Photo Epic: Trans Vesubienne 2020 - The Downcountry World Champs?
The organisers of the Trans-Vesubienne would never use the word "downcountry." For a start when they began running this race in 1988, Mike Levy was somewhere around primary school age. For a second thing, in the glorious French tradition, they don't really care what anyone else is doing or what the wider world thinks of their race - in fact outside France there's a good chance you've never even heard of this race. That is a shame. Surely the idea of racing bikes up and down truly wild mountains on ungroomed hiking trails is pretty much exactly the kind of riding Mike had in mind when he first proposed what has now mutated into a new cliche for uninspired marketing people to abuse.
There is a very good case that it is the toughest one day mountain bike race anywhere in the world, with the course taking in over 80km (50 miles) and 2,400m (7847ft) of climbing through the unforgiving trails of the Alpes Maritimes, from La Colmiane to Nice. The trails are deliberately chosen to be unridable in places, forcing riders to carry their bikes. You may say, 'What about the MB Race around Mont Blanc or the Downieville Classic?', but the former can't match the Trans V for technicality and the latter is on groomed trails that aren't constantly threatening to peel your skin and trash your bike. As winner Emeric Turcat put it, "In a normal marathon race you can recover on the descents, where here they beat you up." Through the years it has built a well-deserved reputation as a star killer, Julien Absalon and Christophe Sauser both found themselves standing lower in the results sheet than they are used to, although Nino Schurter won it in 2009 and Cecile Ravanel has taken the victory twice on 2001 and 2006 under her maiden name of Rode. As with all racing in 2020, things were very different this year - normally the race is held in May, but Covid forced it to be pushed back to September and a finish on the beachfront in Nice was simply not possible, so the race finished in the suburb of L'Ariane.
Full results.
Some other cyclists have been here recently...
There are no factory pits here - riders from the Levens club gather around Antoine's van, a car mechanic doubling up as technical support for his friends this weekend.
Riders headed off in waves for the prologue.
Mary Moncorge took the win in the women's field.
Didier Langasque hanging it all out in the Masters 40 category.
Full commitment from Alexis Chenevier on his way to winning the prologue.
The finish line for the prologue - St Martin.
Riders gather at the finish in St Martin.
The founder of the TransV - George Edwards - also happens to be the man behind the Megavanlanche.
As the night fell the clouds rolled in and out, with the promised storm threatening. In the end, there was some rain through the night, but nothing like the amount everybody had feared.
5.30 am for Mary Moncorge.
On the turbo trainer before 6am - it takes real commitment to come and play here.
It looked like a nervous wait on the start line.
And they're off!
With a race this long taping just isn't possible, so you need to follow the red arrows home.
The first part of the loop took riders high into the mountains and their first contact with civilisation was the village Utelle for the first timing check, food and technical support.
Emeric Turcat headed into the second timing check behind Alexi Chenevier, but on the long climb to Col de la Porte he proved the stronger rider, gaining a small margin which he held all the way to the finish line.
The top local rider was Maxime Folco - he has come close to winning this race more times than anyone else but has never quite managed to grab that top step. This year he had to settle for fourth.
Jerome Gilloux took the win in the ebike class - you have to take your hat off to him as the day before he was racing the E-EWS in Pietra, and anyone who thinks ebike racing is easy should try that combination before passing judgement.
Mikael Fanget descends towards Utelle.
Back in 1996 Francois Dola took a break from World Cup DH duties to share the winning step of the podium with JP Bruni (yes, that Bruni), today he took home the third step in the ebike class.
Choose your weapon: 27.5 enduro bike with a coil shock...
...or a lightweight XC machine (at this point of the race the enduro bike was winning).
Nadine Sapin also took on both the E-EWS, coming off second place behind Tracy Moseley to take the victory at the Trans V.
This was a familiar experience for more than a few riders - fortunately he got up grinning and carried on.
2019 French marathon champion, Pierre Billaud, leads Nicolas Reculeau down towards Utelle. On the long climb to Col de Porte Pierre pulled away to climb up to third overall, while Nicolas slipped back to sixth.
Lycra, XC tyres and loose, shaley hardpack? Definitely not a combination for the faint of heart.
