Days after setting out from Biarritz on Friday 4th October, its opulent casinos, the sweeping cliffs, late-season surf dudes and elegant cafés will be just a blur for the first riders who return at the end of the very first Trans Pyrenees self-supported ultra distance bike race. Instead, the luxurious start/finish location will become a scene of crumpled cyclists and dusty bikes, of broad grins of elation crossed with exhaustion, and immense pride tinged with relief.

We are the proud main sponsors of the inaugural Trans Pyrenees Race: a 1500km test across some of Europe’s most beautiful yet brutal climbs. There will be thousands of meters of climbing and, like the more established Transcontinental Race – this summer’s seventh edition won sensationally by debutant Fiona Kolbinger – it’s a mixture of control points, some control parcours sections and the rest being whatever routes the riders choose to take though the most spectacular and remote scenery in the Pyrenees.

The event is produced by Lost Dot, the team behind the Transcontinental Race, and based on a plan devised by the late Mike Hall. The familiar rules apply: with no external assistance allowed, the challenge of the riding itself is magnified by other demands including navigation, carrying kit, bike maintenance, lack of sleep, fueling, weather and more.

There are 109 solo riders from right across Europe due to depart on Friday 4th, along with 14 set to ride in pairs from the Bay of Biscay on the west coast of France to the tip of the Cap de Creus peninsula in the Balearic Sea – on the Spanish side of the border, as much of the route will be – and back again. The fastest could finish in a long weekend, and the event stays open until Friday 11th October.

All of them, just as Kolbinger and the other riders did in the Transcontinental Race, will have their brevet cards stamped at the control points which include the Spanish Pyrenean town of Ansó, on the Veral river; the Port de Cabús mountain pass on the Spain-Andorra border; and the Catalonian Cap de Creus headland. The return route is via the unforgiving cols: d’Aubisque, the Tourmalet and d’Aspin, following the route of the famous Le Raid Pyrénéen Randonneur.

We’ll follow the riders’ progress via their GPS trackers and look forward to hearing about their adventures back in Biarritz.

Photographs: Camille McMillan, Jonathan Hines