Anatole Naimi

Marco Martins

Ruben Mancebo

Sergio Molinero Peña

Gregory Clarke

Pablo Herrero

Timeo Canonico

Poul Vestergaard

Jesús Eduardo Hernández García

Conor Verbruggen

Maximilian Preuhs

Ekaitz Txintxurreta Larrea

Jesús Guevara Benito

Mickael Juignet

Wojciech Bystrzycki

Antonio Dias

Marco Quaresma

Maximilian Siering

Ettore Burrini

Sergio Zancada Marquet

Iker Agirrebaltzategi Guridi

Peru Elosegi

Andrew Dumbill

Jose Miguel Godoy Murillo

Joe Jackson

Paul Girond

Gorka Nin

Víctor Martinez

Thibaut Renson

Simon Casanova

Terry Feasey

Ruben Persicot

Rachel Neylan

Micha Mayer

Adam Bibbey

Diego García Mellen

Lourdes Oyarbide

Gontzal Ayerdi Arza

Dominik Bokstaller

Philipp Ketterer

Rafael Peguero Amores

Ruben Sierra Martin

Guillaume Buisse

Pierre-Yves Long

Nicholas Mcintyre

Sebastian Ritter

Gregor Wagner

Jakob Schellbach

Sam Chappell

Jesus Noriega Martinez

Jimmy Polesello

Marco Rodrigues

Xabier Canton Castaño

Andrés Zulueta

Guillaume Ombratieu

Amelie Plennevaux

Moritz Venzin

Jérémie Weber

Toni Seppälä

Tanguy Lecomte

Nicolás Cilveti Espinoza

Jon Ellis

Juan Bestué

Hristos Fleturis

Francois Pairault 

Enrico Hösel

Jakub Koniak

João Pombinho

Riccardo Romaggi

Carlos Javier Garcia Nieto

Kobe Van Dijck

Andrea Donati

Laura Danzig

Xavi Martil Cotano

Rhys Lewis

Marcel Mor Miró

Jan Branecki

Krisztián Gál

Ángel Torá  Canal

Thomas Buch Lund

Guillem Gibert

Julien Taveau

Jannis Frühauf

Matthias Homeier

Lucas Perez Lopez

Jonas Hess

Rens Pielage

Antonio Antequera Bandres

Cesar Merás Ramírez

Daniel Porta

Arthur Keryer

Graham Lunn

Rubén Peña Barceló

Lieke Geraedts

Philippe Pallas

Oleksandr Kozlov

Mark Feldhues

Asier López Arbizu

Ernesto Martinez Bucio

Jorge Manuel San Emeterio Argos

Adrien Mabileau & Pierre Yves Fontaine

Mikel Aristegi Pascual & Igor Agirrezabal San Miguel

Johannes Kleiser & Fabien Cohadon

Emilian Biedenbach & Johannes Simmet

Felix Baumberger & Stefano Gariglio

Guillaume Mahu & Jeremy Valette

Jakub Zajic & Pavel Filipek

José Padilla & Gabriel Maldonado

Corneel Nyckees & Wannes Nyckees

Ivan Petko & Peter Fabry

Pol Giralt Lamarca & Aitor Del Olmo Diaz

Timo Stein & Lisa Pacher

Juan Manuel Gonzalez Caballero & Ismael Masero Perez

Julien Lecuyer & Victorien Bily

Roberto Escartin Gil & Sergio Tirado Gorgas

Jordi Boada Verges & Josep Pera Vall-Llosera

Aitor Fuste Diez & Federico Argüello Peralta

Tobias Krumm & Anke Warlich

Manuel Criado & Juan Alfonso Nieto Marquez

Francisco Haro & Gerard  Soria

Francis Toujouse & Hildeberto Villa Lopez

Patrick Pascó Suriol & David Astrie Padilla

Harvey Anturi & Erika Anturi

David Mateo Prado & Luis Oscar Rodríguez Bartolomé

Xavier Maqueda Castellote & Marc Blanchart

Bernat Sillaurren & Albert Palau

Miquel Castellote Borrell & Iván Ochoa Argany

Madelyn Lines & Kolja Erbacher

Sammie Amery & Essie Amery

Katja Ewertz & Tim Schuhmann

Sara Luisa Gonzlez Robinson & César Obeso Díez

Aristotle Cajucom & Paolo Leano

Juan Luis Saaverda Mercader & Javier Saavedra Mercader

Felix Jesus Santano Mengual & David Ruano Carmona

Grahame Howe & Kelvin Fowler

Shukran Farid & Yoonhwa Choi

Álvaro Pérez Abela & Juan Fernando García Pérez

Baudouin Arnaud & Cazet Yves

Matthew Cruice & Joshua Cruice

Michi Hange & Martin Bergmeister

Andreas Fellmann & Alexandra Fellmann

Stefan Schneider & Theresa Schneider

Daniel Schreiber & Benjamin Schreiber

Stefan Radojicic & Milos Radojicic

