Transcontinental Race Releases 2016 Controls

Registration for the 4th annual Transcontinental will open on Saturday, October 31st at 8pm GMT, and the race will take place on July 30th, 2016. Unlike your standard race, the self-supported Transcontinental race has no set route, but rather a start and end location with mandatory checkpoints along the way. Each year the route location changes and includes sites of significant historic, cultural or cycling interest. Last year, 172 riders started the 4100k route and 90 finished, with Josh Ibbett taking the win.

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Fourth Edition of the pan-European event will be “For Grimpeurs not Grinders” as route gets moreclimbing but shorter overall distance. For 2016 the Transcontinental will get a new finish line and four all new controls. After the first 3 editions which have shared at least one control between years, all controls will be new for No.4. A very challenging race in 2015 saw only half the field of 172 riders make it to Istanbul and many of them later than expected, next year will see a shorter minimum achievable distance of the order 3,800km (rather than 4,200km this year) but at the cost of more climbing The controls’ parcours will keep the riders in the Alps for longer instead of allowing riders a flatter route across Italy’s Po Valley as in previous years. A new finish line will also see the race terminate outside of Istanbul for the first time. For the third edition the start moved away from London to start on the Muur van Geraardsbergen, this is now the only location in common between 2015 and 2016. Race Director Mike Hall: “The 2015 race was a level harder than the previous races as the attrition rate showed. While I wouldn’t want to make it any harder, I wouldn’t want to make it any easier either. There will be a lot of climbing in 2016, but the pay off is less busy truck routes” Start // De Muur, Geraardsbergen, BEL On Saturday 30th July the race will start again inGeraardsbergen. We thank the people and city of Geraardsbergen for a wonderfully warm welcome and an atmospheric send off for the 2015 race and we welcome their enthusiasm to have us back and make it even better. CP1 // Puy du Dome, FRA The first control will be the dormant volcano of the Massif Central, climbed from the city of Clermont Ferrand. The traffic free route to the summit will give riders unbroken views across the Massif and an incredible sense of scale in their warm up before a very good dose of the alps. CP2 // Furkapass, CHE Control number two will include the longest Transcontinental Parcours to date, 70km starting at Grindelwald in the shadow of the Eiger’s North Face, before climbing again on a mainly traffic free link which follows the Eiger Ultra Trail to Grosse Scheidegg. From here its not the end, but barely started as riders will connect to dispatch Grimsel Pass, up and over to the base of the Furkapass. With its unmistakable galleried road elevated above the mountain side and the hotel Belvedere perched precariously alongside the Rhone Glacier, the source of the river itself. Some may know it also as the place where Tilly Masterson took aim at 007 in Goldfinger in 1964. CP3 // Passo Giau, ITA The race will stay high in the mountains for Control 3. The parcour will start at the top of the 1918m Passo San Pellegrino and finish on one of the most spectacular passes of the Dolomites. Passo Giau connects Colle Santa Lucia with Cortina d’Ampezzo and tops out at 2236m under the dramatic peak of Nuvolau. CP4 // Durmitor, MNE Durmitor Massif is located in Northwestern Montenegro, close to the border with Bosnia to the West and Serbia to the North. The route in and out will be anything but flat, its not called the land of the black mountains for nothing but Montenegro a wonderful country to cycle in. The parcour will take racers from Pluzine to Zabljak and before they enter the national park they will cross Lake Piva and climb sharply through hairpin tunnels hewn into the rock on unassuming roads traversing 50km past wooden hiking huts and the twisted strata of the peaks taking in Montenegro’s highest pass at 1907m; Sedlo Pass or as the locals call it, the “Saddle of God” – and finishing up at Zabljak. Arrive // Canakkale, TUR We bid farewell to Istanbul for number 4 and thank it for being the inspiration for many and we find a slightly calmer finish along the Gallipoli Peninsula to Çanakkale; the closest modern town to the Ancient City of Troy. Steeped in history this is another strategic geographical link between the East and the West, the city has territory in both Europe and Asia and bridges the Dardanelles at its narrowest point to the Antolian Peninsula. The finish is marked by the Saat Kulesi, a five story Ottoman Clock tower, built in 1897 with the funds from the will of the Italian consul and Çanakkale merchant Vitalis.  

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