So here it is… my race report about my second Hellenic Mountain Race. I got third in 2023. An incredible success for me at the time. Returning in 2026 therefore came with a certain pressure.
I came in with high goals and expectations towards myself, and I think it's fair to spoiler all of you here: I managed to win the race. Which you can arguably call my biggest success so far.
The road to get here was long and hard. The journey towards the race was simply incredible. And that includes my prep but also the actual DRIVE to the start with Marc Büchel and his old Volvo.
Uff… there are so many things to tell and share here and I don't even know where to start and where to end. It took me nearly three months to sit down and actually write this, some of it still needs to sink in. I'll try and cover everything that comes to mind.
There was one thing that is very important to me here. Transparency and trust. Our sport builds on it and depends on it. Before the race there had been quite a few troubling stories. Courses being cut, past doping histories, organizers not properly enforcing their own rules… There was even a rider with a personal support car.
Therefore I will include quite a lot of data and insights in this article. I want to show you everything relevant to gain or maintain your trust in my (and other) performances. It's the best I can do and I hope you appreciate it.
Before we get there let's start with the bike setup.
My Cervélo ZHT-5 Monster Franken Gravel
I shared my setup before the race and it attracted quite a lot of readers. Many curious questions and funny remarks came in. A hardtail mountain bike frame with 2.25" semi slick MAXXIS Aspen and Aspen ST tires, 34x10-52t gearing, and a 38cm HB16 aero dropbar from Cervélo. Very minimal Tailfin bag setup, also minimal BBB Cycling battery light and powerbank driven design, and most prominently a custom seat clamp that got me right above my bottom bracket. Basically close to a TT position on a very highly adapted MTB.
You can read the full setup in my article here.
To make it short: my bike was the perfect compromise. Very light. Gearing to go fairly fast but still able to spin up the climbs. A lot of positions on my handlebars. Super aero position and fast rolling tires. A bit of relief through 100mm of front suspension. A lot of torque and power through the steep seat tube angle and TT position.
I obviously compromised my downhill performance, made myself depend on charging in hotels etc., couldn't carry comfort items, and so on. But for the relentless terrain I'd say I would go exactly with the same setup again!
A lot of jokes were on me for using VeloToze Aero Socks and a KASK Nirvana Aero Helmet. 24 minutes separated me from coming second over 3.5 days. I'll take the jokes and look like a total dork if it means I saved some watts and went faster!
The journey to the start
Marc and I first met in Morocco for the Atlas Mountain Race this February. He was always around me during the race, and the last night and morning we were leap frogging all the time. I had to take a power nap and he overtook me. I caught up with him, same procedure again.
In the end I overtook him again when he had to do an emergency power nap. When he rolled up to me we smashed each other up some climbs and rode hard before we agreed to roll into the finish together. It was fun and didn't feel right to sprint it out after such an intense night.
A few weeks later Marc messaged me: how about we DRIVE to Greece in his old Volvo. I sort of laughed about it. How many days would that take? The stress and time seemed too much. But I was surprised. Driving to Greece from Austria is actually quite manageable within two days. No hassle with luggage on flights, organizing travel to the start from airports, and being able to work from the road. It's a deal!
Marc came to Salzburg and we went for a ride. I showed him some of my home climbs and we endured some terrible wet and cold weather conditions. The next morning, after a last coffee from my beloved midlife crisis coffee machine, we drove towards Belgrade in Serbia. We stayed at Marc's "friend from another life," Sascha's place. I am very grateful for that experience. We didn't agree on a lot politically or economically, and our lives are very different. However, it is so rare these days that you talk to such an intelligent person in an open discussion where arguments are accepted. We could agree to disagree on a lot of things, but my view and knowledge about Serbia and its history, as well as its political position at the moment, changed thanks to Sascha. Thank you for having us!
The next day we went through Northern Macedonia all the way to Greece and the starting village of the Hellenic Mountain Race, Agios Athanasios. We underestimated the motivation of border patrol and customs at Northern Macedonia, though! Some trouble finding all the documents needed for the car and our insurance, etc. Then a very in depth control. "Do you smuggle any tobacco? No? But mushrooms? Mushrooms are cool." The customs officer smiles, I have to laugh and decline. Marc is confused, then smiles too. "Where are you going?" Greece for cycling. He wishes us a pleasant journey.
In the afternoon we arrive tired and exhausted at our hotel. Not a soul in sight, a ghost town of abandoned hotels, clearly a winter sports destination out of season. I call the number in our booking. The lady speaks no English. I receive a message with another number, her son's. Makas writes me he'll be there in 10 minutes. 20 minutes later he arrives, smiling all over his face. A huge, welcoming grin. "Hello in Greece!"
