Ahead of me were professional riders. Everyone rode in pairs but the pro-teams were typically fielding 6–10 bikes, just to add to the intimidation. These racing machines would finish each day before my partner and I had passed the mid-point feed station. Some mornings you would see them, barely able to walk across the hotel foyer on ruined legs before the ritual of a 60-minute spin-up on a turbo-trainer loosened the muscles enough to enable them to complete another 130km stage with average speeds of over 25kmph, despite 3000m of climb.
At some point, we realised that the word ‘only’ took on a new, curious definition. As in ‘it’s only 85 km tomorrow’ or ‘we should only need seven hours that day’. After reaching Alleghe on Day 4, time became almost without meaning for the first two thirds of each remaining stage: I realised I might be four or five hours into the day and have barely noticed more than a few minutes of that time.
Often designed as ski-runs, the trails through Austria and into Italy regularly have no flat sections at all. This is something a UK rider is totally The decision to enter the TransAlp came about unprepared for. In the UK you know that round a because I wanted a challenge to focus me after a knee corner the trail will flatten, a meagre respite to let operation. My partner you catch your breath. signed up for the classic This does not happen in reason; a drunken bet. the Alps. Every day, at With only seven months some point, we would have to attempt to turn an to fight the urge to give overweight 40-something up. But then, at that very and a 30-a-day smoking IBS point of total exhaustion, sufferer with no mountain we would crest a pass and biking experience into laid out before us would be elite mountain bike riders, another stunning Alpine we trained almost every vista with a slim line of weekend through winter singletrack dropping down and spring. Gradually we across a lush meadow and increased our mileage, but disappearing temptingly we never came close to the into the forest far below. daily climbing totals that Sometimes the views the Alps would impose. were staggering in their Living in the UK where the composition in a way "YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE A longest continuous road that reconfirmed how far PROFESSIONAL TO DO THIS, YOU JUST NEED TO HAVE THE HEART climb is 8km and rises just we had ridden, like atop AND DETERMINATION TO BEAT 272m, it is hard to prepare Monte Grappa on Day 5 THE BROOM WAGON EACH DAY." your body or mind for the where we emerged from 34km of continuous climb the edge of the Dolomites up 1900m from the start at Mayrhofen to the Italian to be rewarded with a view out across the Treviso border at the top of Pfitzcherjoch on Day 2 - or the plain to the Adriatic coast, Venice shimmering on 22km long, 1800m slog from Brixen up to Lüsener the horizon. Scharte on Day 3 of the TransAlp. And anyone can do this. You pay your money, you Stage racing for the first time is scary and it is an event book your flights and you can ride these amazing format that barely exists in the UK. Fitting training trails. You don’t have to be famous or a super-human around work and family life, the best you can do is pedalling machine to be cheered on by crowds. It a two or three day ride. We rode the South Downs doesn’t matter whether you are racing for first place Way, the Trans Cambrian Trail and countless loops or just racing against that person in front of you for in the Peak District. Sometimes we’d ridden in snow 527th position. The red mist still comes down to and carried our bikes, many mornings we’d ridden in make you reach deep into your soul to find a reason darkness on extended commutes through sleet and to keep climbing, or to banish fear to the edge of your rain. We thought we’d trained well, but we’d never mind as you fly into the dust cloud down a 30km long tried to smash our legs for eight consecutive days. We rock and gravel trail at 50 kph. You do not have to be a really had no idea what it would be like after four or professional to do this, you just need to have the heart five days of riding for eight or nine hours. and determination to beat the broom wagon each day.
