Last call for registrations: book your place until September 15!
September comes with an incredible challenge for passionate riders, eager to push their limits to the edge at CARPATHIAN MTB EPIC! The first edition of the event, scheduled for September 21-24, 2017, is expecting more than 100 riders to arrive in the Race Village set at Cheile Gradistei – Fundata Resort, in Brasov County, for both the 4-day EPIC and 1-day Challenge race options.
Wild, Rugged, EPIC.
CARPATHIAN MTB EPIC is all about self challenge and experiencing the most EPIC tracks in the heart of the mountains. Whether you choose to take on the 4-day EPIC, with 157 km of riding and 5,750 meters of climbing, starting with the Prologue on the 21st of September, or immerse yourself in the authentic 1-day Challenge on the 24th of September, on a 45-km route, we are promising to excite you with some amazing experiences!
Dozens of top riders from France, Germany, United Kingdom, Finland, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and Republic of Moldova but also from other parts of the world, like Uganda, are waiting to take on the challenge of the 4-day EPIC. The presence of several international and national champions sets a high-level of competition for the first edition of CARPATHIAN MTB EPIC.
“My favourite ride is made of a mix of flowy and technical single track with reasonable gradients in uphill. I consider the stage races with qualitative 50 km/day as the MTB Graal. That’s why I will race the first edition of CARPATHIAN MTB EPIC!“, said very enthusiastically Frédéric Gombert, which won the title of the French XC Marathon Championship in 2016.
The female gender is well represented by some ambitious riders. Originating from Bulgaria, Aneliya Karagyozyan, the holder of the 2017 Bulgarian National XCO champion title, confessed to us that: “What helps me during my cycling activities… I think the will to evolve, to become better and to achieve more every day, to do things and develop ideas into reality. So, I was excited when I read about the race! When I saw the pictures, I was enchanted by the picturesque views and magnificent mountains. I think this will be my favourite part of the race: the sceneries!”.
Others are more focused on the journey of discovering new lands and living some incredible escapeds into the wilds.
“CARPATHIAN MTB EPIC is an incredible chance to explore a country I’ve not known for cycling – the rugged, natural, mountainous nature of the trails sound fantastic and the limited amount of tarmac road is great. What makes it so easy is the full-service nature of the event, meaning it’s easy to just turn up and ride and know that everything is taken care of. For me, the equality in the prizes are also hugely positive. From riding friends that have seen the race, it’s really appealed as it’s a destination they had never considered before”, stated Catriona Sutherland, a passionate MTB rider and guide from UK, also writer for several online and printed cycling magazines.
At the Start line a few Romanian champions like Vlad Dascalu, Lucian Logigan, Robert Dobai and Daniel Crista are also expected.
After racing the Absa Cape Epic this year, Lucian Logigan is ready for a new challenge. “I am really excited to race at the first edition of this stage race. It is a new event in Romania and the region we will explore is particularly beautiful. It will be a difficult competition from both a technical point of view and the conditions of riding at very high altitudes. Even if Africa’s stage race is considered more difficult, with higher vertical climbs and longer distances, CARPATHIAN MTB EPIC poses a greater challenge as we will be reaching higher altitudes during the 4-day race.”, appreciated Lucian Logigan, who already owns the Balkan XCO champion title and won the Romanian XCO Championship last year.
Robert Dobai, who won the title of the Romanian MTB Marathon Championship last year, thinks that the beauty of the routes worths every effort: “If a race creates intense, pleasant sensations or I can learn something about sports or myself, then it deserved the effort to be there. Also, for me… if the route is fine and I manage to get a performance that satisfies me personally, the official result counts very little in those conditions”.
“A MTB race is first and foremost a struggle with yourself, there is no peloton like in the road races and you must always be motivated. This September stage race is really special and it will certainly be an epic one with all those incredible landscapes, and I hope that more people will join us, the Elite riders, and enjoy everything this event has to offer“, believes Daniel Crista, who won the first place at the Romanian XCM Championship in 2015.
CARPATHIAN MTB EPIC is designed as a SOLO full-service MTB stage race, set at Cheile Gradistei – Fundata Resort, just at 3 hours of driving from Bucharest, the capital of Romania.
If you are determined to take the challenge at CARPATHIAN MTB EPIC – http://www.carpathianmtb.ro – than you must hurry up to register until Friday, September 15, 12:00 AM! Check the latest updates on the event’s social page (English) and on the Riders Club official Facebook page (Romanian).
Be ready to live and enjoy a unique experience!