TARNo2 // Pre-Race: Another Way
May 11, 2025
Words by Andrew Phillips
Photos by Matt Grayson and Sam Dugon
The anachronistic whamp whamp whamp of helicopter blades cut through the otherwise tranquil Albanian afternoon. We (the Lost Dot team) had assembled a couple of days ahead of The Accursed Race to celebrate another festival of cycling: the Giro D’Italia as it started with three stages in Albania to mark a century since the inception of the Turi Çiklistik i Shqipërisë (Tour of Albania).
A full five minutes before the first riders, the head of the motorcade had started to pass. Eventually the breakaway and then the peloton cruised by, whilst below us the rest of the circus snaked across the switchbacks of the hillside like giant serpentine vertebrae, until the tail flicked past a hundred or so vehicles later.
The power of a grand tour passing you by is an exhilarating experience, and anything that celebrates the power of the bicycle is surely a good thing, but it was hard not to feel jarred by the contrast between what we try and achieve with The Accursed Race, and the excesses of the Giro.
As with all Lost Dot races, The Accursed is first and foremost a race. But it is also a project, a statement, and an aspiration to show how powerful the bicycle can be as a tool for positive and sustainable development. Ultra-racing teaches people their own strength and capacity, enabling them to take these lessons into their everyday lives, but this cannot come at any cost. The very landscapes we treasure as we ride through them are at threat from the effects of the greenhouse gases we generate as we travel to these races.
There is another way though, and The Accursed vividly illustrates the rich beauty of slow, low-carbon travel. 36-48 hours will get you from the UK to our startline in Shkodër (Albania), and there’s no fear of traveling so fast that your soul gets left behind. Each train allows you to sit and watch the landscapes change as you rumble along the Rhine and awake in the Alps, gradually edging closer to The Accursed Mountains. Each country you pass through is a new study in language, culture, and train punctuality. A chance to eat pierogi in Poland, munch bretzeln in Munich, and consume Kajzeršmarn in Zagreb.
This year around 40 riders make the modest odyssey to Shkodër, Albania’s Amsterdam, and though they may be small in number, they are large in reputation. Last year’s Tour Divide winner Justinas Leveika will no doubt be looking for the win as he embarks on his first of a rumoured triple of Lost Dot races this season, but he may find stiff competition in the form of Marin de Saint-Exupéry who is also starting his first of three, and Christophe Dijkmans, winner of last year’s Hellenic Mountain Race. Returning riders Andrew Hatton and Florian Büchele look to finish the job after DNFs last year, and veteran TCRNo3 racer Alain Rumpf returns after a 10 year hiatus.
Relatively few women have joined the startlist this year, with Jackie Prosser as the sole solo woman, and pair Annie Dunlap and Hannah Vet make up the rest of the field. Annie, fresh off a 2024 Silk Road Mountain Race finish, emailed the Lost Dot inbox earlier this week with one question: I am planning a singlespeed ride, but I wanted to make sure this is permitted?
The answer was swift and concise: We're fine with it so long as your legs are!
The route this year is functionally the same as last year’s, with a few tiny tweaks to smooth the experience. Starting in Shkodër, the route climbs immediately into the heart of the Accursed Mountains, before descending into the Theth valley, climbing back out again, then crossing the border into Montenegro. From there, it’s a loop around the Karstic landscapes of Bosnia, the wilderness of Sutjeska, the highlands of Durmitor, and the forested katun roads of Montenegro, before transiting Kosovo and reentering Albania. The small matter of the Lurë-Dejë, Mali me Gropa-Bizë-Martanesh, and the Dajti National Parks separate riders from the finish. A whirlwind of turquoise rivers, bare crags, and thickly forested slopes, occasionally interspersed with a burektore for sustenance or an ice cold spring for refreshment.
This race is long, one of the longest off-road races in Europe, and the winner won’t just be the rider who can put down the most watts. This race is attritional, a race where the weather can change as quickly as the landscape, and sustaining and maintaining an effort for ~6 days is what it will take to win.
As with last year, the race media teams will be keeping a low-profile, unseen on the offroad segments of the course, and keeping contact with riders limited even on tarmac and in civilisation. The race is about remoteness, it’s about self-support, and autonomy, empowering riders to explore the boundary of wilderness and development, a theme which dominates development in the Balkans in 2025.
Bonne chance to all (particularly Annie)!