Find out more about the race at https://montenegromountainmadness.com
Find out more about Adrien Liechti at https://www.instagram.com/adrien__liechti
Produced by Ines Maria Müller
Filmed by Bombtrack, Marc Maurer, Exploro.cc, Marco Cuperlo and Alberto Spreafico
Soundtrack used with friendly permission:
Monomyth – Uncharted
Makers Mask – Resilience
Monomyth – Aquilo
Lonely Roads – Electric Pulses
Lucid Planet – Zenith
Berenice – Wake Up In The Cosmos
Ra-ul – Prima Luce
Bob Moses – Like It Or Not
Al Cisneros – Indica Field
Delrei – Dusk
Dirty Glassez – Be There
Berenice – Wake Up in the cosmos
Elek Traum – In da Desert
https://www.instagram.com/bombtrackbicycleco/
https://www.facebook.com/bombtrackbicycleco/
https://www.strava.com/clubs/bombtrack-bicycle-co-243407
https://www.komoot.de/user/bombtrack
Bombtrack Bicycle Co. is a division of WE MAKE THINGS GmbH, Cologne / Germany.
Yeah, the Montenegro Mountain Madness is a bike packing race in Montenegro. It’s only in this country. So, it’s a loop around the the country in some national park. The course is 700k and 16,000 m of elevation. It’s definitely mountain bike. You can ride it with a gravel bike, but it’s going to be painful. But for racing, the the best bike is a mountain bike. [Music] I’m Adrian Lishi. I’m a bike packing racer from Switzerland. I live on the road since three years now and um I’m racing around the world. This year I race the trans balcon race two months ago and after that I decided to come back to Montenegro to race again in this fantastic country the Montenegro mountain madness. [Music] Hello. Hi. Nice to see you. The registration was July 3rd in Pgicha in a hotel. Uh I went in the country 5 days before the start. The special attraction uh at the Montenegro mountain manness. Yeah, it’s really the is the mountain the the country the people. I met some friends again here in before the start. some old friends, some new friend, uh some friend from Instagram and yeah, it’s it’s going to be a small event with I don’t know 30 rider but yeah, I think only experience cyclist and yeah five 4 3 2 one. Good luck everybody. [Music] The start is um quite long climb on the tarmac. The temperature was already high at 9:00 in the morning. It was already 35° and as always we we started too fast to climb with with the fast rider and I I reached the top of the climb in the first position. Maybe it was a bit too fast but yeah the legs were good. [Music] The mountain in the country are the the more beautiful in in the area in the balcon. Yeah, Albania is cool too, but Montenegro is quite special. Yeah, because of the landscape. The teran is is rough. It’s hard. The people are so nice. The food is good. And um yeah, last time I came here, it was during the trans balcon. And last year I raised the the transcontinental race. It’s a road race, but uh I crossed the country with my road bike because I love I love this place. [Music] Yeah. I can destroy the the mountain here. It’s the mountain are smaller maximum. Yeah. 3,000 m. But it’s it’s super rocky. It’s rocky. Uh there is no one in the mountain. It’s harder to to find water than I don’t know the Alp. And yeah, it’s wild. It’s wild. It’s going to be hot. The sun is super strong and yet um there’s a lot of climbing. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] And I reached the first supply for me in Veruza. It’s a really small village with a few houses and um and a small shop. I stopped there and our resupply in in liquid uh temperature was already 40°. I stopped a few minutes to resupply and then um I kept going to go in the next valley. [Music] The rest of the climb um was unravel quite steep but beautiful. The scenery was so beautiful. [Music] I reach it pass in first position at the top. I found some liquid uh resupply in um in a shop. The first half of the route, it’s easy to find water. Even in the forest, I found some fountain, some source, some water source, and a lot of shops. Yeah, you can find a shop in every village. The second half is more challenging, but yeah, if you ride fast, it’s okay. It’s okay. So, you don’t need to bring like six liter of water. I had 4 liter of capacity and it was it was really enough. And for the food, it was okay. And yeah, the problem was the temperature. [Music] [Music] I started the the night in second position. The night ride was quite easy. Temperature super high. Uh yeah. Yeah. Almost 30° at night. And um yeah. Um, I cycle solo