Yeah it was my 40th birthday present to myself (2 years late thanks COVID) haha. Getting there from Australia cost heaps too. They're all wicked expensive these days, but even an EWS race has doubled in the past 3 years.
Yeah I could do local races in Poland but outside of flowtrails a large % of our builders had more knocks on the head than me and I do not enjoy their trails (the great habit of creating wonky, risky jumps you have to do if you want to place well). Will check if other post communist countries have some weird stuff on offer.
Now I'm kinda bummed my friends relationship in Thailand didn't work out and he came back to yurp. I remember seeing Wyn or some other Kiwi race it. Looked fun.
Yes!
Aside from tiger snakes and funnel web spiders its pretty safe. Animals there just kill you to be a jerk, they won't eat you.
Those look like massive, massive days. Crazy scenery though.
We did a self-organized Trans-Provence last year (route of 2019), and ran into the official Stone King event on the Col de Tende. Sat down with a few of the racers at their recoveryzone, and heard nice stories. The riders seemed to be very relaxed and enjoying themselves.
I'm starting to feel there are more bad animals in australia than guns in america if that's a "Pretty safe" option. I'm spoiled by potato land here where all we have are 1 species of viper, 1 species of bear, a tiny population of wolves who DGAF about humans and boars which are really a problem since even my old neighborhood in Warsaw had a population nearing a 1000.
Listening to PB podcast about it made me think it's not for my fitness at all. 2025 the earliest. 2024 will be trans madeira. 2023 went out of the door with the back injury. I will ride but I will not be nowhere fit enough to do any racing.
They scared me away with the price of flights from Australia.....
Trans-Madeira looks great, i was on the island on November, such amazing landscapes.
Definitely the most scenic of the races. Great island, awesome people, food and drink is top notch. The trails there are brilliantly made too - some of the best stuff I've ridden. Not crazy chunky tech, just steeps, rocks, roots, good corners and a variety of conditions and surfaces. The "Madeiran Ice" wet red-clay needs to be ridden to be believed. There's sections of it on most of the days of the event and its the most deceptive and slipperiest stuff haha. Lots of oh shit moments.
I'm there at least once a year as Poland has a good direct flight but it's mostly for hiking + maybe a few days of riding, some cliff diving and canyoning. Matt Jones has a great 6 youtube vlogs from the race.
can't say enough about how much I enjoyed TP 2017. Few friends were at Stone King last year and had a great time again. I felt like that event for me was in a lot of ways the culmination of decades of riding experience, being able to handle big long days, hike a biking, trying to 'race' gnarly trails blind, keeping your gear in one piece, racing in big alpine environments, tight forests and euro switchbacks, you name it, it had it all and for me was incredibly rewarding.
