THE BIG SHOW
This is the biggest race I have ever seen. It's been running every year since 1984 and each year it grows a little more, bringing in riders and fans from across the world to send the XC season off with a bang. There is no other race I can think of that has a results list that runs to 119 pages long, or has rider starts spread out over two and a half hours... The most impressive thing though, is just how fast it all is, race winners average somewhere close to 25km/h, up and downhill, over 56km. While downhill, enduro and other gravity discplines will always be closest to out heart here at Pinkbike, you can't really compete with the intensity of the racing of something like this. The top riders will spend over two hours battling head-to-head, two hours trying to drop the riders behind, but keep enough in the tank for that final sprint to the line... In a close race, they will spend their time calculating, sizing up their opponent, trying to work out what they have to do to beat them... The emotional levels get cranked up to 11 and even if you don't fancy trying it yourself, it is undoubtedly one of the greatest spectacles in mountain biking.
The full results, all 119 pages of them are on the
Roc D'Azur website.
Have you ever heard of Birkebeinerrittet in Norway?!