Welcome to my commentary of this year’s Transpyrenees by Transiberica! I’m Bobby, and I’m excited to bring you all the action, although it’s a little bittersweet for me because I’m actually supposed to be racing this event. I injured my knee during this year’s Dales Divide, sidelining me for six weeks and hampering my plans to be in the Pyrenees this week. Not to worry, I’ll join the rest of you dot-watchers in enjoying the race from behind a screen instead.

The race kicks off on Sunday morning, but let's have a look at some key elements that could shape the result!

### THE ROUTE
This year’s edition of the race takes riders on a more Spanish-centric route than in previous years, taking in 1070km and almost 30,000m elevation on the way from San Sebastian west to Llanca on the Costa Brava. There’s a long list of iconic climbs along the way, including Col d'Aubisque and Col du Tourmalet in quick succession around the halfway point. But an exciting guest on this year’s edition is Col de Portet, considered one of the toughest climbs in the Pyrenees. It comes at the 530km mark, averaging over 8% for 16km, and the kicker is it’s an out-and-back so riders will get to the top before turning around and descending back down it. 

Previous races have been won in as few as 48hrs, but generally the winners come in between 55-65hrs, and for a top five finish you’d be aiming for around 70-75hrs.

### WEATHER
Another factor for riders will be the heat. A couple of days ago there were some days forecast to hit 40 degrees around the middle to latter part of the route, but the forecast is now showing highs of around 30 degrees for most of the week, and lows of around 20 degrees. That’s still really hot, and it’ll throw up a lot of challenges, forcing riders to carefully plan their hydration and nutrition strategies through the hottest hours. I also expect to see a lot of riders putting in long night shifts to avoid the heat of the day.

There’s not a lot of wind expected, but what wind there is will mostly be coming from the South, blowing warm air and not offering a lot of respite from the blazing sun. The Pyrenees is full of microclimates, and there’s every chance we could see some isolated rainfall or even thunderstorms at some point, but at the moment the forecast is looking dry, sunny and hot.

### ONES TO WATCH
This race has attracted some of the biggest names in ultradistance racing over the years - the likes of Sofiane Sehili, Adam Bialek, Omar di Felice and Ulrich Bartholmoes to name a few - and this year’s edition will again be hotly contested by some extremely strong riders. 

Let’s delve into some riders of interest, and give you some names to keep an eye on over the coming week or so. The startlist features 302 riders of 33 different nationalities, with the women’s field making up 11% of the mix, so that’s where we’re going to start.

__Women’s Race__

__Lourdes Oyarbide (cap 119) -__ a former Spanish national champion in both road and time trial. She’s dabbled in ultra racing, most notably taking on Transiberica’s Basajuan in 2023, but this sort of event is new territory for Lourdes. How will she implement her racing nous on a race of this length?

__Rachel Neylan (cap 169) -__ she was a Movistar team mate of Lourdes in 2018, and finished second in the 2012 World Championship road race behind Marianne Vos. She recently rode the Hellenic Mountain Race - her ultra debut - but used it more as a learning opportunity, opting for hard riding by day and plenty of rest and recovery in between. Now back on a more familiar road bike, and with some valuable lessons learned in Greece, I imagine we’ll see something a little different this time around and I think she could be one to keep an eye on.

