Peter Weiss

This race is one of the most popular ones worldwide. It has caught attention from around the world and very few people have NOT heard about this specific race – and with good reasoning. It’s located in an extremely “wife-friendly” location next to the Mediterranean sea and you get a good bang for your buck – in other words, there’s a lot of racing going on!

I have now done this race twice – first time in 2015 and my second time in 2020. First time I finished on top of the mountain in 15th and the second time, I finished 7th.

So here’s a little breakdown of the race and my experiences with it:

First of all: the area of the race. It’s a warm and beautiful place on earth, so pack your shorts, sunglasses and flip flops! The temperatures are easilly above 30 celcius during the day and while that may sound doable, when at the pool or diving in the ocean, it’ll get to you when you’re pushing your bike up mount olympus!

The airport you’ll be arriving at is Antalya and it’s roughly a one hour drive to Kemer – the hosting city of the event. I shared a taxi with a stranger (now friend!) and we arrived at Kemer where I had coincidentally booked a hotel right across the street from the paddock and my stranger/friend was in one of the bigger all inclusive hotels. I booked that specific hotel because I am not a fan of the big factory feel all inclusive hotels. I preferred to stay simple and eat try to eat different places every day/night – but the biggest advantage of my hotel was the fact that it was incredibly easy to get to my bike in the paddock. It was literally across from the paddock.

My rental bike was out of the rental-tour shop of Gökhan Hoca and it was a Husky 300.

Beach Race

First day of the competition was the classic Beach Race – a tough race where I got off to a great start but then lost my arms.

I could barely hold on towards the end but I survived to tell the story! Here’s my video from that race:

I am personally not a big fan of these Prologues but they are a vital part of almost any big hard enduro race nowadays. It’s a way for the organisers to please the sponsors, generate revenue and show the sport to the public. The best Race Concept was to let everyone practice a little bit – then let everyone do 1 mandatory hot lap and if you weren’t happy with the hot lap, you could have one more try – and the best of the two would count. The final consisted of I think 10 or 15 minutes of racing on the super fast and super technical track. The result of the race would line you up for next days race which was…

The Forest Race

The second day of the race is much more to my liking and it’s called the Forest Race. This is a fairly easy/smooth race that took me 1.5 hours to finish this race in 9th.

I really enjoyed this one and to me, this is the best race-day of them all! Here’s my video from that race:

Sky Race

The third day is called the Sky Race and was a lot of navigation and top speed. This is a new element in the race and something I think the majority enjoyed, but some said it was too fast and dangerous. I would probably agree that the speeds we rode at were quite dangerous, considering the high grass and hidden rocks. A scary race but also tons of fun.

Very quick and it took me just shy of an hour to finish the sky race in 8th:

Mountain Race

So after 3 days of qualification races, I lined up at the beach in Kemer on the first row next to the best of the best. I was initially on fire and wanted to get going but I should have taken it easier, as a rock got the better of me and before I knew it, I was on the ground bleeding from my elbow.

Anyways, I got up and rode my bike to the finish line in 7th. This is my video from the Mountain Race:

I had a fairly difficult time with my bike and towards the end I was really struggling with power. Maybe something with the TPI didn’t adjust well to the altitude – I don’t know and I never found out. But it survived to the finish line on top of the mountain Olympus and I was super excited to get 7th.

Overall

Sea2Sky is a great race for many different reasons. It’s first and foremost the only race in the world that has a scenery like this. Racing on the beach and all the way to the top of the mountain is very unique. It’s also a place where you can ride your bike in tough conditions, and few hours later, be swimming in the Mediterranean sea or zipping cocktails at the pool. Unless you destroy the bike in one of the races, there’s little to do to them and plenty of time to enjoy the area. I would love to be back there some day but for now – I will probably focus on trying as many different races as possible!