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Before we start I wish to emphasise that I have very little talent/skill rather than heaps of cash.
Drive a desk at work, mid ,40s half decent job. Was looking for some sort of challenge or adventure next year. Perhaps like the trans provence but perhaps with a few less honed athletes and a few more IT middle managers. 😁
Ok. So not really that bad, but wondering what multi day events there might be out there for confirmed punters
Suggestions please.
Alps Epic.
http://capepioneer.co.za/ try ostrich satés they are lovely they got me through the rainy stage in 2014, though its more likely to be hot then rainy
Bemc in Belgium. Easy to get to, great hospitality and great riding but also an excellent challenge.
One of my wife's colleagues is doing the cape pioneer at the moment, apparently it is brutal, so it'll certainly be an adventure. There are plenty of stage races in RSA, it's cheap and easy to get to, Sani2c has a lot of non-racing snakes in it.
singletrack 6 in Canada is not being run next year they're staging the Trans Rockies so that might be worth a look
Beskidy and Sudety races in Poland are great value for money, good hard riding and not difficult or expensive to get to.
I did Beskidy MTB last year.
It was very steep up, and rocky and challenging down. I was as fit as I get and was at the back of the pack every day. I would not describe it as a gentler intro stage race.
Capepioneer...... Sorry I wasn't clear. 6 days averaging 100km with 2km of ascent doesn't sound like a punters race.
Maybe I need to recalibrate my mediocrity
Looks good though.
@shred 2017? The storms really added to the experience.
I don't expect any stage race will be gentle and Beskidy is definitely approachable - it's not likely to be harder than the others mentioned. There wasn't any descents that couldn't be ridden by a competent weekend warrior and the climbs are just a matter of grinding onwards. Except for those which were hike-a-bike only. Wifey and I came in with only about 1500km in our legs (around flat south London/Surrey) for the year and got through more than ok, though obviously would have been better with more training in.
The shorter option could be a good starter.
Cape pioneer is a lot easyer then trans provence or definitely beskidy IMO Its definitely an adventure and there are two short days. Not sure of your definition of punter but the field varies from racing snakes to oom and tannies just average people looking for a challenge and not to kill themselves (the real back of the field takes almost twice a slong as the top guys enjoying the food and scenery.
I used to be a race snake but was far from that at 100kg(including the fatbike in 2014) There where for me two 5 hour days, and the short days I pushed a bit and was finished in about 3 hours each. Only the long day was 9 hours, but it rained, So I got bored and spend a lot of time a feeding zones eating and on the bike barely got the HR above 100 beats.
If it sounds too hard and africa tempts you try https://wines2whales.com only 3 days and in 4 hours each day average Joe is finished and klaar.