Paul Lester

A race designed to prep organiser Alan Goldsmith for the Arizona Trail Race has become the flagship UK MTB bikepacking race. With hours of hike-a-bike and the most unpredictable weather the British Isles have to offer, the HT550 is a race that cannot be missed.

Highland Trail 550

Fast and flat; what the Netherlands lacks in elevation and terrain it more than makes up for with its wind and characterful villages. Don't let the elevation profile fool you, this is not an easy race.

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Race Around the Netherlands

Back for a third year, this 600km route traverses two of the UK's National Parks: The Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors.

Kicking off the UK ultra season with a roster stacked with some of the best British racers, this is set to be a fiercely competitive race.

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Dales Divide

Brand new for 2021, the Tuatara 1000 has two options for the riders: a brevet and a non-stop category. Starting and finishing in Invercagill, the Tuatara 1000 will take riders into the crevices of the gravel roads on the south coast of New Zealand's southern island.

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Tuatara 1000

The Victoria Divide is a 550km race from Melbourne to Albury traversing the coastal side of the Great Dividing Range. The race was designed by Melburnian, Lewis Ciddor, a rider who cut his teeth winning the 2018 Tour Divide and who has worked to produce a race that is as technical and demanding as 550km from his home city can be.

The winning times have ranged from 40 to 44 hours, and no rider has ever cracked the 40 hour mark. It's worthy of note that the re-route following the fires in 2019/20 added 20km to last year’s route but has now returned closer to the original route.

While Lewis isn’t back to defend his title this year, Emma Flukes and Ben May who completed the 2020 podium will line up alongside other big names who are making their Vic Divide debut.

Race route illustration by Alex Hotchin
📸 Jimmy Röstlund

Alex Hotchin Vic Divide pic

Victoria Divide

The inaugural Tour Te Waipounamu is the brain child of Brian Alder, a veteran of the sport and a lifelong mountaineer. With experience from the Tour Divide, Highland Trail, Colorado Trail Race and Kyrgystan; Brian's event has been tipped as the hardest bikepacking race in New Zealand.

With a competitive domestic line up, including a Tour Divide winner and seven race veterans, a French Divide and Bohemia Divide winner, we are massively excited to kick off our 2021 race coverage with what will surely be a cracking race.

Tour Te Waipounamu

As the Race Around Rwanda was amended to a Journey in order to comply with Rwandan restrictions, we're treated to an usual event. It's never been about the destination and, now more than ever, it's all about the journey.

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Journey Around Rwanda

From the foot of Mount Vesuvio to the peak of Mount Etna, the riders of Two Volcano sprint are about to erupt into a display of power and endurance.

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Two Volcano Sprint

2,800 km of Iberian riding awaits riders at the start line of this year's event. With 12 checkpoints across Spain and Portugal, the race promises to highlight the best regions of the peninsula.

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TransIbérica

Badlands 2020 is the inaugural gravel event brought to you by the organisers of Transibérica and Transpyrenees. As a sprint event, we're expecting a real spectacle of fast endurance racing.

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Badlands

The Trans Atlantic Way now in its 5th year with shorter special edition of 2113kms. With international travel restrictions in place, it’s an all Ireland field this year. Riders will start in the City of Derry and make their way over the Peace Bridge to join the Wild Atlantic Way. Riders have two routes to chose from: Cu Culainn 2113km and Setanta 1541km, named after a famous Irish mythical character.

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Trans Atlantic Way

Originally slated for the Easter weekend, the Dales Divide takes riders on a 600km tour across two of the UK's National Parks: The Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors.

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Race Around The Netherlands is a staple in the ultra-endurance calendar renowned for its lack of hills and its trademark winds. It may be one of the flattest races in the world but the Netherlands is not for the faint of heart.

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Race Around The Netherlands

Transpyrenees 2020 is a 1,000km single stage, unsupported race across the Pyrenees, which takes in 40 cols and +25,000m of elevation gain. 

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Transpyrenees

Off-road, fully self-sufficient race from Lands End to John O'Groats.

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GBDURO20

From Vienna to Nice via three of the hardest climbs in Europe: Großglockner Hochalpenstraße, Col du Sanetsch and Mount Ventoux.

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Three Peaks Bike Race

What was the NAVAD 1000, is now the Hope 1000 and 2020 sees the race in its sixth year. During this unprecedented scene for events, we're excited to bring this event live to your screens.

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Hope 1000 2020

The inaugural off-road bikepacking race across the Atlas Mountains opens up the season of unsupported ultra-distance cycling for the year.

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Atlas Mountain Race 2020

It's Rich vs the clock for what could be the first completion of a winter HT550 ITT.

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Rich Seipp's Winter HT550 ITT

The cherry on top of a brilliant year's racing.

3,500km around the Iberian Peninsula with checkpoints in some of the highest peaks available.

TransIbérica 2019

The four-yearly 1200km randonnée is back for its 19th edition. Originally a race, this brevet is a prestigious event steeped in the history of long-distance cycling.

