The Jeantex Tour Transalp crosses the Alps in seven days. More than 550 teams of two riders started the race over of 550 miles and 23 alpine passes in Oberammergau, South Germany. The Tour crosses through Austria and finishes after seven stages at the shores of the Lake Garda (Italy).

In general, the roads were closed to traffic for the race for one hour after leading team, but marshalls do their best to stop traffic for slower riders. At the back of the peloton are several service cars and an ambulance for emergencies, marshalls and medical staff on motor bikes make the race as safe as possible.

Zur Vergrößerung Bilder einzeln anklicken !!!!!!!!!!!!!

At the Tour Transalp, you get the chance to live the life of a pro for a week. At 7.00am in the morning, staff are picking up your personal belongings at your hotel and transfering them to your hotel in the town were the stage finishes. Every morning at 9.00am the race started, throughout which the technical and medical service was always happy to look at your bike or body for all the small things that go/went wrong while racing.
After crossing the finish line, the riders were helping themselves to food and drink, then went to the hotel for a shower and some rest. At 6.00pm in the evening, there was a pasta party for the carb loading, and afterwards some beer to fight dehydration.

Every night, a news bulletin called 'gazetta' was published, with the stage results and some interesting information about the teams and the race.

Back to the race, on stage one, the peleton set off as if on fire. I did 'hit the wall' with 40 km to go. (If you don't manage an average of 30km/h in the Peak district, you'll not manage it in the Alps- lesson learnt) On stage two, an exploding front tyre sent me crashing and on stage three, the same happened to my team mate and we lost an hour waiting for the service car. (That are my excuses for finishing 300th out of 500 teams). Stages four, five and six were good racing and we had lots of fun, on stage seven we celebrated our achievment and took it easy. (Even stopping for a beer in between).

An very enjoyable event, very well organised and worth every penny. Information about the race can be found at: http://www.tourtransalp.de/englisch/index.asp

(I did start for a German team, called: Freunde der Roehrborngasse, Team L)