This year marks the fourth edition of The Bright Midnight, a bikepacking race that covers 1,100km and 20,000m of elevation gain through the impressive landscape of Norway. Organizer Justinas aka King of Chaos is himself a very successful ultra-racer and has packed the route with a lot of love and challenge. And if you believe…
Since Friday, May 29, they’re on the road again: 170 participants are fighting their way through the Balkans over 1,400 km and more than 30,000 meters of elevation gain. And I use the word fighting deliberately, because for me the Trans Balkan Race is one of the hardest and most demanding bikepacking ultras in Europe….
It’s somehow surreal: just a moment ago I was in Tuscany, pedaling up a mountain, and now I’m sitting in a hospital in Leipzig with my father, caring for my mother, while my sister checks out new options for care. This is obviously not how I imagined my participation in the Italy Divide, but sometimes…
Since 2020, you can find a deep analysis of the bikes and equipment of the major ultra-bikepacking races like the Atlas or Silk Road Mountain Race in my Bikeanalytics. The basis for these evaluations are the “Rigs of…” posts by Bikepacking.com. At this point, many thanks for your work on this and the careful gathering…
To get straight to the point: the North2Peak is a real beast. It demands physically, mentally, and also of the equipment. The North2Peak, organized by the two Hamburgers Lisa and Philipp, shows in an impressive way that you can also build a demanding bikepacking event in the North that does not need to hide. If…
On Friday, the fourth edition of the Trans Balkan Race (TBR) started: 1,380km with around 30,000 metres of climbing await the participants. I have a bitter-sweet past with the TBR: I failed in the race itself and injured my hand nerve, which is still with me today. But I was also physically and mentally not…
Yesterday at 6 pm it was that time again and more than 250 participants started the Atlas Mountain Race 2025 in Marrakesh. The race has become one of the most popular in the ‘scene’, which has led to a real rush of registrations. As a result, many applicants received cancellations or were only able to…
So far, I have mostly limited my analyses of bikes and equipment to the more well-known bikepacking ultra races, such as the Atlas Mountain Race, Silk Road Mountain Race, Tour Divide or Hellenic Mountain Race. But there’s really no reason for this, apart from my personal interest in these races. And so I am expanding…
Since this morning, more than 170 participants are once again on their way to cycle through Kyrgyzstan from Bishkek. This year’s Silk Road Mountain Race is even longer and goes even higher. There are almost 2,000 km to cover and around 30,000 metres of altitude to climb. With around 1,548 metres of elevation gain over…
Ten years ago, I wrote about a small series of videos that were released about a relatively new long-distance race at the time: the Transcontinental Race. Back then, the race was still from London to Istanbul and Specialized presented the AWOL, a kind of gravel bike for long distances, with which the two co-developers of…
Let’s be clear from the beginning: the Trans Balkan Race is a real challenge and cannot be overestimated. Bea and Luca have built a track through the Balkans that is second to none: very challenging trails and tracks, remote landscapes with long sections without catering and a weather/climate that constantly increases the level of difficulty….
Only a few more days and then I’ll once again be at the start of a bikepacking ultra race: this time it’s the Trans Balkan Race, which runs 1,380 km through Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro and starts on 31 May in Sežana, Slovenia. And I’m really looking forward to it, because it’s not “just”…
As some of you may have noticed when reading this blog, I was looking for an MTB as a new, additional bike for me. And I initially put you and myself on the wrong track when I presented my 10 XC MTBs from which the new bike was to come. And I actually had the…
For almost two years I have been preparing for this, training many hundreds of hours and covering thousands of kilometres, optimising my bike and equipment and also preparing myself mentally: the Bohemian Border Bash Race was to be my highlight this year and continue my small series of successful ultra-endurance bikepacking races. And I wanted…
Καλώς ήρθατε! A new Bikepacking race and with it a new evaluation of bikes and equipment: as of this morning, a total of 111 riders* are on the road to conquer almost 1,000 kilometres and an incredible amount of altitude in Greece. The Hellenic Mountain Race (HMR) is the third race format of Nelson Trees, who…