CARLOS MAZÓN AT ATLAS MOUNTAIN RACE
Presented by Transiberica.cc
Photo by Saltlake Lian
On February 15 the ultra-cycling Atlas Mountain Race was held, where our colleague Carlos Mazón covered the 1145km with 20,000m on a very tough course full of stone and “mule” tracks.
The challenge began from Marrakech where riders had to cross three checkpoints before finally heading to the finish line near Agadir, in Sidi Rabat; a pretty town on the Atlantic coast.
Carlos Mazón, still unable to accomplish his objective and make podium, is happy with the result, as the characteristics of the terrain were not the most suitable for his bike; a 3T Exploro with 650B. The extremely stony tracks and descents of this course are more suitable for a mountain bike rather than a gravel bike.
Photo by Nils Laengner
Photo by Nils Laengner
The extremely hard and broken terrain caused him to lose a lot of time compared to his competitors, and even though he was able to recover time in the paved areas, it was not enough to remain in the first positions where he had previously been.
Another factor to take into account was the scarcity of places available for alimentation. This meant that rationing had to be extremely thorough as well as the calculation of distances and efforts.
There were times when he could have squeezed more but he knew he could put himself in danger of starvation and find himself in the middle of the desert without reserves of any kind. He lost a total of 5kg over 4 and a half days of testing.
Much of the strategy in this type of hard races is based on calculating hours of rest. Our colleague was rolling uninterruptedly the first night, while the second night he stopped to sleep approximately 3 to 4 hours. The third night he slept about an hour.
Photo by Saltlake Lian
Photo by Saltlake Lian
Still, Carlos Mazón really enjoyed the spectacular terrain offered by this race.
After 79h on the move (as his Strava account indicates), not to mention the 12h spent walking, he ended up coming in seventh.
After the world break for COVID19, we remind you of the new dates planned for the ultra cycling races where IXCOR will be present in collaboration with Transiberica.cc:
- Transpyrenees (August 23th)
- Badlands (September 6th)
More info is available on the Transiberica website.