The 13th annual TransAlp mountain bike stage race will open registration on December 6 for up to 550 teams of two to race from July 17 to July 24, 2010. The race, which crosses the Alpine divide, will kick off in Füssen, as it did in 2008, and it will stop in Austria's Imst and Ischgl before crossing the boarder to Switzerland where it will visit Scuol.
From there, the route leads to Livigno in Italy. The next two stages to Ponte di Legno and further on to Male, a stage town from 2002 and 2006, are brand new as Ponte di Legno celebrates its debut as TransAlp host.
Finally, the mountain bikers will travel from Madonna di Campiglio to Riva del Garda. The traditional final stage town will welcome participants for the 11th time in 2010. By crossing the finish line at Lake Garda, all finishers will have pedalled more than 598 kilometres and climbed about 19,685 metres in altitude.
Participants will start in teams of two split into five categories: men, women, mixed, masters (men with a combined age of over 80) and grand masters (men with a combined age of over 100).
Sue George is an editor at Cyclingnews. She coordinates all of the site's mountain bike race coverage and assists with the road, 'cross and track coverage.