We get shown to our room. A nice and cozy room, simple but even with a fireplace. He invites us to come for dinner in his restaurant down in the new village. After walking through the village and realizing that absolutely everything was closed, we gladly jumped in the car and went down to the new town of Agios Athanasios, where we had some great Greek salad, tzatziki, and, in my case, oven baked pumpkin pasta.
The days before the race were cold and wet but sometimes also hot and humid. We scouted the first climb. What an experience! Quite some hiking through snow. Insane riding down a mountain ridge without a real path. In general I was very happy about the days before the race, where I could balance a bit of work, some riding, but also a nice, quiet stay in the village.
The race itself. A plan and my dedication to execute it.
As soon as I decided to race all four Mountain Races and tackle the "Full Nelson," I knew the Hellenic Mountain Race would be a huge focus for my 2026 season. I managed to podium the inaugural edition in 2023. I love the terrain, I love the kind of riding, and how hard the Greek Pindus mountains make you work.
I wanted to prove to myself I was good enough to go on the podium again. I'll talk about some aspects of my training, approach, and pure numbers later. However, the main things I did differently this time were extensive route planning and sleep strategy. I pre planned all my nutrition and even resupply stops in detail. And I refined my equipment, setup, and aero aspects of it to get to a maximum level of speed and efficiency.
I knew where I wanted to stop and what speed and approximate power I needed to be there according to my schedule. I had backup plans. I set an ambitious goal of finishing in 3.5 days. I validated it was achievable through various tools I had available. And it worked.
Day 1: Problem solving, keeping cool
People asked me if I was stressed at the start. I was not. I had a plan and my only focus was to execute it to the best of my abilities.
Obviously I had moments of panic. Puncturing my tire nearly catastrophically on the first descent was not on my list. I managed to fix it. For the downhill from Smolikas my setup was maybe a bit too much of a compromise. I had to accept being overtaken by Benedek Borsos just before the checkpoint. And I made a mistake here: I arrived around one hour later than planned and changed my plan to not ride to the next town for a hotel. Staying at the CP was a mistake, I had planned to push on to the next town, with the CP only as a backup. I dealt with my decision and made up for it the next night.
Day 2: Thunder and lightning
The second day I overtook nearly all the people who pushed further and slept less (or not at all). By Metsovo I was quite confident about catching the remaining three riders before CP2 and then sleeping there. That was my goal for the day.
A storm on a very high mountain pass caught me on the wrong foot. I was 15 minutes behind Abe Kaufmann. Enough to get hailed on in a biblical way and just fighting for my life to descend out of the storm and escape the heavy lightning threatening me.
I arrived at the bottom of the descent shaking in full hypothermia. I decided to deviate from my plan, instead of pushing on to CP2, I stopped in the first village before the last pass, which had been my mental backup all along. Went into the first taverna. Hot soup and tea, as quick as possible. Two people immediately came to help and get me out of my drenched clothes.
The owner told me he had a room for me and I could stay. I took the room, showered until I was warm, washed and dried all my kit, had a second dinner, and prepared breakfast and drinks for the morning. A good 4.5 hours of sleep in total.
Day 3: Never ending chase
When I woke up I felt refreshed and motivated. A technical trail made me doubt how much time I'd lose to Benedek and the other full on mountain bikers, but I rode focused and put the hammer down on the climb to CP2. I overtook a few people who had pushed further through the night, some bivvying, some riding slower. A great second breakfast at CP2 made all the difference! Thank you so much for this yoghurt, peanut butter, oatmeal, and fruit freshness!
Eljius and Benedek were still sleeping. Only Marc was in front of me. I took off at a high pace, dampened by some rocky river crossings and, obviously, a long hike a bike up the next climb. In 2023 it was a sketchy traverse across a river and a steep snow slab. This time we were able to pass it on the side. I spotted Marc on top and was fuelled. I also realized I'd created a gap to Abe, who was further down, hiking up.
The whole day I stepped on the gas. One big resupply stop, one stop for drinks and a meal. I never overtook Marc. How could he be so close and yet I never saw him? Especially with the insane heat we faced during the day, and the gap I widened to the riders behind us. Marc's tracker pinging only every hour rather than every 5 minutes didn't help my confidence. I kept riding and remembered my goal: CP3 Karpenisi was the target I'd set for myself for day 3, with the village before the last big pass as my backup if things went sideways. The CP is a hotel offering me a shower and a bed before the last push to the finish.
