Trans Provence - Half Way House
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It's Tuesday and day three of six here in Trans Provence country. The adventure that has elapsed over the 3 days of racing so far has accumulated racers more than 5000m of climbing under their belts in order to race 12 timed stages upon France's finest trails. Early starts, long days and late nights make this one tough event to compete in. But the Trans Provence isn't just about the racing, it's about the journey it takes you on.
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 Another 5:30am start for the mountain staff and another morning well worth waking up for. Without these guys putting in the solid hours, there wouldn't be a race. |
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| The days are long, despite only being short in distance on paper. The altitude climbed and descended however, means racers need to be up and up high early on. |
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| Map reading's essential if you want to survive the Trans Provence and make it back to camp before dawn. |
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| We were all warned day 2 would be brutal. We didn't quite expect the 1400m hike to be quite as brutal as it was. Reaching the saddle of the mountain after 5 hours of hiking with a bike on your back was a welcome sight. |
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| When you put in the effort, you're rewarded. Views like these don't come often and would have been unseen if not otherwise for a bike. |
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Stay tuned for more goodness all week from the Mavic Trans-Provence.
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As for how technical the terrain is I'm inclined to agree with @bigmike9699.
Full faces bicycle helmets (moto helmets are a different ball-game) will protect your facial structures from injury (superficial and structural), but do not necessarily protect any more (than a half-lid) from traumatic brain injuries. Also, from what I understand in Canada, is that there is not a certification process for full-face bicycle helmets (moto is different again), so potentially a full face bicycle helmet may do nothing more than protect from superficial/soft-tissue injuries (although I think many are built to a stronger quality than that).
And @garyparkstrom, I don't necessarily think the European races/stages are that much more technical, but one thing they are (in general, but not entirely) are much much longer, resulting in greater rider fatigue over the course of a stage, which can possibly lead to a great chance of crash/injury? For the most part, the amount of access into alpine territory in Europe is leagues beyond anything in North America.
Mavic® Trans-Provence is more technically demanding than any other multi-day MTB race on the planet. A bold statement indeed but one of which we are fully convinced. 95% of all descents take place on singletrack trails, many of which are rocky or rooty or steep or switchbacky or exposed... or any combination of these. The technical aspects are not "occasional", they are intrinsic to the nature of the terrain and the landscapes that we cross. So, whilst you do not require an expert level of bike-handling skill, you must be competent when the going gets technical (or happy to get off and walk with your bike) and above all, you must enjoy the challenge of riding long demanding singletrack descents.
Mavic® Trans-Provence is more about technical and exhilarating trail-riding as much as it is about lung-busting ascents. As such, we use a tried and tested uplift setup combination to give riders a half-hour-long uplift each morning to an elevated trailhead. This results in significantly more descending than ascending on most days. That said, the route is nevertheless very physical with a lot of "unassisted" ascent; see stats above.
@garyparkstrom - There is no special Style/cultural difference, it really depend on rider preference and risks but generally we use full-face when we have more down tracks as uphill.