Transvésubienne: long distance in Southern France

Crikey - you did on a hardtail?! Nice work! I dragged 4 other Brits out for the race, and made sure they knew exactly what they were getting themselves in for. We all finished taking between 9hrs45 and 12hrs (me). I'm rubbish at carrying the bike, so only just made the second checkpoint at 15.25. Just as well it was extended. Only felt vaguely recovered last week - what a sufferfest; what an amazing race.

I can't imagine another race where you spend 90% of your time on super gnarly singletrack. Great for the first few hours, but then you start getting tired. After 8 hrs, you lose the ability to make a rational line decision, and then you start falling off - a lot. 533 entered, 319 finished.

BTW - Julien Absalon, and Nino Schurter were staying in our gite. We came down to a big communal dinner, and the owner showed us where to sit. Right next to them. They were both engaging, interested in what we were doing there, and totally relaxed. After dinner, Nino left to fiddle around with inner tubes - we told him to ride tubeless but he said he 'doesn't really do tubeless'

Oh I guess I talked to some of your pals in the Brec d'Utelle downhill:thumbsup:

Your description fits my race too, 1 hour ahead of the first checkpoint and then massive sunstroke and I finished in about the same time as you

That was my first Transvé, Sunday night there was no way in hell I was gonna go there any time soon ...now I'm all about it! Nothing quite like it and such a satisfaction to get the sticker!

So next year, the goal is to get in the 150s.

I have gathered quite some pics via a French MTB chatboard, will try to link them tonite.

nino doesn't do MTB either...he just flies!

and yes the steel hardtail isn't exactly the way to go, there are better tools to get the job done and the scott genius is one!

the boy's got some tyle!



The Salzkammergut Trophy seems to be like the Christalp (verbier Grimentz) extreme endurance racing but not as technical many fire roads. Am I mistaken?

https://www.grand-raid-cristalp.ch/ENG/parcours-ENG.html

Second TV for me. Did the 2007 version with the prologue, and guess what ...that was just as hard! No surprise there. Finished, but nearly last in just over 12hrs. I remember thinking that was the toughest thing I'd ever done, but it was a true celebration of mtb. To get anywhere near a respectable time, I need weekend exposure to that kind of terrain - basically I'm saying I'm not really good enough technically, or on my feet for TV!

Shame there's no prologue anymore - it added a bit of spice. It's a bit of a trek from London, and it's nice to come down for 2 days racing.

If you like this kind of thing, and want 7 days of it (!), have a look at Ironbike - the Italian version, not the one day German one. I did it last year and it's brutal - you're riding for 7-12hrs a day on technical stuff, that's not far off TV. It's round the corner for the Nice boys starting near Cuneo. I'll never forget the 1000m descent inside a fort sometimes in total darkness ALL ON STEPS!!!!!

Salzkammergut extreme - will do it just the once. Gotta be done!