um until Zablak, the last resupply before the the der park where I catched again Marcus and um we started almost together toward the der park. [Music] I decided to do a small short nap in the numetor park as I was exhausted because of the the heat. So I slept 45 minutes in a small hut. [Music] Then um in the morning I reached the the gorge uh after the border in the der park [Music] in the center of the der park. I entered um the piv gorge. So the climb was good. It’s not too steep. The moon is me through the stars. Baby, I came in Montenegro for the fifth time in in one year to especially to to ride this part because it’s it’s a stunning place with a huge canyon, water at the bottom and a lot of tunnel and the famous bridge in the middle. [Music] [Music] need to stay awake. I So in P I hit the the famous Trans Balcon and Montenegro Mountain Madness hiker bike. Yeah, it’s a 25% gradient gravel road. It’s not ridable only maybe with a motor bike. So I hiked this for the second time in one month and uh reach at the top and yeah that’s it. [Music] You feel it too. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] After the icab bike, I reached the the tarmac again and started to climb the sedlo pass. Uh it’s a tarmac pass with some beautiful view and I reached the top at 1,900 m. Uh before that I just stop in a shop to to buy some coke and some drink. Yeah, I choose to ride a light bike for this event. So, I bring my Bong track scale aluminum 2024, the purple one with some light wheels and suspension fork. The the bike is a trail bike packing bike. Yeah, the temperature it was super hot, like 40 plus degrees during the days and not less than 20, 15° at night. So I took almost nothing with me, only a rain jacket, a puff jacket and uh and emergency blanket for for for sleeping a bit at night. So yeah, it was quite light setup and I yeah, I handled the the ride. It’s it’s different to ride a a light bike than a full loaded bike. [Applause] Heat. Heat. But it’s hard. Super hard. [Music] After the climb of the Ted Pass, I started the downhill towards Dablak, but I didn’t enter to the town and I stay on the route. I found a small fountain in a field. So I resupply because the the stretch after that was without water in one of the most remote parts of the race [Music] to finish the route. It’s yeah 700k 16,000 m of elevation. It’s definitely mountain bike. So if you race it without stepping, it’s 1 and 1/2 days more or less. One and a half two days. It was my goal to do it in 42 hours. It’s Yeah, it’s quite doable. But yeah, you have to ride without stepping. It’s really mountain bike. The the teran is rough. It’s half of the route is is offro, but not half of the time. is more I think 70 80% of the time off road and it’s quite rough rocky it’s not gravel it’s really mountain bike [Music] When the You got me fall through the stars. Baby, I’m fall. I cry [Music] like [Music] I stopped few hour in Kalashin to to recover from the heat. I was exhausted at the time of the race. So I started again my ride around midnight and it was perfect. The temperature was cool like 20° and I reached the top without too many difficulties. [Music] [Music] [Music] I reached Nick at the end of my second night. At this time of the race, I was third and the rider behind me was quite far. So I decided to stop longer in this time to to resupply properly. So I stopped in a bakery and order a lot of food and a lot of drink to uh to be able to to finish this place. [Music] Before the finish, we had to ride in the Jabik area. So it’s tarmac. It’s a small road. uh with some small trees. I struggled a lot to to move in this place. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] At the end of this stretch, uh, I came across a couple of house in the middle of the forest, some construction machine And yeah, a big dog. One of those weird balcon places. [Music] Yeah, the last 10k of the race. It’s uh yeah, the easiest part. So, it’s a long downhill with a lot of switchback uh with the view on the Cotto Bay and yeah, in my opinion, it’s the nicest finish for a backpacking race because you have your friend friend down there and yeah, the sea and yeah, a lot of food. [Music] Marto Marto. [Music] The downing was yeah, spectacular. Same as the Trans Balkcon race uh with a lot of sun, the view on the sea, and yeah, you know, it’s the last downhill. There is nothing after that. So you can just chill at the finish line. [Music]