Tomorrow, the Atlas Mountain Race will start in Morocco. Over 1,350 km, riders will climb more than 25,000 m as they traverse the Atlas and Anti-Atlas Mountains on long-forgotten colonial pistes. The fastest riders will complete the course in about four days. Most riders will take eight days or more. All will create impressions and memories that’ll last a lifetime.
Together with the Tour Divide, the Mountain Races are the biggest events among bikepacking competitions. Organizer Nelson Trees has scouted amazing routes that travel the world’s most remote (and scenic) places. In addition to the Atlas Mountain Race, there is the Silk Road Mountain Race in Kyrgyzstan. Its course heads into the world’s highest mountain ranges on old Soviet military roads. The Hellenic Mountain Race takes riders on steep paths in the mountainous interior of the Greece, far from the usual tourist destinations. For the first time this year, the Taurus Mountain Race will join them, taking racers and adventurers from all over the world to Turkey.
For top bikepacking racers, winning a Mountain Race is a career goal. For the rest of us, just riding one is a dream. (I’m still dreaming.) Looking over the results, we noticed that there have been a total of 15 Mountain Races to date, and 8 of them have been won on Rene Herse Fleecer Ridge tires. That means in more than half of all Mountain Races, either the men’s or the women’s winner rode Fleecer Ridges. Of course, it’s not unusual to see our tires on the bikes of winning riders, but we still think these results are remarkable. After all, there are many companies making bikepacking tires...
Let’s look at the stories behind these numbers.
Atlas Mountain Race
Last year’s Atlas Mountain Race was won by Marei Moldenhauer. Anybody who saw her reach the finish line in Essaouira (in person or on live video) will remember the moment: Marei was overcome with emotion, and so were most who watched her.
Hellenic Mountain Race
Adrien Liechti won the inaugural Hellenic Mountain Race in 2023. As you see in the photo, late snows made this not an easy race—not that any Mountain Race is ever easy. This was the first time the mustachioed Swiss rider rode on Rene Herse tires. It was the start of a wonderful friendship. (Right now, Adrien is pushing the Poteau Mountain semi-slicks to their limits on his ‘Africa End-to-End’ adventure.)
The following year, Mascha Wahlig was first among them women and 8th overall. Mascha is one of the most remarkable racers out there. Balancing her training and racing with being a full-time doctor, she’s shown a remarkable spirit, resilience—and speed—in these races. Without a social media presence, she’s racing only for herself and her own enjoyment.
Last year, Meaghan Hackinen won the Hellenic in commanding fashion. With her typical smile, Meaghan climbed the steep cliffs and rugged goat paths, finishing in just under 4 days 7 hours. In fact, that’s faster than Adrien in 2023 (albeit with less snow).
Silk Road Mountain Race
French legend Sofiane Sehili has won more Silk Roads than any other rider. In 2021, he rode across Kyrgyzstan on Fleecer Ridge Extralights—and scored a resounding victory. He commented afterward: “Yes, you can do the Silk Road on Extralights—and even win!”
When Sofiane returned in 2022 and 2023, he chose the Endurance casing for extra peace of mind. The racing was close in both years, but Sofiane prevailed and mounted the top step of the podium again each year. To date, he’s the only rider who has won the Silk Road Mountain Race more than once.
Last year, Meaghan Hackinen continued her incredible streak of victories in the Silk Road Mountain Race—and became the first woman to complete all three Mountain Races in the same year. Right now, Meaghan is riding the Baja Divide as preparation for another ride in the Tour Divide (which she won in 2024).
That makes 8 out of 15. If you prefer to count the possible wins (30 total, since there’s men’s and women’s podiums), the Fleecers have equipped the bikes of more than a quarter of all Mountain Race winners.
That’s remarkable, especially since none of these riders have sponsorship contracts that require them to use Rene Herse tires. They could get paid to ride other tires, but they choose Fleecer Ridges. (Disclosure: We provide them with free tires and occasionally contribute to their travel expenses. We’re not trying to get free publicity from their amazing efforts…)
It’s not surprising that the Fleecer Ridges have proven so adept at winning the Mountain Races. We developed them together with Lael Wilcox—herself winner of the Silk Road Race in 2019. We asked Lael what the perfect bikepacking tire would look like. She told us she didn’t want a full-on mountain bike tire, but a true dual-purpose tire that’s super-fast not just on gravel, dirt, mud and even snow, but also on pavement. I had to be tough and fast, and grippy on all loose dirt and smooth asphalt.
Conceptually, the Fleecer—like all our-dual-purpose knobbies—starts as a slick. We ‘carve’ away rubber until only knobs remain. On pavement, the Fleecer rolls on the original slick surface, so it’s as fast as a slick and corners as well, too. That’s important since most bikepacking races include significant portions of paved roads. On rough terrain, the big knobs dig into the surface and grip tenaciously. The knobs are widely spaced, so they shed mud as they rotate. Thanks to our revolutionary noise canceling, there’s much less of the annoying buzz that you get with most knobbies on smooth surfaces. That’s nice when you’re spending more than nine days on the road, as Meaghan did during her winning run in the Silk Road Mountain Race last year.
All but one of the wins were achieved with the Endurance casing. That’s what we recommend for these races: The Endurance gives you the speed and comfort that our supple Rene Herse tires are known for and superb puncture and cut protection. What’s the secret? We use the same ultra-fine threads as in our Extralight casing, but in a denser weave for extra strength. That means we start out with an ultra-supple tire—to which we then add a high-tech protection layer. The puncture protection goes from bead to bead, all the way around the tire. It wards off cuts and punctures, but it doesn’t slow down the tire by much. Our real-road testing shows that our ‘Endurance’ rolls as fast as the more delicate ‘Race’ casings from other makers. But we’re not asking you to believe our testing: The results achieved by the Fleecers in the Mountain Races speak for themselves.
Now we’re wishing all the racers in this year’s Atlas Mountain Race fun and luck. The weather in Morocco has added to the challenge, with an exceptionally cold and snowy winter. Follow the race tracker, and also the organizer’s Instagram feed (links below), for real-time updates from the race.
Further Reading:
Photo captions: Nils Laegner (Marei; Adrien); Usmanov Danil (Sofiane in snow); Tristan Boogard (Sofiane winning); Gavin Kaps (Mascha); Meaghan Hackinen (Silk Road Mountain road)