James Shirley's Trans-Rezia

Trans-Rezia: a six-day enduro style adventure race across the Italian Alps (and a little bit of Switzerland) with luxury hotel accommodation, shuttle runs, gondola uplift, a Swiss alpine train journey and a helicopter ride? Yes please!


The question was proposed to me by Trans-Rezia event organiser Clive Forth and I couldn’t resist the invitation. There is something special about blind racing and it was a unique opportunity to experience the trails and landscape of a virgin event. With a rider’s list comprising of Tracy Moseley, Nathalie Schneitter, Simon Gegenheimer, Denny Lupato, Davide Sottocornola and many more familiar names including Sam Needham and Ross Bell on the media front then I knew this was going to be a big deal.


I arrived from Whislter at Milan airport and drove the van to the start of the race in Santa Caterina. I got there a couple of days early so I could sleep off the jetlag and rest my sore back. After studying the route profiles I came to the conclusion that the race would have a strong emphasis on the adventure side of things. With long transitions and predicted high temperatures I chose to only take an open face helmet. It seemed like lot of time would be spent in high alpine terrain which generally means fast and rocky trails. To reduce the puncture risk I ran Schwalbe Super Gravity sidewall tyres with Trailstar compound for slightly faster rolling compared to the grippier Vertstar alternative.


The original route plan consisted of 4 stages per day but for various reasons some of these were to be cancelled. Despite having some uplift assistance the transitions were really tough with big climbs and hike a bike sections. Unfortunately for us, it seemed as though the stages were even tougher! With raised heart rates and big oxygen debts it was easy to miss the course marking so getting lost became a common theme for everyone. Sadly for Denny Lupato and Stuart Wilcox they both made major errors with their navigation and put themselves out of contention. I was aware of these dangers so I tried my best not to get lost by literally coming to a standstill in places to look around and make sure. I was also aware of the potential to lose the race through mechanical failure so I tried to keep it clean and focus on staying fresh for the next big effort. With these tactics in place I was pleased to take the win for each of the first three days. However, on the third stage of the third day I suffered from a slow puncture. Luckily it didn’t cost me much time but it did play on my mind...


I was starting to fatigue, sore back disease was growing stronger and my frustrations were building. We had little free time that evening and I spent it fixing my bike. In the morning of the fourth day my motivation was lacking and I lost a massive twenty seconds on the first stage. With only thirty seconds of my lead remaining it was time to get my head back in the game. After another long day of spectacular alpine scenery and I managed to take victory on the final stage.


From here on in we thankfully had considerably less climbing to do in the transitions and the final 3 stages (two of which were repeated) were easily the best stages of the week. We rode through beautiful coniferous woodland with amazing root sections and tricky rock gardens. The organisers definitely saved the best trails till last.


By the end of the race, I managed to extend my lead ever so slightly to clinch victory at the first ever Trans-Rezia competition and Tracy Moseley won the women's category. In hindsight I think all of the riders are proud of their achievements - to survive an epic adventure across some of the most beautiful landscape so well done to everyone who took part!


Looking back at the race I can remember some really tough times but all in all I enjoyed my experienced. The hospitality was fantastic and the people associated with the journey were great to share time with. The Trans-Rezia is expected to return as an annual event and with a little bit of tweaking and rider feedback then it has potential to be one of top races in the calendar...


http://www.trans-rezia.com