In the last village before the big pass to CP3, after a massive hike a bike up to the road from a stone bridge, I see Marc's bike parked outside a restaurant. I slam the brakes, run inside, and high five him. What were the odds? Us two, travelling there together, smashing it at the front of the race? I wanted to continue straight away, but the owner desperately wanted to offer me food and drinks. I went with a Greek coffee and some sweets and fruit. She didn't really want to accept any money, but I gave her what I thought it was worth with a big thank you!
I wasn't gone long and Marc rolled up next to me. He said he'd thought of staying in the village but was now motivated to chase me. CP3 it is, then. He agreed.
After a rough and long climb, Marc gave me a sting through the steep tunnel right at the end and descended first. It was starting to rain like crazy. I chased him and watched him nearly running off the road. We battled our way down, wet and cold.
At the CP it was chaos. Rooms were already taken and there was no hot shower. No food at all. Not good.
Day 4: High pace to the finish
At least I found a room that seemed clean enough to sleep in. After a cold shower I put my kit on the heater and went to sleep. After 2 hours I got up, panicking about Marc getting a gap, but also not really finding good rest in this room. My clothes were nearly dry. I was a bit rested but definitely not fresh.
When I came down to the lobby Marc was just pushing his bike out the door. Time to wake up and move quick. After a quick coffee and two pastries in a bakery I took off. Marc was struggling with the route, so I caught up and he sort of followed me.
There were a few times where Marc basically dropped me on a descent. On the next climb I could come back to him and sometimes even create a gap. Marc HAD TO use a 38t front chainring. Because why not? So on a steep concrete road through a village he had to get off while I spun it out and got a gap. I thought "maybe that's it" and pushed to stay ahead.
At a downhill not much later Marc just rolled up to me again, smiling. This repeated itself multiple times during the day. At one point I was so tired I had to take a power nap. Next switchback, I see Marc on the side of the road taking a power nap. Impossible.
When we rolled into Kastania, Marc stopped me. "Nelson sent a message. We shall wait here. There's a landslide ahead." Since when did a landslide stop Nelson, I thought…
When Nelson and the media crew showed up they showed us a video. It was an ACTIVE landslide. Definitely nothing I wanted to traverse. At a small café Nelson sat down with his laptop, planning a detour and sending the info out to other riders. We, meanwhile, had a good meal with tzatziki and, in my case, 2L of lemonade.
The reroute cost us around 1,000m of climbing and a few kilometers, the route was basically one climb shorter now. We got off lucky: we were stopped and rerouted before we could enter the slide zone, so we had no interruption to our momentum at all. Behind us, some riders were unlucky enough not to get the message in time and went through the original route anyway, Josh Ibbett among them.
Not that the shortcut felt like a gift in the moment. The lemonade really didn't go well with pushing the pedals anymore. Marc set a hard pace. He felt my weakness and made me work hard. Now the media crew was basically all around us.
When we finally rolled into Thermos, I decided I wanted one last refill for sweets and water. I went for the first supermarket and Marc went right after me. When I came out, Marc was sitting on a little stool and pointed to the one next to him. We shared an absurd meal of protein chocolate milk, ice cream, pickles, and some other things, refilled our drinking bladders with sugary drinks and our pockets with lollies, and off we went.
The decision on the final climb
Marc shot out from the resupply. I was in hot pursuit. When we entered a small climb I didn't hesitate and went straight past Marc and accelerated. I couldn't shake him.
Over the top, Marc went around me and set a slightly insane pace downhill. I knew I had to follow. I was scared of crashing or getting a fatal mechanical here, though. Towards the bottom, Marc admitted it wasn't worth risking trashing the race in the last kilometers, and that this pace was maybe not the way to go forward.
We still pushed into the last climb at a very high pace. I remember struggling up this same long, steep road during the inaugural edition. This time we flew up. The media car was around us the whole time. Stephen and Evgeni were running next to us. Marc said, "Let's make them run, they have to work for their media!" and accelerated. It was close to 400 watts for nearly a minute for me, and a hard pace even afterward. I felt a small gap forming and went deep to get more out of myself. After 3 to 4 minutes I couldn't see him anymore and settled into my normal Z2 to Z3 pace to the top, after 3.5 days of racing. I did not know I was capable of accessing that kind of power that late in a race.
Riding your Zone 2 pace alone at the end of an ultra is quite the achievement. I went over the top, through the windmills, and looked down towards the sea. I arrived perfectly at sunset. The sky was beautiful, finally there was a light breeze cooling me, and the city of Nafpaktos was just a long downhill ride on gravel and roads away.
But I couldn't ease up. I knew what Marc is capable of, and I was afraid of seeing him catch me at any point. Marc is a fast descender. I was riding the downhill fully focused. The loose gravel and wide, off camber corners made this a tricky ride, and I really didn't want to bin it in the last kilometers.