__Amelie Plennvaux (cap 10) -__ The Belgian has already shown some good form this year with a second place in the women’s 500km distance Race Across Belgium. It was half the distance of Transpyrnees, and relatively flat, but she’s had seven weeks to build on a very solid base. 
__Outsiders: Liz Hughes (cap 48)__ has plenty of experience with some decent results including 3rd woman at Badlands and 4th woman at Basajuan. __Laura Danzig (cap 115)__ flies under the radar a little but I can see she was 3rd woman at GranGuanche Audax Road earlier this year.

__Men’s Race__

__Anatole Naimi (cap 11) -__ He’s really affirmed his place at the top table over the past few years and has to be in the discussion about winners of this race. He boasts some impressive results, including 1st at Basajuan and the Two Volcano sprint last year, and recently turned heads at the Hellenic Mountain Race where he pushed Alex McCormack to the limit, finishing just over an hour after Alex in the second-fastest time on the course. He’s also a bit of a fan favourite for his positive energy so he’s definitely one to follow.

__Jesus Hernandez Garcia (cap 86) -__ Jesus made his ultra debut last month and took the win at Pedalma’s Madrid to Barcelona ahead of veteran Ulrich Bartholms. He’s clearly in good shape and could pose a real threat at the front of the race. 

__Sergio Molinero (cap 92) -__ He finished second in last year’s Transibérica, in front of Juan Antonio Flecha, covering 2,700km in six-and-a-half days. If he carries that kind of form into Transpyrenees he’ll be very hard to beat.

__Outsiders: Oscar Pujol (cap 155)__ is another former pro and a one-time Vuelta a Espana rider, headed to Transibérica later in the year so may be holding something back for that. __Andoni Guridi Santos (cap 12)__ finished 4th behind Anatole at Basajuan last year, and 4th at this year’s Gravel Birds.

__Pairs__

__Essie and Sammie Amery (caps 307-308) -__ These sisters represent Great Britain in age group triathlon, and Essie last year finished 6th at the World Ironman Championships with Sammie not far behind her. They’re strong, and are clearly comfortable being uncomfortable, so let’s see how they go over consecutive days.

__Adrien Mabileau and Pierre Yves Fontaine (caps 397-398) -__ This French pair won last year's Three Peaks Bike Race and landed themselves in the top 20 overall in the process. They're young guys and strong riders, and clearly one successful race together has given them some confidence to team up again for this one.

Race preview

The first 24hrs of the race have passed, and it's been a brutal start for the riders. Many are reporting it not going to plan because of the extreme heat - around 40 degrees for much of it - and dehydration causing difficulty fuelling sufficiently. 

That's not true of our front-runners though, or if it is they're doing an incredible job at pushing through it. Anatole Naimi is setting the pace, with a small gap to Ruben Mancebo, almost at the halfway point and approaching the foot of the notorious Col de Portet. They welcomed sunrise on Col du Tourmalet and they've stopped for less than half an hour so far, which is amazing given how much fluid they must be going through and how many calories they must be burning. Bear in mind, we're talking about 520km and almost 14,000m of climbing in 24hrs! The question is, how long can they keep this up? Will they have to sleep at all, or can they push through the next 24-26hrs to the finish line?

![Anatole, Transpyrenees 25](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/hVn2UTcvQ8AhHlJV1K3H3/e4b2f2b9c55be3f6fd518dcad9e5d9d8/WhatsApp_Image_2025-06-30_at_10.56.22.jpeg)
Anatole Naimi

![Ruben, Transpyrenees 25](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/2ACaCa6955QkP3jCEfxorF/a837dc1431474bcebb1a9da159507532/WhatsApp_Image_2025-06-30_at_10.56.21.jpeg)
Ruben Mancebo 

Behind them, there's a bit of a gap to Jesus Hernandez Garcia, Matthew Brokenshire and Marco Martins, who all have the same sort of stoppage time as the front two but just don't have the same speed on the road. 

Amelie Plennavaux has taken the lead in the women's race, now at the 340km mark. But Rachel Neylan, who led most of Day 1, is only 20km back and has had over 8hrs of stoppage time, so she's clearly planning on riding hard by day and getting plenty of recovery by night. 

