The Trans-Savoie 50/50: Starts this weekend

The Trans-Savoie is Back after a 5-year Break with a brand new "50/50" format - and it all kicks off this weekend, from Bourg St Maurice, French Alps.

The event itself was all a little 50/50 for quite some time, but the organisers trailAddiction in partnership with Mountain Sports International, were absolutely determined to see it through, no matter what adversity was thrown in their way.


It looks like they're about to deliver on that promise, as riders from all over Europe are arriving in the French Alps this weekend, with almost 25,000 vertical metres of Alpine singletrack to look forward to, all crammed into 6 epic days.

Essential Info:
21st to 28th August 2021
Savoie, French Alps (Departs – Bourg St. Maurice)
6-day Enduro Adventure.
Dormitory-style Accommodation
25,000m descent, 6,000m ascent (on top of shuttles and ski lifts).
Limited to 100 Entries: 50 E-Bike / 50 Regular Bike
Strong Focus on Adventure and Camaraderie, rather than competition (Its not a Race).
Website: www.trans-savoie.com


Trans-Savoie ran for four hugely successful editions (2013-2016) and offered more descending and on-the-clock stage time than any other equivalent enduro-style event. Drawn from two decades of local riding knowledge, the legendary TS route took in the best trails in the Alps, and became renowned as one of the world’s toughest mountain bike challenges. This new incarnation goes even further out into the realm of epic adventuring with friends old and new, whilst also becoming more accessible (and realistic to complete) for keen amateurs.


50/50 places more emphasis on adventure, rather than racing the clock; aided by amazing leaps in electric bike technology making the best terrain accessible to more adventurers...whilst absolutely not forgetting those who still love to ride without a battery.

Trans-Savoie 50/50 will take riders higher and into wilder terrain than ever, meaning many of the best trails of the original event, plus next level stages that were simply too epic, remote, sensitive or exposed to race down in previous editions. The 50/50 theme extends to around half of the 2021 itinerary being brand new relative to previous editions of the Trans-Savoie.

Increasing the focus on big-mountain adventure emphasises the personal challenge and joy of riding endless alpine singletrack for six days straight, with ski lifts and shuttles taking riders even further out of the bike parks into loamy forests and high Alpine pastures. E-bikes also enable riders who might struggle to complete well in excess of 20,000m vertical downhill laced with unavoidable climbs and liaisons to reach all the event’s gold.


Is it a Race?
Those looking for a season's worth of EWS racing crammed into 6 days, should look elsewhere. There’ll be no overall podium and no official daily ranking. The focus with 50/50 is in discovering and enjoying your ultimate Alpine trails, scenery and adventure, together with a group of like-minded individuals.

That said, when world-class singletrack points downhill in chunks of 1000m vertical descent at a time, there’s probably going to be more than a hint of rivalry between riding buddies and fellow mountain bikers. We aware acutely aware of our limited privilege to even be allowed access to such a pristine natural environment in the first place; one which we must share respectfully with others..or as mountain bikers, risk losing that privilege forever.

All "stages" - 32 in total - will be checked in and out for safety purposes, and in so-doing, will record individual time stamps at certain key checkpoints. Each rider is provided with individual print-outs of their own checkpoints and times over the course of the week, and these can be individually compared with fellow riders. This adds an extra dimension to each day’s epic journey and will satisfy riders who can’t resist at least a few maximum efforts during the week....without encouraging anyone to "get their race head on" - which is definitely NOT what the new 50/50 is about.
There's no rank-order, podium, winner or looser, here. (As your mum used to say - its the taking part that counts, right?) ...and besides, a whole week of shredding some of the world's best singletrack probably counts as "winning" at life, for most of us.


Sustainability
Since 50/50 doesn’t use closed or MTB-dedicated trails, riders must respect other trail users, animals and the local environment at all times. Sustainability is so important to Trans-Savoie, this will be vigorously monitored and penalised where needed.

Course marking is minimal - no double-taping here - just arrows in place at all key junctions (and therefore a strong requirement for participants to look up well ahead, away from their front wheel!). Liaisons are partly self-navigated, which is enabled by GPS and GPX technology, and a partnership with QuadLock Cases which are provided to all participants. This great bit of kit allows you to securely mount your phone to your bars, keeping you connected at all times whilst on the trail. (Organisers thrash tested these things out in the Alps for months before being convinced that they do just what they claim to - eg they never, ever fall off!).

Organiser Ali Jamieson has this to say: "This has been a long time coming, but the moment I hit on the concept of mixing e-bikes and regular bikes side by side and to take the emphasis off out-and-out racing, for me, it just felt right. From that moment onwards, I just had to make it happen as soon as possible and everything else just fell right into place. After what seems like an eternity since the last Trans-Savoie, I'm stoked to finally have the chance to do this; in this particular format - I've raced the EWS circuit in the past but I was never destined for the podium, although I have always loved the buzz chasing my mates, flat out, on a casual Sunday ride. The 50/50 is truly what I've been wanting to do for 20 years, but never really knew if anyone else would be keen to take it on. I we're I'm about to find out...its going to be one heck of a journey!

Watch this space for daily reports as the week progresses on its journey across the Savoie.
Day 1 (5 Huge Stages - 890m up // 4005m down) is this Sunday!

Check out @transsavoie (Facebook/Instragram) to keep on top of the action as it happens.