This is how much of the race passed for many - riders tended to bunch up behind a slower rider with few opportunities to overtake on the narrow singletrack.
Winner of the women's race, Dannaelle Buroit takes the safe option on the grey earth.
Second place in the women's race went to Juliette Courtigne.
Race day didn't go to plan for Mary Moncorge, her legs went on the first mountain and she didn't finish the second climb and by the evening she was running a full-blown fever.
This tricky corner with a nasty drop to the left nearly caught many people out and more than a few resorted to descending on foot.
A team effort helping Dider Langasque save precious time at the ravito.
In recent years ebikes have opened the race up, allowing more people to try their hand at this kind of high mountain racing.
A coveted sticker.
This was a common sight at the finish line, head down, everything left on the mountain.
Maybe the single kneepad is something like the Michael Jackson glove?
Kneepads were considered and inconvenience by most racers...
Smiles and scars for Alexis Chenevier. After Emeric passed him climbing he managed to hold him in sight for a while but ended up pushing too hard trying to make up time... His seventh victory in this race will have to wait a little longer.
2018 French Marathon champion Emeric Turcat and the Scott Spark RC that took him to his second consecutive victory - for this race he added a dropper post and a 120mm fork compared to his usual racing setup.
Not everybody had such a glorious end to their day. Heal up soon Thibaut!
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Most of the XC folks doing great at this race on modern XC bikes (very capable bikes those long travel XC) are pretty handy on a bike. Reason is that the french were they're young, they race in all disciplines before choosing one. It's called the TNGV or something, national trophy of young mountain bikers.
I never raced the Transvesubienne,but I've followed the race and it's evolution throughout the years since the mid-nineties.
It's a format that has everything for almost everyone.
I even learned to carry my bike over my shoulders over very steep climbs watching the pictures on magazines!
They were called warriors ... that simply meant Tansvesubienne's finnisher, as you like it ;-)
All kinds of people and bikes competing, from full on enduro to hard tail singlespeed
TransV is not here to play in the "i piss longer than you" "toughest race in the world". As a multisport endurance athlete i'm tired of races trying to become the hardest but that's not the Transv which has the same spririt for about 30 years. You have to stay on the damn bike despite what it's throwing at you. Each time i did it i faced risks of retiring : bad fall on the head, slipping while hiking in the snow etc...
It's here to amaze you with nasty climbs nasty downhill and all the conditions/types of terrain you can imagine in a single day.
Also compared to what i see regularly here on pinkbike it's not prepared/groomed terrain for mtb like american are used to. It's mostly hiking trail, prologue has a few slow bermed switchbacks but all the terrain is 100% natural.
Midwest climbing can be deceiving, it's not even 40x 250ft climbs - it's more like 400x 25ft climbs. It gets you in a much different way than 3k climbs, since it's so many micro-challenges instead of macro-challenges.
Otherwise, the Salzkammergut Trophy (Austria) is probably harder: 210km, 7000m vertical.
(Mainly easy gravel roads though, and not that many single trails)
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Finished 50th
Hope she's getting better very soon !
Shout out to my local "the course is WHAT?!" race, the Cascade Cream Puff, now being run as the Alpine Epic (of course not this year...). Here's the Trailforks for the 2018 course: www.trailforks.com/route/cascade-cream-puff-100--50
That's 3600m of climbing and descending... for the half-course. For the full you do it again. Climbing is mostly gravel but it's still a hell of a course.
And my Garmin had 3200m up in the end...!
The TV is easy if you just look at the numbers. Now if you do it, you will find that even people that regularly ride the same amount of elevation and distance 2 times a week have issues with finishing.
Basically it's a mix of easyish, technical and very technical trails that will cut your tires, break your rims, derailleur...
I addition you will think "nah I can do this on the bike, I don't do it by foot" mistake > you fall and you now have a bit cut and some thorns in your face.
With today bikes it is probably a bit easier because you can have a light efficient solid and downhill able bike. 10 years ago it was really a struggle
It's a real pity I couldn't go there this year.
But i know that the Trans is considered the toughest...
Can we compare both by calories burnt? ahaha
Props to you to cover this event and bringing the news and shots this fast!
Cheers
You're a freaking monster kinda GOAT