Brit Racers Tame the Transalp

Rob / 01.08.2002

Adventure racers Ben Bardsley, Helen Jackson and Steve Duffy were among the Brits competing in the recent Transalp Challenge, a 580km mountain bike stage race which saw the teams ride from Germany to Italy, via Austria and Switzerland, with the small matter of 19,708 vertical metres of climbing thrown in for good measure.

Ben, of Team Parrot and Saab Salomon fame, led the British charge along with partner Rob Jebb. Despite the upper echelons of the field being filled with Olympians and world class MTB’ers, the boys finished 17th out of 247 teams in the male category. A fantastic performance.

Ben\'s Salomon team-mate Helen Jackson was in awesome form, lying in 7th place in the mixed category on 6th day when disaster struck: an overtaking male team took Jackson and partner Matt Carr out. She crashed against a wall and sustained a broken collarbone. Despite this, the pair continued to the end of the stage some 40kms later, before withdrawing next day. (Sadly, Helen now misses out on a trip to the next international x-adventure race with Team Saab Salomon at Lake Tahoe in the USA. Nicky Davies will take her place.)

Duffy and partner Norman Morrison also had their share of mishaps, with Morrison suffering from acute dehydration on the first two days which nearly caused his withdrawal from the race. They continued tough and - despite Morrison flying off a cliff and down a 30ft ravine on day 5 - improved steadily to finish in 171st position.