{"id":189269,"date":"2022-05-06T07:01:44","date_gmt":"2022-05-06T07:01:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=189269"},"modified":"2022-05-25T09:19:48","modified_gmt":"2022-05-25T09:19:48","slug":"the-skoda-titan-desert-starts-in-two-days-what-we-know-so-far","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2022\/05\/06\/the-skoda-titan-desert-starts-in-two-days-what-we-know-so-far\/","title":{"rendered":"The \u0160koda Titan Desert Starts in Two Days: What We Know So Far?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>One of the toughest MTB bike races in the world, the six-day \u0160koda Titan Desert Morocco, kicks off on Sunday, May 8, in the heart of the Sahara Desert. The first stage, which covers 119 km, begins and ends at a camp at the foot of the Erb Chebbi, an immense expanse of sand dunes north of the small town of Merzouga.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>A total of 523 intrepid riders \u2013 456 men and 67 women \u2013 are set to test their stamina, their mettle and their mountain bikes by riding a total of 598 km, including 6,999 m of altitude gain, over rough terrain and in temperatures that can reach 40\u00b0C (104\u00b0F) during the day. This is clearly not a competition for the faint of heart. From Merzouga, the 16th edition of the Titan Desert moves on to Ksar Jdaid, Fezzou, Er Chebbi, ending on Friday the 13th in the picturesque mountain town of Maadid. Along the way, the riders will have traversed all manner of terrain, from salt flats to sand dunes to rocky trails and mountains, over steep ascents and descents, passages that challenge <a href=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2022\/05\/02\/the-definitive-guide-to-navigation-in-the-desert\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">their ability to navigate<\/a> and tracks that will test the durability of both the bike and the rider.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/CdL-7SyjXmc\/<\/p>\n<p>The race also includes a Marathon Stage, which is run over stages 2 and 3 and forces the riders to deal with the race logistics without any external help or mechanical assistance in the camp or en route. This means that the riders will have to carry whatever they need to do any repairs and to camp overnight, including sleeping bags. Access to their personal luggage is also forbidden. However, each stage in <a href=\"https:\/\/titandesert.com\/en\/\">the \u0160koda Titan Desert<\/a> will have three \u201chydration stations,\u201d no more than 40 km apart, which will offer water and, in two stations, isotonic drinks. In addition, before the start of a stage, each rider receives 3 litres of water to fill their bottles and packs.<\/p>\n<p>The first stage also contains the \u0160koda Challenge, which will take place on an uphill section. The top three riders in the Challenge receive bonus times of 90, 60 and 30 seconds, respectively, in the overall classification of the stage. Seven former \u0160koda Titan Desert general classification winners will try to rack up a repeat victory in this year\u2019s race. They include, among the men, Diego Tamayo, Josep Betal\u00fa (who has won four Titan Deserts), Sergio Mantec\u00f3n and Konny Looser. Looser, a 33-year-old Swiss national, was the winner of last year\u2019s race and must be considered among this year\u2019s favourites, along with the other former champions.<\/p>\n<p>Other riders with strong chances to take the laurels include the former WorldTour riders \u00d3scar Pujol, Sylvain Chavanel, Haimar Zubeldia and Melcior Mauri. The latter will attract a lot of attention, not only because he is a former winner of the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a (1991) but also because he is 56 years old. A tip of the hat to him for his energy and courage.<\/p>\n<p>Last year\u2019s winner of the women\u2019s competition, Ariadna R\u00f3denas of Spain, is also back and looks like the favourite. She won the 2021 Titan Desert in her first attempt, as she did the Valencia Epic Race and the XCM Spanish Open. Her main competition will come from former Titan Desert GC winners Ramona Gabriel and Anna Ram\u00edrez, as well as 2011 Canadian Road National Championship winner V\u00e9ronique Fortin and another Canadian, Lex Albrecht, who won the 2014 Tour of Murrieta.<\/p>\n<p>One thing is certain: the competition will be very hot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the toughest MTB bike races in the world, the six-day \u0160koda Titan Desert Morocco, kicks off on Sunday, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":189270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[328],"tags":[6136,6132,6340,2974,6339,6338,6135,2970],"global-categories":[3366],"class_list":["post-189269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-outdoor-mountain","tag-2022-skoda-titan-desert","tag-anna-ramirez","tag-ariadna-rodenas","tag-josep-betalu","tag-konny-looser","tag-skoda-challenge","tag-sylvain-chavanel","tag-titan-desert","global-categories-cycling"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.3 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The \u0160koda Titan Desert Starts in Two Days: What We Know So Far?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"One of the toughest MTB bike races in the world, the six-day \u0160koda Titan Desert Morocco, kicks off on Sunday, May 8, in the heart of the Sahara Desert.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2022\/05\/06\/the-skoda-titan-desert-starts-in-two-days-what-we-know-so-far\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The \u0160koda Titan Desert Starts in Two Days: What We Know So Far?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the toughest MTB bike races in the world, the six-day \u0160koda Titan Desert Morocco, kicks off on Sunday, May 8, in the heart of the Sahara Desert.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2022\/05\/06\/the-skoda-titan-desert-starts-in-two-days-what-we-know-so-far\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling\" 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