Alta Via Stage Race is much more than just an mtb stage race. It’s an adventure, an experience, a chance to really live your sport and be close to nature, the landscapes and the history of one of the most beautiful parts of the Mediterranean: the Ligurian coast and hills. It is an international event which, starting from the second edition in 2013, has attracted athletes from many European countries and from different continents.
The 2024 edition returns to focus on Western Liguria, between the Province of Genua and that of Imperia, on the border with France. Eight days, seven stages, approximately 450 km in lenght and 16.000 meters of elevation gane, to be covered largely along the fascinating itinerary of the Alta Via dei Monti Liguri.
The format is that of the RALLY, successfully tested in the previous edition: each stage of Alta Via Stage Race includes two or more off-road timed sections (special stages), which determine the rankings, and some transfer sections.
On Saturday 8 June, in the late afternoon, there will be the now traditional prologue, to warm up muscles and enthusiasm! The prologue is a stage like any other: the travel time is added to the overall race time and determines the reverse starting order of the first stage.
The stage start is usually individual, with an interval of 30 seconds between one athlete and another.
The minimum age to participate is 19 years old by 7 June 2024, while the maximum age is established at the age of 70.
You can choose between two registration modes - SOLO or COUPLE - and two participation formulas: HERO or WEEKEND. Both formulas include an overnight stay in a tent inside the stage village set up by the staff. The tents are individual and are provided by the Organization.
Alta Via Stage Race 2024 is included in the calendar of the Sports Promotion Body CSAIn - Centri Sportivi Aziendali e Industriali.
Route
Given the adventurous nature of the event, the race route is not signposted. Only the crucial points and the most difficult crossroads of each stage are highlighted with colored strips or arrows (promptly removed from the motorbikes closing the race).
To orient themselves, the competitors have at their disposal the materials provided by the Organization: GPX tracks equipped with waypoints (corresponding to the points of attention) and altimetric profiles. The GPX track is the essential guide tool: every Solo and every Couple must be equipped with a cartographic GPS and be able to use it competently.
Formulas and categories
Alta Via Stage Race 2024 allows you to choose between two different participation formulas, which meet different expectations and needs: HERO (7 stages) and WEEKEND (3 stages).
Admitted categories: Open 19-34 / Open 35-49 / Open >50
Absolute rankings: Solo Men / Solo Women / Couples
There are also category rankings, based on gender and age.
Services
Alta Via Stage Race is a full service race: the Organization takes care of every aspect of the event, whatever formula has been chosen. Participants have no other thought than to take care of their body and run giving the best of themselves.
Meals and overnight stay, mechanical and medical assistance, transport of bags and assembly of tents: every day the Race Direction follows the competitors and ensures the correct course of the stage, while the logistics staff reaches the location of the next stage and takes care of setting up the village.
In the evening, after spending the day on the saddle, the riders find the welcome they need to recover their energy: welcome refreshments with local products, the tent set up with the bags already placed inside, the hot shower, the possibility of recharging mobile phones and GPS, the evening meal, the briefing with the race direction to study the stage of the following day, musical entertainment.
Just a few kilometres from the famous Ligurian Riviera with its beaches and picturesque seaside villages, there are wild mountains, rich in woodland, meadows and fastrunning rivers. This evocative hill scenery has its own ancient rural traditions and is criss-crossed with thousands of kilometres of paths and mule tracks.
The Alta Via dei Monti Liguri (AVML) is a hiking trail which takes you along the length of the Ligurian mountains in 43 stages. It follows the Appenines and the Ligurian Alps, with the plains of Lombardia to one side and the sea on the other. The Alta Via provides a spectacular mountain outlook towards the sea.
Just a few kilometres from the famous Ligurian Riviera with its beaches and picturesque seaside villages, there are wild mountains, rich in woodland, meadows and fastrunning rivers. This evocative hill scenery has its own ancient rural traditions and is criss-crossed with thousands of kilometres of paths and mule tracks.
The Alta Via is mainly used by hillwalkers, but mountain bikers often use its pathways which are ideally suited to their sport. Some of the stages can be easily ridden for their whole length, in other stages the paths may be harder to navigate and then riders must deviate from the Alta Via, using the connecting paths between the coast and the high hills.
These interesting conditions gave us in 2011 the ambitious idea of holding a mountain bike competition along the Alta Via dei Monti Liguri: Alta Via Stage Race, a spectacular, unique and unforgettable race path, which will become a permanent cycle route which can be used by everyone who loves riding on two wheels.