For Mountain Road Lovers!
4 fabulous ultra-endurance and bikepaking events
PYRENEES 36 PURSUIT
CATALAN PURSUIT
BASQUE PURSUIT
ULTIMATE PYRENEES PURSUIT
Do you love mountains, ultra-cycling, or adventure?
Explore your limits by discovering the most stunning mountain road network.
Ultra Bike Pursuit offers two types of ultra-cycling events.
Our 36-hour events may seem similar to a 24-hour ultra-endurance event, but they are different. We’ve designed them to provide a lot of fun and let you use your imagination to ride your perfect adventure, all that in 36 hours. We call it “Your Best 36 Hours”.
Our September ultra-Bikepacking events are unique in that they will have you discover all the best mountain climbs of the Pyrenees riding on fabulous and quiet mountain roads. You can choose to discover the Eastern Pyrenees with our Catalan Pursuit, the Western Pyrenees with our Basque Pursuit, or the entire mountain chain with the Ultimate Pyrenees Pursuit combing the Catalan and Basque Pursuits back to back.
Ultra-cycling and bikepacking events designed for mountain, travel, and adventure lovers!
The Difference!
I could claim that our September Bikepacking events are some of the world’s toughest. I could say you’ll ride the most spectacular roads on the planet. I could tell what other event organizers would, but I prefer to explain why I organized these events for you because I believe that’s what makes them unique.
It’s not a secret that the French and Spanish Pyrenees offer some of the world’s most amazing road cycling playgrounds. The Tour de France and the Vuelta have chosen these mountains to design their most epic battles for over a century, There are even other Pyrenees events to choose from, but it’s one thing to throw the most famous Tour de France climbs into an event, it’s another to discover what makes the Pyrenees so unique.
My name is Jean-Philippe. The Pyrenees is my ancestral land. After two decades of traveling, adventuring, and leading expeditions all over the world, I returned to live in my native mountains as a cycling coach, guide, and tour operator. For over sixteen years, I’ve designed custom tours and guided on every off-the-beaten-path road. I love everything about the Pyrenees, its history, culture, food, and people. I continue to lead the prestigious VéloTopo cycling tour operation. This is how I make a living. Organizing these ultra-cycling events eats into my VéloTopo guiding season, and I make significantly more profit from custom cycling tours than I will ever make from an event. I say this because I am not interested in organizing commercial events for the masses. Passion drove my entire life, and it is what inspired me to launch Ultra Bike Pursuit.
I wish to share my experience and love for the sports of ultra-cycling and bikepacking, the Pyrenees, travel, and adventure.
If you’d like to know more about my life of travel and adventure and my passion for endurance sports, I’m also an award-winning author. I invite you to visit my author’s website www.jpsoule.com to read my books and discover the photo gallery illustrating some of my jungle, mountain, ocean, and life adventures. Cyclists will particularly enjoy my most recent book “Two Wheels and a Will” that I’ve just published under the pen name Colin Hunter.
This is my promise to you about Ultra Bike Pursuit events: I design and organize these events so that I can share my passion with other passionate cyclists and adventurers. These events are all about you, and your enjoyment (even in pain). I’ll do my best for you to have the adventure of a lifetime. I love meeting people from all horizons, and I look forward to meeting you.
Where do I start?
New to Bikepacking: Regardless of your cycling abilities, if you have no bikepacking experience, I would recommend that you start with one of our "Your Best 36 Hours" events, such as our June 11-12, 2022 Pyrenees 36 event. Alternatively, our September Catalan and Basque Pursuit events each offer three distance options. I would recommend starting with our 500 km Discovery loops before venturing into the Adventure and Hardcore loops. But our 36-hour events and Discovery loops of the Catalan and Basque Pursuit events are all great options for those with little to no experience in ultra-distance and extreme bikepacking events.
Experienced Bikepackers: You’ll love the longer options on the Catalan and Basque Pursuits. The Hardcore loops are those including most climbs in the entire Pyrenees mountain chain. These will challenge even the very best and most experienced ultra-cyclists. Because of the time constraints for such crazy elevations, most may not reach the finish line. The Adventure itineraries also have you ride from the heart of the Pyrenees to the ocean or sea and back on spectacular roads, but with a more reasonable amount of climbing, which makes it the best option for most experienced bikepackers.
You’ll also love our “Your Best 36 Hours” challenges. We designed these events to provide you with the most fun in 36 hours. Although those new to ultra-cycling will find a challenge that matches their abilities, the strongest, most experienced ultra-bikepackers probably can never ride all options we’ve prepared. We don’t believe it to be possible to climb them all in 36 hours. Because it’s in June, it’s also the perfect event for you to train for other summer events or for our September Catalan and Basque Pursuits.
“Ultra endurance cycling defined and explained”
- John P. Sprock
eBook $5.99 / £: 3.99
Paperback: $16.99 / £: 12.99
A Must-Read book for all cyclists!
From the event organizer who is also an award-winning author.
Two Wheels and a Will
The motivational story of ultra-cyclists exploring their limits on the ultimate bikepacking adventure.
“Full of great information for any level of rider, well written, easy to follow.”
“I found “Two Wheels And A Will” a fantastic read, it is very well written and everything is explained so well that you don’t have to be a cyclist to enjoy this book. There’s no doubt the author knows his stuff and although what happens is bordering on the crazy, it is written with honesty and truth without over embellishment which I like.”
“As a lifetime endurance athlete, I found TWO WHEELS AND A WILL compelling and mesmerizing. Colin's passion for bikepacking jumps off the page. He writes with clarity and depth of feeling. Despite my background on the bike, I picked up nuggets about the bike that were fascinating, e.g. the impact of tire pressure, gearing. The book is both instructional and inspiring.”
