teams 16 were women’s teams.
The race is an ultimate test of mountain bike endurance and skill. My teammate, Michelle and I, spent seven days doing battle up mountain passes, riding along valley floors, passing through tunnels and dropping down breath-taking descents as we crossed from Austria to Italy. We passed through 3 countries and climbed over 17,000mts – that’s the equivalence of climbing Mount Everest twice over – and rode 521km. As a team, we burnt around 70,000 calories, went through 4 sets of brake pads, ate a lot of watermelon at the rest stops, consumed 36 energy gels from High5 and SIS, 12 bananas, drank around 4.5L a day and spent 44 hours in the saddle!