Adrien Mabileau and Pierre Yves Fontaine lead the pairs, and are in the top 20 overall but, again, they've not really stopped and there are a couple of pairs hot on the heels with a lot more rest, so let's see how long they can last.

Photos: @bite.of.me

![Transpyrenees 2025, Day 1](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/5b6xTSwZLY7zIlRWFIp1a6/d443f40ce177b69be91ae7d8aa7d568a/WhatsApp_Image_2025-06-30_at_07.22.51.jpeg)


First 24 Hours

It looks like we'll be waking up to a winner of this year's Transpyrenees, as our lead rider Anatole Naimi nears the final 200km. 

Anatole has been setting the pace from the gun, but he's had riders in hot pursuit the whole time, forcing him to keep pushing. He's only stopped for 1hr 10min so far, but told the media team this morning, "the legs are good, but I'm so tired". With that in mind, we don't know if he'll be able to push through night two but if he can carry on all the way to the finish without stopping, he could come in around the 50hr mark which would be one of the fastest rides in recent editions. At the time of writing this - just before midnight local time - he's covered 785km in 40hrs, climbing 21,000m in the process. Pretty remarkable, especially given the extreme heat they're riding in and the toll that takes on the body. 

![Anatole, Transpyrenees 25](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/2nBFVNkXwKPelZrwPt4Tnn/9b09a4b11a63ff827dccd5d0736a34fd/WhatsApp_Image_2025-06-30_at_22.18.21.jpeg)
Credit: @transiberica_club

Marco Martins is less than 60km behind him, but is also on no sleep, so Anatole's in a very strong position at the moment. Even if he does need to stop for a power nap at some point, there's almost three hours of riding between the two at their current average riding speeds.

After Marco there's another 65km to a cluster of four riders which includes Ruben Mancebo and Jesus Hernandez Garcia, who were 2nd and 3rd respectively as they reached the halfway point earlier today and are the only two riders in the top five who have had any significant stop time, presumably to get some sleep. They'll be fresher going into the night, and possibly riding a little faster than those ahead of them, but they've got big gaps to both Marco and Anatole so the best they can do is aim for podium positions now.

Elsewhere, Rachel Neylan's strategy of riding hard by day and getting plenty of rest at night has seen her jump back to the front of the women's race and into 26th overall, 55km ahead of Lourdes Oyarbide. Adrien Mabileau and Pierre Yves Fontaine still lead the pairs category and are pushing for top 10 overall at this point.

More in the morning!


Final Push

We have a winner!

Anatole Naimi has won Transpyrenees 2025. He rode 1,070km and climbed 27,000m in just over 55hrs 30min at an average moving speed of 20kph. He only stopped for 3hr 30min across the whole ride, and just 2hr of that was to sleep from what I can tell.

Those watching the dots may have noticed Anatole stopped for an hour or so about 6km before the end of the track. If you're wondering why, that's because the finish line is at the summit of the final climb before a neutralised 14km descent into Llançà. Fear not, he'd already won the race 8km prior. His tracker keeps lagging, but it looks like he even had the energy to ride back up to the summit to welcome in Marco Martins as he crossed the line in 2nd. What a sport.

Marco held onto 2nd despite only stopping for 1hr 25min, presumably all for refuelling and not for sleeping. The battle for the third step on the podium is an exciting one - Ruben Mancebo, who was in 2nd for most of the first 24hrs but stopped for sleep and lost a bunch of places, has moved back into 3rd. He's just a few kilometers ahead of Sergio Molinero Peña, who's had 3hrs less stoppage than Ruben so may not be as fresh coming into the finale but he's clearly giving it everything he's got.

The next riders are 100km back, so will come in late tonight.


First Finisher

__Photo: Anatole Naimi, by Carlos Mazon__

The top 10 has (sort of) been decided, with eight solo riders across the finish line as well as our winning pair Adrien Mabileau and Pierre Yves Fontaine. While their result sits outside of the overall classification, they were the seventh and eighth fastest riders overall with a time of 75hr 39min. 

Jesús Eduardo Hernández García and Ekaitz Txintxurreta Larrea are both a couple of hours from the finish line and will fill out the solo top 10.

