Ultracycling

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Lost Dot’s first fixed route, off-road race exploring the heartlands of The Transcontinental Race. The Accursed Race is the result of years of knowledge built up by Lost Dot in this breathtaking corner of Europe — exploring Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo. Born from a longstanding fascination and romance with the hidden tracks and passages through these enchanting regions, it is finally time to invite riders along to challenge themselves on this rarefied and meticulously crafted route, named after and inspired by the mythical Accursed Mountains.

If a free route event is like poetry, a fixed route event is prose. Our free route races, @transpyrenees and @thetranscontinental, use subtle stanzas of parcours to tell their stories, leaving the imagination to fill the profound gaps between each line. Using a fixed route format for The Accursed allows us to tell the narrative of the Race, the region, the terrain, and the topography in gritty, glorious detail. It’s the story of the Dinaric Alps and, within them, the Accursed Mountains.

We launch this new race, standing on the shoulders of Lost Dot’s founder, the late Mike Hall. We are committed to upholding Mike’s foundational legacy of fair and self-sufficient racing, championing integrity, equality and inclusivity, and creating opportunities for unique and beautiful journeys of self discovery to share with as many people as possible. We are only too aware that we will never be able to replace the genius of Mike — the TCR and the bikepacking community as a whole will forever be the poorer for having lost such a leading light. We can, however, ensure his hard work and vision are kept alive. Our vision is to ensure that Lost Dot races remain as grassroots events, the way Mike Hall envisioned: run by racers for racers.

Guided by the spirit of the race — a commitment to autonomy and self-reliance — the tales of the inaugural TAR are yet to be written, as the mountains wait for riders to answer the call of the Accursed themselves.

We will open applications to ride #TARNo1 in late 2023. Follow @theaccursedrace to stay informed.