The Mountain Races Podcast

Day two of the inaugural Taurus Mountain Race, and the field has well and truly spread out. A night of thunderstorms has left riders scraping peanut-butter mud from their tyres. Some slept on mosque verandas, in goat sheds and under concrete shelters. Others found a warm welcome from strangers, including a Syrian refugee family offering tea, dry clothes and a litter of kittens. We catch riders pushing up the hike-a-bike before CP1, chat with others as they head back out from the checkpoint, and follow them through the cedar forests and up onto the yaylas.

Riders featured in this episode:

• John Roe — Cap 161
• Tori Riemersma — Cap 159
• Justine Rondeau — Cap 162
• Blair Blackwell — Cap 15
• Gürkan Alarçin — Cap 2
• Catherine de Medici Jaffee — Cap 36
• Lucas Le Glaunec — Cap 108
• Steven Petrar — Cap 149
• Melina Boening — Cap 16
• Maarten Vanhaverbeke — Cap 203
• Leanne Bentley — Cap 11
• Maxi Unger — Cap 199
• Merlijn Sluiter — Cap 177
• Svenja Betz — Cap 13
• Rogan Martin — Cap 117
• Emma Bateup — Cap 10
• Jacob Dugdale — Cap 46

Follow the dots here.

Production & hosting by Mel Webb

Sound design by Ben Crannell

Music by Visal

Visit our website to learn more about The Mountain Races

Thanks to our race partners Albion, Pertex, Tailfin, Supernova and STYRKR.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The first Taurus Mountain Race gets a baptism of rain, with 100 millimetres forecast for the first 24 hours. In places the track has turned to thick, sticky mud. We hear from riders as they settle into the adventure ahead.

Riders featured in this episode:

• Lorenzo Carraro — Cap 22
• Daniil Sadomskij — Cap 167
• Marco Sartori — Cap 303B
• Jost Litzen — Cap 113
• Christian Dupraz — Cap 48
• Hannah Simon — Cap 175
• Josh Ibbett — Cap 82
• Steven Davis — Cap 35
• Chris Mehlman — Cap 122
• Joachim Maclean — Cap 115
• Sebastian Sarx — Cap 169
• Sean Geivett — Cap 312A
• Emma Missale — Cap 312B
• Stefan Haehnel — Cap 70
• Grzegorz Sowa — Cap 181
• Nicholas Hulse — Cap 80
• Eric House — Cap 79

Follow the dots here.

Production & hosting by Mel Webb

Sound design by Ben Crannell

Music by Visal

Visit our website to learn more about The Mountain Races

Thanks to our race partners Albion, Pertex, Tailfin, Supernova and STYRKR.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We begin our race coverage in Antalya, where the Taurus Mountains rise straight out of the Mediterranean, for registration day at the inaugural Taurus Mountain Race. Riders trickle in throughout the day outside The Beaver, a coffee shop on the beachfront boardwalk, collecting trackers and race caps while storm clouds gather over the mountains. With the route only revealed 48 hours ago and 100mm of rain in the forecast, the mood is equal parts excitement and nerves. We hear from first-timers and old friends from past Mountain Races, ahead of what will no doubt be an exciting first edition.

Riders featured in this episode:

• Stephen Fitzgerald — Cap 56
• David Hornick — Cap 77
• Jochen Böhringer — Cap 17
• Rufus Wenlock — Cap 208
• Karen Ekman — Cap 51
• Alexander Kopp — Cap 99
• Joachim Maclean — Cap 115
• Bengt Stiller — Cap 186
• Emma Bateup — Cap 10
• Paul Creusvaux — Cap 30
• Sinan Kargi — Cap 89
• Svenja Betz — Cap 13
• Katrien De Smet — Cap 37
• Chris Mehlman — Cap 122
• Sean Greene — Cap 66
• Conan Thai — Cap 194
• Jacob Hora — Cap 317A
• Jay Petervary — Cap 317B
• Claire Stevens — Cap 185

Follow the dots here.

Production & hosting by Mel Webb

Sound design by Ben Crannell

Music by Visal

Visit our website to learn more about The Mountain Races

Thanks to our race partners Albion, Pertex, Tailfin, Supernova and STYRKR.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Not long now until the start of the inaugural Taurus Mountain Race…

With the route under wraps until 11th October and little known about what lies ahead, follow our race coverage for a full taste of what’s in store.

Follow @taurusmountainrace on Instagram for daily visual updates, and subscribe to The Mountain Races Podcast wherever you listen for daily episodes from the trail.

Racing begins in Antalya at 9AM local time on Wednesday 14th October. Follow the dots here.

Production & hosting by Mel Webb

Sound design by Ben Crannell

Music by Visal

Visit our website to learn more about The Mountain Races

Thanks to our race partners Albion, Pertex, Tailfin, Supernova and STYRKR.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The clock has finally wound down. After more than fourteen days, 2,060 kilometres and 38,000 metres of climbing, the 2026 Silk Road Mountain Race comes to an end on the shores of Issyk-Kul, at the finish line at Hotel Zeto. Riders roll in sun-weathered, filthy and running on empty — five spokes gone and a wheel rebuilt in Bishkek, blistered hands from one last descent of sand and cobbles, a phone broken on day two, a mascot named Beaker who's been everywhere and never had a wash. We greet them as they arrive on the final day of racing.

