By: Chris Lesser
Photos: Courtesy Trans-Provence
Video: Rob Hamillton-Smith
Ash Smith has never been much of a fan of big, elaborately staged, mass attendance mountain bike races. Instead, as the owner of trailAddiction, a mountain bike guiding company based out of Les Arcs, France, Smith makes a living taking small groups of riders into the Alps, showing them the kind of riding experience that he is a fan of—epic all-day adventures across stunning terrain, following singletrack as much as possible.
“I don’t have any experience organizing mountain biking events…. I haven’t even participated many, either,” says Smith. But that didn’t stop him from dreaming up a seven-day, point-to-point stage race across the Maritime Alps the likes of which hasn’t quite been done before. In total, says Smith, the Trans-Provence boasts more singletrack descending than any other seven-day race in existence.
The Trans-Provence takes riders on a seven-day crossing of the Maritime Alps
