It seems like many of our friends and associates enjoyed following the results of this years Transalp mountain bike race. For those of you that missed it, you can catch up at http://transalp.upsolutmv.com/, as well as some reports by Erin North (Jeremiah's girlfriend) archived on usacycling.com and mountainbikeRACER.com. The trip was an incredible adventure, and it's difficult to even know where to begin reporting, but I'll try to give you a summary of the action and emotion. Transalp is an 8 day mountain bike stage race from Mittenwald (Germany) to Riva del Garda (Italy). All teams are 2 people, and teammates must stay together at all times or incur the deadly 1 hour time penalty. This format contributes to the safety of the riders, as well as the camaraderie.

The Trek/VW team was made up of Jeremiah Bishop and myself, both Norba Pros with an appetite for endurance racing, and evenly matched strengths and skills, which is important with the 2 person format. Our arrangements for the event came together somewhat last minute, but we were lucky to have the backing and assistance of Michael Mayer at Trek, and Keith Bontrager (who also completed the 2002 Transalp), to whom we owe "mille graci", or a million thank yous.
The course was kept under wraps until the day before the race, but we figured we were in for some hills, since there are no flat routes through the European Alps. We trained and prepared well for the race, however nothing could have prepared us for the climbing we would encounter each day of the Transalp. 7,000 to 11,000 feet per day of vertical ascent, which is basically the same or more as a big mountain stage in the Tour de France. Each day, the course would go something like this;
From a small Alpine town or village at 8am, straight up 4000'+ in 6 miles or so of relentless gravel road or asphalt bike path, often well over 20% grade. This would usually take us around an hour and a half, mostly in the granny gear. After the day's first summit, we would bomb downhill, usually on switchbacked gravel roads until we returned to civilization, where we would speed through picture postcard villages on twisting narrow roads, trying to avoid the Fiats and Citroens, as well as various farm animals and children in Lederhosen that roamed the streets. Sometimes the course would take pity on us for a while, providing up to an hour of "flat" riding on bike paths and valley roads, before delivering us to the second major climb of the day, which would be similar to climb #1. This would be followed by another high speed downhill towards the finish line (although, sometimes we would be treated to a third monster climb). Daily distances varied between 35 and 65 miles, and winning times between 2:30 and 4:30. There was not much singletrack or trail riding, only about 5% of the distance. This usually came in the downhills, and included some fairly technical trails with rocks and roots that always ended before we wanted it to. We found we were considerably faster on these sections than the other leading teams, who all seemed to be climbing specialists, but most days there just wasn't enough singletrack to make much difference.
The race guidebook was incredibly precise and complete, as might be expected since the organizers are German. They even gave a rating of each day's "panoramas". Jeremiah and I were blown away by the spectacular scenery. Compared to the Rockies, the Alps are much steeper and more severe. Many of the mountains appeared to go straight up, completely vertical. The landscape is also very green, which gives the sense that the hills are very much alive. We were lucky to have clear weather everyday, and were treated to spectacular vistas wherever we looked.
As intense as the racing was, I'm surprised we actually saw any of the scenery. We expected an endurance race, with long days of steady but grueling riding, but from the first day the competition was intense, as the strong teams gave out maximum effort in attempts to break the weak. It was like racing a 3 or 4 hour Norba National everyday. After the first 2 days, we were very tired. Jeremiah battled through severe hamstring cramping the first day, my legs felt like they were going to snap every time I stood up to refill my pasta plate, and we were both struggling to deal with the fluid and electrolyte loss that is inevitable with long, hard bike racing in the sun. Our worse day was the 3rd, when we finished 12th, over 20 minutes behind the day's winners. This prompted us to pay up for our first hotel room of the race. Up until this point, we had been sleeping the "mattress facilities" provided by the race organizers. This consisted of school classrooms or sports halls, where 300 or so weary Transalpers would each lay out their camping mats and sleeping bags for some rest. I actually really enjoyed the atmosphere in the mattress facilities. Even with 300 people in one big hall, it was fairly quiet, as everyone was too tired and respectful to cause a ruckus, and there was always some top quality "people watching" to keep us entertained, including various rituals for cleaning and drying the days riding clothes at the sinks, showers, and hand dryers, and some interesting methods of recovery, the most amusing of which was the muscle stimulation machines that the Euros seem to enjoy strapping on and getting jiggly with. Although we had been able to find a night's sleep at the mattress facility, we found our rest was much sounder with our own hotel room. The difference was noticeable immediately, and from the 4th day on, we were able to hang with the leaders and always finish in the top 5.
On the 5th stage, we were just 2 seconds from a stage win. The finish positions were actually discussed and arranged between the top 3 teams as we rode towards the end of the stage. We decided to not contest the sprint, since the Italians were from the town of the stage finish, and it was a big deal for them to win that day. Our gesture made us some friends amongst the strong teams in the race, and we also negotiated dinner and a night's stay at one of the riders homes, since he lived locally.
In the later stages, we even managed to grab some water bottle hand-offs from our competitors staff. By now they knew we were unsupported, and they didn't seem to mind passing us a bottle if they had extra (we just had to make sure we were in contact with the leaders, because as soon as their riders had passed, the staff would jump into their cars and speed away to the next hand-off spot).
The final stage included a long downhill (about 15 miles, and 4500 vertical feet), much of which was fairly technical. We made the most of it, and found ourselves alone at the front for the final 20 mile road/bike path stretch to the finish. Jeremiah had been incredibly strong over the last few days, and I sucked his wheel for about 19 of those 20 miles as he rocketed through the Italian countryside. I was totally focused on following him closely, in fact I followed him straight into the side of a moving car! We had swung into a blind corner a bit too hot, and the car had appeared at just the wrong moment. It took us a minute or so to pick ourselves up and make our bikes rideable, and another few minutes of slow riding to clear our heads, but we were able to find our rhythm again, and were thrilled to be the first team to arrive at Riva Del Garda.
Soaking in the cool lake water, looking out onto the Alps that we had just crossed was a perfect ending to the race. All that remained was one last "pasta party", the final awards presentation and to say "aufweidersehen" to our new friends, such as Marco and his boys of the neutral support crew, and "Mike Mike" the tireless announcer.
The word is that next years Transalp will make a more western crossing, through the mighty Dolomites. We are already making plans...
Chris Eatough