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 161Tori Riemersma — Cap 159Justine Rondeau — Cap 162Blair Blackwell — Cap 15Gürkan Alarçin — Cap 2Catherine de Medici Jaffee — Cap 36Lucas Le Glaunec — Cap 108Steven Petrar — Cap 149Melina Boening — Cap 16Maarten Vanhaverbeke — Cap 203Leanne Bentley — Cap 11Maxi Unger — Cap 199Merlijn Sluiter — Cap 177Svenja Betz — Cap 13Rogan Martin — Cap 117Emma Bateup — Cap 10Jacob Dugdale — Cap 46Follow the dots here.Production & hosting by Mel WebbSound design by Ben CrannellMusic by Visal Visit our website to learn more about The Mountain RacesThanks 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 22Daniil Sadomskij — Cap 167Marco Sartori — Cap 303BJost Litzen — Cap 113Christian Dupraz — Cap 48Hannah Simon — Cap 175Josh Ibbett — Cap 82Steven Davis — Cap 35Chris Mehlman — Cap 122Joachim Maclean — Cap 115Sebastian Sarx — Cap 169Sean Geivett — Cap 312AEmma Missale — Cap 312BStefan Haehnel — Cap 70Grzegorz Sowa — Cap 181Nicholas Hulse — Cap 80Eric House — Cap 79Follow the dots here.Production & hosting by Mel WebbSound design by Ben CrannellMusic by Visal Visit our website to learn more about The Mountain RacesThanks 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 56David Hornick — Cap 77Jochen Böhringer — Cap 17Rufus Wenlock — Cap 208Karen Ekman — Cap 51Alexander Kopp — Cap 99Joachim Maclean — Cap 115Bengt Stiller — Cap 186Emma Bateup — Cap 10Paul Creusvaux — Cap 30Sinan Kargi — Cap 89Svenja Betz — Cap 13Katrien De Smet — Cap 37Chris Mehlman — Cap 122Sean Greene — Cap 66Conan Thai — Cap 194Jacob Hora — Cap 317AJay Petervary — Cap 317BClaire Stevens — Cap 185Follow the dots here.Production & hosting by Mel WebbSound design by Ben CrannellMusic by Visal Visit our website to learn more about The Mountain RacesThanks 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 WebbSound design by Ben CrannellMusic by Visal Visit our website to learn more about The Mountain RacesThanks 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 109Luke Patch — Cap 125Nina Holtrup — Cap 212AVerena Walter — Cap 212BFrank Soll — Cap 161Avri Beach — Cap 15Thomas Quirk — Cap 136Matthew Franklin — Cap 59Production & hosting by Mel WebbSound design by Ben CrannellCover photo by Stephen SheleskyVisit our website to learn more about The Mountain RacesThanks 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 41Toon Roebben — Cap 147Tom Baker — Cap 201AAdam Carlson — Cap 201BAndrew Poynter — Cap 134Paul Creusvaux — Cap 39Rob MacLennan — Cap 104Follow the dots on MAProgress and follow @silkroadmountainrace on Instagram for visual updates from the trail.Production & hosting by Mel WebbSound design by Ben CrannellCover photo by Stephen SheleskyVisit our website to learn more about The Mountain RacesThanks 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 WebbSound design by Ben CrannellCover photo by Stephen SheleskyVisit our website to learn more about The Mountain RacesThanks 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 WebbSound design by Ben CrannellCover photo by Nils LaengnerVisit our website to learn more about The Mountain RacesThanks 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 220ATeemu Lemmettylä — Cap 220BPaul Creusvaux — Cap 39Kristen Tonsager — Cap 168Andrei Ostanin — Cap 124Rasmus Bozyk — Cap 202ANick Perkins — Cap 126Follow the dots on MAProgress and follow @silkroadmountainrace on Instagram for visual updates from the trail.Production & hosting by Mel WebbSound design by Ben CrannellCover photo by Stephen SheleskyVisit our website to learn more about The Mountain RacesThanks 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 161Erika Bout — Cap 23Leonie Leitgeb — Cap 99Kristen "Kiki" Alan — Cap 5Follow the dots on MAProgress and follow @silkroadmountainrace on Instagram for visual updates from the trail.Production & hosting by Mel WebbSound design by Ben CrannellCover photo by Stephen SheleskyVisit our website to learn more about The Mountain RacesThanks to our race partners Albion, Pertex and Tailfin. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.