They’ve been to all the sites before so on arrival they know roughly where everything will go to create a village atmosphere, maximising comfort, convenience and the valuable impact for the sponsors. All the sleeping tents then get pitched and the ‘Massage Me’ team ready their beds for weary bodies. Pat observed “we have a lot of people that are very, very good and don’t require much management. They think on their feet and it’s going to be done right. They pre–empt problems rather than walking in to them.” They’re tight on time, with the keenest riders arriving back around three in the afternoon and it all needs to be ready for them “with a smiling face to greet them”. Leslie summed it up “it’s the staff that make the event happen, plus the amazing trails of course. Oh and the chefs are incredible and the food is just great”.

Gordy and Tim are the chefs in question feeding 100 mouths each day from a portable kitchen. They are up at 7am and work through until all the washing–up is done at midnight and all the kit is packed down with breakfast set for the morning. Karen and Tim, also known as Podium Catering, work alongside them are up at the crack of sparrow to serve breakfast to the first wave of riders and keep going until dinner is served. Gordy is pretty philosophical “I keep saying by the end of the week that I don’t think I could go through that again. Eighteen–hour days, non–stop, is very full–on. But we keep coming back every year as it’s a great adventure and we just love doing it. It’s very satisfying”… just like the food they serve in this movable feast, which has gained a huge number of plaudits from all who ate it and the 100 baguettes a day they get through.

There is a food stop half way through the day’s riding which was wo–maned by the ever smiling Julia. As well as making sure the racers have opportunity to replenish their supplies and get a hot drink she has a second role. She collects each of the riders timing chips at the end, which she will then hand out again the following morning. It’s a great system as they are able to get their times instantly. “It’s a privilege to see some of the world’s best racers arriving and see what times they have before they do”.

Also at the food stop and in the camp are the support team made up of three mechanics from Mavic: Alexy, Ludo and Kevin, and Paul from Mojo Suspension. The Trans–Provence is notoriously hard on bikes and it truly is a wilderness out there with no local bike shops for a few hundred miles. These guys keep everyone running as smoothly as they can.

The unseen side of the race is the media team, the ones behind the lens. For a relatively small race, there is a team of five shooting and editing photos and videos to sum up the action each day. Headed up by Matt Letch, with Sam, Michiel and Irmo out scouring the mountains for great images of the race all day (in between coffees). They work to a very tight deadline each night and Dom has to get a video out in time to be sent out accompanied by a press release to be disseminated by the world’s mountain bike media.

The immediacy of this feedback from the race is one of the things stipulated by the event’s sponsors and it is also what attracts them. Will Ockelton, first time TP racer and marketing manager of event sponsor Santa Cruz, said “Last year we were following it from California, refreshing the results sheets to see who had won. We got drawn in by all the photos and videos each day, and as bike riders that event is exactly what we want to do. At Santa Cruz we jumped at the chance to be involved”.

Ash’s dad Chris, who helps out in many ways, sums it up very well. “The reason it’s successful is Ash’s passion and that he is able to encourage others to share that passion. The unsung heroes of the race are those back at camp making the race happen. They believe in what Ash wants to do. It’s a team effort”.

Nico Lau won this year’s race by an unbelievable one–second margin over Jerome Clementz. That’s one second over six days and over two and a half hours of racing! Nico remarked, “this is my most important, most crazy race, but the spirit of the event is not so much the racing, it is more to enjoy the trail, ride the trail with fun. To race Enduro for one week, on blind trails, and to be separated by only one second, it’s too crazy”. Keeping the trails blind is something which Ash is very passionate about, he believes enduro should be on–site. To prove his commitment 14 of this year’s 24 stages were new and some of those stages earned Ash that moniker ‘Mad Man’. When I asked him about the precipitous nature of some of the trails after long days in the mountains he mused, “in terms of the exposure, it’s the nature of the trails in this area, there is less switch–backing and they just tend to traverse across the mountainside. It’s pretty mean really, but no pain, no gain. You can’t get to these places in any other way. I am quite mean, but overall hopefully people appreciate it”. That they most certainly do.