Big question and I anticipate good debate.
Some rules:
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You need to say way. Is it the people, the terrain, the course, the organisation?
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It has to be one that anyone can enter. I love watching Hardline etc. but we ain’t getting places kids and it’s not really a race right.
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If you want to nominate different races in different places then please do.
If I get enough meaningful responses I might run a “World Cup” series of posts with votes to really decide the ultimate winner.
I’ll kick things off with a couple of pictures from the 4Islands race in Croatia. Let’s call it a Europe entry.
Why 4Islands:
- Great organisation (it’s the same people who run Cape Epic and IronMan so you expect that)
- Fab location (a bit of Croatia you’d probably never get to otherwise).
- Great course, admittedly one for the XC riders but some fun rough stuff to keep it interesting.
- Good spread of riders, it’s a UCI cat race and used for qualifying point for stuff like Olympics, but amateurs can ride it, so you get to pit yourself against some of the best in the world (and realise who big the gap between them and you is).
- It’s early in the season (April) so for those of us from Northern Europe it’s a welcome relief from riding in slop.
by Slow_Apricot8670
6 Comments
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For me the best is Raid des Hautes Fagnes in Belgium. It’s close to me, anyone can enter, it’s only one day and you have a choice of distances to ride. The course is very technical, but it’s in Belgium so the climbs are not as long, but really brutal (max elevation 700m). I have no idea about the organisation, it went smooth every time I went (I done this race 4 times now). The start is in waves to minimize the risk of congestion, but if you start in the later waves, you’ll still have that on sections, especially on the downs as all kinds of people enter that are not used to the technical terrain.
BC Bike Race.
7 day sample-pack of some of the worlds absolute best trails from Cumberland, Sunshine coast, Squamish, Whistler etc.
Without a local guide and a support staff it would be nearly impossible to ride as much top shelf terrain in a week as is provided in this event.
Organized and run very well. Sooo much fun.
I raced a lot in western Canada, got 35 stages under my belt. The Trans Rockies group manages the Trans Rockies, The Singletrack Six and a Moab 3 day. BCBike Race are different group in Vancouver. Different terrain but good management either way.
Nice! We did 4Islands 2023, did Swiss 2024 and will be doing Andorra this year for our triple!
I have just raced 4-Stage Lanzarote last weekend and am looking at BCBR 2026… loving them all 💪🏻
I did the Megavalanche last year and had the best time.
All week practice down a beautiful course and full on mass mayhem on race day.
Don’t have anything to compare it to (as races go), but it was one of the most fun trips I’ve had in my life.