Riders featured in this episode:

• Walter Mayerhofer — Cap 109
• Luke Patch — Cap 125
• Nina Holtrup — Cap 212A
• Verena Walter — Cap 212B
• Frank Soll — Cap 161
• Avri Beach — Cap 15
• Thomas Quirk — Cap 136
• Matthew Franklin — Cap 59

Production & hosting by Mel Webb

Sound design by Ben Crannell

Cover photo by Stephen Shelesky

Visit our website to learn more about The Mountain Races

Thanks to our race partners Albion, Pertex and Tailfin.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The race clock is ticking into its final twenty-four hours, and time has gone strange — seconds stretching into hours, hours vanishing in the blink of an eye. High on Ükök Pass, the media team hikes to 3,920 metres alongside riders bouldering their loaded bikes up gray scree toward a hard blue sky, some doing the climb twice to carry bikes and bags separately. Beyond it lie Kegeti, the bonus climbs of Kokorik, and finally the shores of Issyk-Kul. We hear from riders all over the map as they navigate the final days of this year's race.

Riders featured in this episode:

• Anirudh Dagar — Cap 41
• Toon Roebben — Cap 147
• Tom Baker — Cap 201A
• Adam Carlson — Cap 201B
• Andrew Poynter — Cap 134
• Paul Creusvaux — Cap 39
• Rob MacLennan — Cap 104

Follow the dots on MAProgress and follow @silkroadmountainrace on Instagram for visual updates from the trail.

Production & hosting by Mel Webb

Sound design by Ben Crannell

Cover photo by Stephen Shelesky

Visit our website to learn more about The Mountain Races

Thanks to our race partners Albion, Pertex and Tailfin.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Completing the 2,000-plus-kilometre course in nine days, 15 hours and 51 minutes, Nathalie Schneitter took the women's win and tenth overall at the 2026 Silk Road Mountain Race. She came to Kyrgyzstan with a professional pedigree few could match — a former junior world champion, elite World Cup winner, and Olympian in cross-country mountain bike — but almost no experience of racing this long or this remote. She came, in her own words, out of curiousity: to see how her body would handle the distance, the altitude and the solitude. The answer was a patient, calculated ride that came down to the final quarter, when a race-defining night high on the mountain turned a multi-hour deficit to Kerry into the lead. In this episode, Nathalie shares all about her winning ride, the delicate balance between pedalling and faffing, running out of food on the climb to Arabel, and the tight, thrilling race against Kerry.

Follow the dots on MAProgress and follow @silkroadmountainrace on Instagram for visual updates from the trail.

Production & hosting by Mel Webb

Sound design by Ben Crannell

Cover photo by Stephen Shelesky

Visit our website to learn more about The Mountain Races

Thanks to our race partners Albion, Pertex and Tailfin.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Justinas Leveika is the overall winner, and first man, of the eighth edition of the Silk Road Mountain Race, finishing in 7 days, 16 hours and 56 minutes.

In this episode, Justinas shares his winning ride: surviving on fluids and pickle juice through the brutal first days, falling into a glacier river in the dark, and the ins and outs of a race he never expected to lead.

Follow the dots on MAProgress and follow @silkroadmountainrace on Instagram for visual updates from the trail.

Production & hosting by Mel Webb

Sound design by Ben Crannell

Cover photo by Nils Laengner

Visit our website to learn more about The Mountain Races

Thanks to our race partners Albion, Pertex and Tailfin.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kegeti Pass is one of the best mountain passes in all of Kyrgyzstan. Control Car 1 spent a gorgeous sunny day, catching riders as they make their way toward the summit after the brutal hike-a-bike over Ukok the day before. What comes out, between the switchbacks, is everything at once — Kristen close to tears one minute and calling herself invincible the next, Paul laughing off a welded frame and a breakfast of sheep-butt fat, Nick finding the wire he needs wrapped around his own cassette. Two years lived in ten days, as one rider puts it: not sure whether to laugh or cry, and doing both.

Riders featured in this episode:

• Antti Laaksonen — Cap 220A
• Teemu Lemmettylä — Cap 220B
• Paul Creusvaux — Cap 39
• Kristen Tonsager — Cap 168
• Andrei Ostanin — Cap 124
• Rasmus Bozyk — Cap 202A
• Nick Perkins — Cap 126

Follow the dots on MAProgress and follow @silkroadmountainrace on Instagram for visual updates from the trail.

Production & hosting by Mel Webb

Sound design by Ben Crannell

Cover photo by Stephen Shelesky

Visit our website to learn more about The Mountain Races

Thanks to our race partners Albion, Pertex and Tailfin.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Day ten of the Silk Road Mountain Race, and at Checkpoint 3 in Tamga the clock is running down on the back of the field — the general classification cutoff closes at 4pm, and these are the last riders to get their stamps in under the wire.

Riders featured in this episode:

• Frank Soll — Cap 161
• Erika Bout — Cap 23
• Leonie Leitgeb — Cap 99
• Kristen "Kiki" Alan — Cap 5

Follow the dots on MAProgress and follow @silkroadmountainrace on Instagram for visual updates from the trail.

Production & hosting by Mel Webb

Sound design by Ben Crannell

Cover photo by Stephen Shelesky

Visit our website to learn more about The Mountain Races

Thanks to our race partners Albion, Pertex and Tailfin.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.