Christoph Strasser takes victory at the Transcontinental Race

Earlier today, Christoph Strasser descended from the hills north of Thessaloniki, Greece, cruised through the city streets, and emerged onto the waterfront as the winner of the 9th Transcontinental Race.

The Transcontinental Race is a self-supported bicycle race across Europe, beginning in western Europe and finishing in the east. This year, the 3500km route began in Geraardsbergen, Belgium, and finished in Thessaloniki, Greece, with four checkpoints along the way.

Despite arriving in Thessaloniki with a convincing lead of around 150km, the race had been perilously close for days. On the seventh night, his nearest rival Robin Gemperle rode through the night and was snapping at Strasser's heels by morning. Thankfully for Strasser, Gemperle did eventually stop to sleep, giving Strasser a chance to extend his lead once again.

Strasser completed the ride in 8 days, 16 hours and 30 minutes, with his tracker showing a distance of 3939.27km and a daily average mileage of 452.96km. Astonishingly, he was moving for 84% of the time, spending just 34 hours and 10 minutes stationary across the almost nine-day ride.

This was Strasser’s second victory at the Transcontinental Race, having taken first place in 2022 despite it being his first-ever unsupported race.

©Transcontinental Race / Saskia Martin

Christoph Strasser and Robin Gemperle arrived at checkpoint 2 within minutes of each other

In a release announcing Strasser as the winner, Lost Dot, the organisers of the race, said: “Winning one Transcontinental Race is not easy. Winning back-to-back editions across two of the most contrasting routes in the Race's history is testament to Christoph's all-round ability.

"As a rider with a self-proclaimed weakness on both off-road and mountainous terrain, TCRNo9 could have exposed any shortcomings in his preparation or the execution of his race strategy. Instead, Christoph has shown himself to be unshakable on almost any terrain Europe throws at him.”

The victory is Strasser’s latest addition to his crowded ultra-distance trophy cabinet. The Austrian already has six victories at the Race Across America, four victories at the Race Across Austria and the 24-hour distance record to his name.

Follow the race over on Transcontinental's Live Tracking Map, Socials, Report and Podcast.