The most sketchy part was the slalom through city traffic. Losing my gap and trusting I had a sprint left was not an option. Crashing into a car or pedestrian wasn't either. I rode as hard as I could, sprinting out of every corner and past every car I safely could. I was sprinting along the coastal road towards the finish line. No looking back, I squeezed past one last car AND… shot past the finish line.
Mixed feelings at the finish
I went back for a hug from race organizer Nelson, enjoyed the cheering of the small crowd that awaited me, had pictures taken… all the glory you expect when you just won your first Mountain Race. Except the finish hotel didn't have a room (yet) for the first finisher.
Benedek Borsos was there at the finish. He had to scratch because of sickness and was now awaiting me after riding to the finish on roads. We managed to book a hotel room, which we shared, and it was a great decision. That hotel experience deserves a separate article. I loved the owner and hotel staff, and they loved us.
About 20 minutes later Marc arrived. I had mixed feelings about winning in front of him so closely. Marc turned into a close friend within such a short time. We rode together at the Atlas Mountain Race, leap frogging each other during that race, and shared a lot of amazing memories even while competing against each other. We drove an old Volvo to Greece from Austria and were about to drive back together (if he wouldn't tell me to f*$k off…).
Seeing his girlfriend Irina waiting, and knowing how hard he trains, how much he gives for the sport, you want your friend to be happy and successful. But yeah, I also wanted to win.
He arrived with a huge smile, we hugged and congratulated each other, and went for dinner. The next few days we spent a lot of time together and enjoyed some good food and rest at the beach.
The data behind winning a Mountain Race
As promised, I wanted to share some transparent data on how I trained and what I did to be able to get to this performance.
I come from a generation that got screwed because the generation before us decided to cheat. They cheated the sport of cycling, themselves, and of course, us. They scarred cycling forever. Bikepacking and unsupported ultras are such a young sport, we have to make sure those mistakes never happen here.
With ultras getting ever faster and performances breaking records nearly every race, there is surely doubt. With some stories about rule violations and even ex dopers coming into the sport, we have to act to preserve its integrity. Because there is no other validation than trust and transparency in bikepacking. So here's what actually went into this result.
Training load, in the months before the race:
- 20 to 30 hours per week, including strength and mobility work
- Roughly 1,000 to 2,000 TSS per week, averaging around 1,400 XSS
- Heavy focus on long, hard endurance rides, my usual endurance ride sits at 4 to 4.5 w/kg, well above "easy Z2"
Threshold and race output:
- 5.6 w/kg threshold going into the race
- Normalized power over the full 905km, excluding hike a bike sections: ~208w (3.4 w/kg)
- Finish time: 3.5 days
Sleep, night by night:
- Night 1 (at CP1): around 3 hours, but poor quality, interrupted repeatedly by people coming into the dormitory
- Night 2 (hypothermia stop): a good 4.5 hours
- Night 3 (chaos at CP3): 2 hours
- Total sleep across the race stayed lean by design, the plan accounted for it, the storm on night 2 didn't
Nutrition and weight
I am weighing my food all season and planning my nutrition to stay on top of my weight. Eating means power, and I believe my obsession with eating enough and the right things is a massive part of why my performance increased this much. The Athletes Foodcoach and their team have been essential in guiding me to a healthier weight and less overall damage to my body across a season of ultras.
Equipment and setup
I am trying to optimize every aspect of my setup. I am not known for the lightest setups in the bunch, but I look hard into aerodynamics, speed, gearing, ease of packing and unpacking. I obsess over the geometry of my bike and try to build the best possible setup for the specific race I'm preparing for. No brand builds a perfect bike for what we do, it can never exist, but I can take the bike I believe to be the fastest base and turn it into something I believe is the fastest possible setup for this terrain.
Route and contingency planning
For this race I preplanned my resupply stops, what and how much I'd buy at each one, where to sleep, and backup plans for when things went wrong. Concretely:
- Day 1: goal was to push to the next town past CP1. The CP itself was only meant as a fallback. I used the fallback and it cost me time.
- Day 2: goal was CP2. The storm and hypothermia forced me into the village before the last pass instead, the backup became the plan.
- Day 3: the village before the final pass to CP3 was the pre planned fallback if I couldn't make the CP itself.
It nearly went exactly to plan. Just as much as it nearly all went terribly wrong in the storm before CP2.
Ultimately, a lot of time goes into preparation for each race, work that no one sees and no one pays for. But it brings me to the finish line 99% of the time, and every time I believe I get a tiny bit faster.
Thank you to my "competitors" (aka some of my best friends). To the brands that support me and push me to try new things. To my friends and family. And to you people who endured this mega long recap and rambling about numbers and statistics. I appreciate it, really!
