The Trans-Provence is back with a boom for its 7th time, and this one is set to be a cracker. There’s a rather large gap between the Trans-Provence racers and it’s all for good reason, with each course not revisiting major parts of the previous, it takes an entire year to scout and ride spots which are good enough for the worlds best. It’s safe to say this year, the Southeastern area of France has some pretty high expectations attached to it.
The Trans-Provence race covers 270km of blind racing, which should be a fun not only to ride, but to watch, as no practice is given and the event relies on riders quick, decisive skill and technical ability to judge lines at the last second.We took a look at some of the bikes attempting this monster of a course and checked out what the riders were looking forward to.
Sam Flanagan – First time here and really excited about how it’s going to go. Love all the big mountain stuff as I’m from the Lake District in England so it’s all this kinda stuff. Just see how it goes I guess.
Nico Lau – It’s really exciting to start here again. my first goal is to make it to the finish without crashing or breaking my bike. other than that, ill see if my body survives pedalling for a whole week. for me, the event is also training. racing blind in alpine terrain helps me building up speed for the next ews racesClaire Buchar – I’ve raced a couple of enduro’s but nothing big, so I’m just excited for the adventure and the back country that comes with it. I can’t go into this race expecting much because so much can happen in six days and so much can go wrong. Just hoping for good weather and no mechanical’s I guess.Matti Lehikoinen – I just want to have a mistake free race and get some flow on the bike and not get too excited. Getting lost is probably my biggest fear in this race.Joe Barnes – At the Trans Provence this year which I actually completed before, three years ago, so I kinda know what to expect, but I think there will be a few surprises thrown in. From the last time I definitely went way too hard from the start and now I know now to take it easy as it’s a super long week. Don’t rush things. Riding blind trails is pretty scary especially on this magnitude.Dimitri Repkin – Really excited to get started. I don’t have any fears about this event but the most difficult part of the event will be the switchbacks that this race is well known for. I hope to manage to do these well.Tracy Moseley – Really looking forward to it. Second time I’ve done it and I can’t wait for all the adventure races mixed in with the EWS events. More relaxed, more fun and I’m going to treat it as a training week.
Ty Hathaway – Expecting to maybe do a little better than last year and just have a lot of fun.
Emiliano Surballe – When riding blind you get to know new trails all over the southern Alps of France. I like the fact that the terrain is natural, not hand built and Tthere’s a lot of nature involved in it.
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