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Paris-Brest-Paris 2019

The most prestigious race on the calendar returns with four new checkpoints and a route reversal.

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Transcontinental Race 2019

A 950km traverse of the Pyrenees mountains across the French and Spanish border.

Transpyrenees Ultracycling Race 2019

Land's End to John O'Groats on road, gravel, singletrack and everything in between across four stages.

GBDURO19

Running from Banff in Canada to Antelope Wells on the Mexican border, the Tour Divide is for many the halo event of Bikepack Ultraracing. With both South Bound and North Bound riders racing self-supported across approx. 2,745 miles (4,420km) of the ACA's Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, with a few diversions to spice it up. The 2019 edition had perhaps the deepest starting field ever, with prior winners of Tour Divide, TCR, TransAm, Terra Australis and Italy Divide all lining up. This year's race was epic!

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Tour Divide 2019

The race along the Wild Atlantic Way on the west coast of Ireland returns for 2019.

TransAtlantic Way 2019

The longest race on the calendar takes riders from one side of the USA to the other.

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Trans America Bike Race 2019

After riders succumbed to torrential rain within the first two days, the 2019 HT550 had a surprise around every corner of the trail.

HT550

1150 unsupported kilometres between Naples and Torbole with a mix of fast rolling gravel roads and technical mountain bike trails.

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Italy Divide

Race To The Rock is a 3,500km off-road epic held annually in the wilds of the Australian Outback. Uluru Rock has marked the finish line every year since its 2016 inauguration, but the start line, and route to it, have always been changed - with Tasmania marking the start of the 2018 edition. Dreamt up by the 'chief instigators' of the Indian Pacific Wheel Race, and with Sarah Hammond as the race's only ever victor, the race is anything but a ride for the faint hearted.

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Race to the Rock

The first edition of most bikepacking races usually involve a makeshift start and a field of riders selected from the organiser’s closest friends. Not the Silk Road Mountain Race, which has assembled a lineup of veterans and rookies and convinced them to a race a fixed 1,700km route through Kyrgyzstan’s Tien Shan mountains -- with a wince-inducing 26,000m of climbing thrown in for good measure, too. With only three manned checkpoints, unfamiliar terrain, and scant resources, the race is set to make essential dotwatching.

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Silk Road Mountain Race

First dreamt up and organised by Mike Hall in 2013, the Transcontinental Race has come to be recognised as somewhat of a genre-defining event. Starting in Belgium, and finishing in Greece, with four checkpoints en route that change with every passing year, this 4,000km, self-navigated epic is as arduous as it is adventurous, and therein lies its appeal. 

Transcontinental Race

On June 16th 2018, Scottish ultra cyclist Jenny Graham set off from Berlin in an attempt to break the women's 'Around-the-World' record. Her 18,000 mile ride will take her across 14 countries and 4 continents. She'll be spending up to 16 hours in the saddle every day to hit her target of 180 miles per day, and beat the record by a projected 34 days. It's an ultra-distance effort that will test her mile after mile; country after country, and we'll be following her for the duration.

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Jenny Graham 'Round-the-World' Record 

For many people, the Tour Divide is the original bikepacking race. It's an event that has inspired many riders, and laid the foundations for an entire calender of ultra-distance bike races to thrive. Following the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, the Tour Divide stretches 4418km from Banff, Canada, to Antelope Wells on the USA-Mexico border. Off-road; self-supported; as fast as possible!

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Tour Divide

The TransAtlanticWay Race is a 2500 km one stage, self-supported road bike race between Dublin and Cork - via The Wild Atlantic Way. With the pounding swell of the Atlantic as your constant companion, you follow the blue zig-zag signposts through seven of Ireland’s westernmost counties.

TransAtlantic Way

At 6,735km long, the Trans Am Bike Race (TABR) is the longest ultra-distance bike race out there. Traversing the USA from Astoria, Oregon, to Yorktown, Virginia, the route covers the Rockies, the plains of the Mid-West, and the Appalachians, on its cross-continental path. A true test of stamina, and a calendar highlight for riders and dotwatchers alike.

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Trans Am Bike Race

The Italy Divide is a 900km unsupported bikepacking race, following a mixture of gravel roads and technical MTB trails through Italy's mountainous interior, from Rome to Lake Garda. The 2018 edition sees 88 riders, and one former winner, take on the challenge.

Race	Year	Position	Class	Category	Result	Bike	Finish Location	Finish Time
Terra Australis	2019	—	Solo	Men	Scratched	Traditional/geared	4335km	—
Tour Divide	2016	56	Solo	Men	Finished	Traditional/geared		27d 9h 38m
Tour Divide	2017	29	Solo	Men	Finished	Traditional/geared		22d 22h 55m
Terra Australis	2020	4	Solo	Men	Finished	Traditional/geared		8d 8h 21m

Paul Lester

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