From July 16th until 23rd, 2011, the 14th edition of the world’s most famous and one of the most toughest mountain bike stage races, the CRAFT BIKE TRANSALP powered by NISSAN, will take place. 550 teams of two are keen to tackle more than 670km with over 21,000 metres in altitude.

Shpend and James are competing amongst both amateurs and International Pro riders as Team Brookes Bamboo. In total they have about 20 alpine saddles to complete on their way from Mittenwald in Germany to the traditional finish town of Riva del Garda in Italy. On their way they will have to complete 8 stages, each finishing at Weerberg, Mayrhofen, Brixen, St Vigil, Alleghe, San Martino di Castrozza and Trento.

One of the main reasons for undertaking this particular event is to evaluate the bamboo frame’s performance and durability, so addressing consumer concerns highlighted in a market research survey carried out in 2010. The bamboo frame project recently reached a major milestone by successfully passing stringent European testing standards for mountain bikes (BS EN 14766) at a third party product testing centre.