Race Across Italy: Christoph Strasser European Champion for the first time

Covering extreme distances without outside help is the biggest trend in ultracycling. For a long time, a support vehicle and crew were the basic prerequisite for a good placing in the big European races. The Race Across Italy reflects this trend: for the first time, the World Ultra Cycling Association will award the European champion title in the unsupported category. Styrian Christoph Strasser was crowned European champion for the first time at the Race Across Italy. The six-time winner of the Race Across America also outdistanced all individual riders and teams with support in the Unsupported category!

The starting signal for the Race Across Italy (RAI), which was also held as the European Ultra Cycling Championships for the first time, was given at 22:00 on Friday. Having already won this classic three times, Christoph Strasser competed in the unsupported classification without a support team for the first time in 2024. And he achieved something quite rare: a rider without a support team won the overall classification. "I would never have dared to dream of that. Before the start, I was curious to see how far away I was from the best riders with a support team. The fact that I've now won the overall classification, even ahead of all the teams, is amazing," said a delighted Christoph at the finish.

Christoph Strasser with 230 watts over 775 kilometres

The start and finish of the Race Across Italy were on the east coast in Silvi. The route led over 775 kilometres and 10,500 metres in altitude across the Apennines to the west coast and back again. The riders had to head for three checkpoints. With a riding time of 27:43:53 hours, Strasser was only two hours behind his winning time from the previous year, when he was still supported by his support crew. Strasser rode through both nights and, apart from short breaks at the checkpoints, he rode continuously. "Except for one puncture when I had to change my tyre. And once I stood in front of closed doors in a small village when I wanted to buy something to eat. Otherwise, everything went really well and I organised the race perfectly," says the rider from Kraubath. "I cycled really fast for three quarters of the route and only slowed down a bit after 16 hours. My average wattage was 230."

Christoph Strasser has now added the European Championship title in the Unsupported class to his long list of successes. "But I'm even prouder that I was able to win the overall RAI classification. That's quite unique. Even though the long-time overall leader Daniel Steinhauser from Germany had to retire from the race on the last day due to damage to the support car. But as you can see, something can always happen in ultra-cycling races, even to riders with a support crew."

Christoph Strasser won the RAI ahead of Justinas Leveika (28:36.32h) and the German Jochen Böhringer (28:53.12h). Italian Cristian Bianchetti (29:26.41h) was the best rider with support team in fourth place. "This result shows that the density of unsupported races is increasing. It was completely different a few years ago. The sport is going through a great development."

Swiss victory in the women's competition

Switzerland's Isabelle Pulver secured the women's European title. She reached the finish line after 33 hours and 52 minutes. This means that only 12 men were faster than the ultracycling athlete. "Isa" has her sights set on the World Championships at the Race Around Poland in July. In 2025, she wants to compete in the Race Across America, which she has already won twice.