I want to give a massive shoutout to Timeo Canonico - this year's youngest rider at just 20-years-old - who bagged 7th place overnight. From what I can tell he's transitioned from a promising kayaking career into cycling and his only experience in ultradistance is a couple of 500km challenges. My French isn't great but I deciphered enough to gather that he had a bad time with saddle sores towards the end and fashioned some sort of extra cushion for his saddle but he pushed on and cemented his top 10 position. An incredible ride by Timeo, and one to watch in the future.

![Timeo Canonico](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/2cmh0ghf0kEP0emIe85cCS/02f811f495f615858b786bd6256b305e/WhatsApp_Image_2025-07-02_at_11.51.09.jpeg)

Lourdes Oyarbide and Rachel Neylan are neck and neck with about 200km remaining in the race for the women's title. Rachel has about 9hr more rest than Lourdes which may come in handy for the final stretch.

# Weather Watch
Mid-pack riders will be glad the sun's back out after a torrential afternoon downpour in the Central Pyrenees yesterday. It forced a lot of riders to wait for the storm to pass before taking on big passes, namely the Tourmalet.

Some riders got caught at the summit and opted for a cautious descent, but warned those at the bottom not to start climbing until it had cleared. One rider wasn't so lucky and came down on fresh tarmac near the summit, cracking his helmet in the process. 

![Transpyrenees 2025](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/6DertQODjN97Y6GAeZyprA/a7bbadf7d923e15c26d571aa3995ec37/WhatsApp_Image_2025-07-02_at_11.26.36.jpeg)

The sun's out for now and the temperature has dropped, but there are further isolated storms forecast for the rest of the week which will surely cause a few disruptions to riders' plans and progress.

![Transpyrenees 2025](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/6HQxcSnD1K352z0Fj420y4/a4dd97dcdb6b01a60d0449b7b5804a1a/WhatsApp_Image_2025-07-01_at_16.05.32.jpeg)
__Yesterday's weather radar__

Top 10

Rachel Neylan was the first women across the line at 1am this morning, completing the route in 89hrs, just half an hour ahead of second place Lourdes Oyarbide.

![Rachel Neylan, Transpyrenees 2025](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/2TdAtxmqqj9fFjcozzyuJO/61826fcef4d78d59894666baec5dde8d/WhatsApp_Image_2025-07-03_at_10.53.26.jpeg)
__Credit: @bite.of.me__

It was only Rachel's second ultradistance race after making her debut at Hellenic Mountain Race a couple of months ago. She spoke about using that race as a learning curve, and she had a clear strategy at Transpyrenees to ride hard each day but stop for proper sleep each night. She stopped for 9hr more than Lourdes, and her moving speed was almost 3kph faster than Lourdes, so the extra recovery time each night clearly paid off for Rachel in the end as she just edged out her former Movistar team mate.

Amelie Plennevaux is closing in on the finish line now, and is set to fill the women's podium later today.

Women's Winner

The final cut-off has passed, and the final classifications confirmed for this year's Transpyrenees.

![Llanca, Transpyrenees](//images.ctfassets.net/6hyijb95boju/1ed9YeHRoV9blCvTW9ZPtV/2cdac2fee80ef3fe4a713f2093b15bea/WhatsApp_Image_2025-07-05_at_17.23.09.jpeg)
__Above: Finish line feels in Llanca.__

Any riders who finish after 8pm local time tonight - six-and-a-half days after the start of the race - can still say they've completed the challenge but won't be placed on the official classification standings.

Here are the final numbers:

Solo Category - 166 starters, 130 finishers

Pairs Category - 40 starters, 33 finishers

Hopefully there are still riders who make it to the finish line in their own time, and kudos must be given to those who do for their perseverance! 

# Bye from me

With that comes the end of my race commentary. Thanks for joining me and I hope you've enjoyed the race and my coverage.

Until next time... 

That's a wrap

Bobby McNicol

The fixed route of Transpyrenees takes riders from the Atlantic coast to the Mediterranean Sea, climbing some of the most mythical and challenging Cols of The Pyrenees such as Aubisque, Tourmalet, and Ax-3-domaines.

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