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The Transcontinental Race (TCR) was founded in 2013 by the late Mike Hall, a giant of the ultra distance cycling scene. It is a single stage race across Europe where cyclists cover around 4000 km.
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The 10th edition of the Transcontinental Race will start in Roubaix. Starting with a lap of the iconic velodrome, home to the fabled stories of Merckx, Moser, De Vlaeminck and Deignan, riders will head out across the pavé that is synonymous with the border between France and Belgium, before tackling the successive cobbled climbs of the Start Parcours.
With over a century of cycling folklore baked into the culture of the area, our riders will start to write their own stories of adventure, with the shores of the Bosphorus still a continent away.
Heading southeast across the Alps, riders will arrive at CP1 in Slovenia, tackling the ferocious Mangartsko Sedlo. Built by Italian soldiers in 1938, the road takes in almost 1500 m of climbing in just over 10 km, with pitches of 17%. Riders will face the first significant challenge of the Race as they turn the pedals with tired legs to push to the top of the climb, which sits at over 2000 m of altitude. Passing through five tunnels hewn from the rough rock of the mountainside, riders will enjoy uninterrupted views of the Julian Alps at the summit.
Situated southwest of Sarajevo, Bjelašnica — the highest peak in Bosnia, and host to the 1984 Winter Olympics — is the next destination that awaits our riders. While riders of TCRNo6 climbed up to the abandoned ski station that sits atop the mountain, riders of TCRNo10 will take on different tracks.
This will mark the first off-road section of the 10th edition of the Race, where riders’ kit choices will start to pay dividends if they have managed to correctly judge the balance of risk and reward. After conquering the rough gravel that characterises the unpaved roads of the region, riders will descend through the beautiful valley towards Odžaci along narrow passes that hug the mountainside and through dense farmland alive with the sounds of livestock.
In its 10th edition, the Transcontinental Race will visit Kosovo for the first time, with Prevallë playing host to CP3. A popular skiing destination, the town lies near the border of North Macedonia in the Šar Mountains National Park, an area with 30 peaks higher than 2500 m of altitude.
Bordering the Kosovo Plain to the northeast and the Metohija Valley in the northwest, the region will see riders enter unfamiliar terrain and experience a true taste of Balkan wilderness along the way. Home to the Balkan lynx, as well as wolves, bears and wild boar, this relatively untouched corner of the region will pose its own set of challenges. While the Race won’t be won here, it could certainly be lost.
The penultimate Control Point of TCRNo10 will be in Çanakkale, last used in the Race in 2016 during TCRNo4. Famous for the two castles on either side of the mouth of the Dardanelles Strait, the town was established as a key trade location in the 8th century by the Greeks, and its status as a key trading location was cemented during the Ottoman empire.
Riders will head south from here to the sparsely inhabited rural outskirts of the city. Characterised by rolling hills, dense forests, and agriculture, riders will have a taste of rural Türkiye in all its glory as they begin their journey towards the Finish line in Istanbul.
The tenth edition of the Transcontinental Race will finish at the warm shores of the Bosphorus in Istanbul. Bridging continental and cultural divides, the city has long been understood as the point where East meets West. This will be the case too for our riders, who, after over 3700km from France to Türkiye will travel along the Black Sea coastline before dropping down into Istanbul to complete their journey.
With the possibility of physical replenishment with a trip to the hammam, and a chance to deepen the spiritual connection to their journey with a trip to the Blue Mosque, our riders will once again become whole after breaking their journey, and sometimes their mind, body and spirit, into parts for the previous 15 days.
