admin – Page 2 – Morocco Bike-Adventure

12/12/202414/12/2024

Tangier – where we start

Tangier, port and principal city of northern Morocco is located on a bay of the Strait of Gibraltar 27 km from the southern tip of Spain. The city is more then 2000 years old and one of the oldest in northern Africa. As a major port city in northern Morocco, Tangier is a fascinating city, with a wicked charm and rich in history.
Tangier is built on the slopes of a limestone hill. The old town (Medina), surrounded by 15th-century city walls, is dominated by a kasbah, the Sultan’s Palace (now a museum of Moroccan art) and the Great Mosque.
Tangier has been the setting for several Hollywood movies. In 1987, scenes for the James Bond film The Living Daylights were shot in Tangier.

The application for the piste route is open:
https://morocco-bikeadventure.com/2025-application-for-the-piste-route/

For the registration of the road route use this link:
https://morocco-bikeadventure.com/registration-for-the-2025-moroccan-adventure/

Photos taken during Morocco-BikeAdventure 2023

#moroccobikeadventure2025 #cyclingmorocco #ultracycling #africa #rusjanbag #bikepacking #bikepackinglife #saharadesert #atlasmountains #adventurecycling #adventurebybike #travel #ciclismo #rower #rifmountains #ultraendurancecycling #cyclinglife #morocco #cyclingsahara #transbikeadventures #2continentsride

06/12/202408/12/2024

Life in the Sahara

On the piste to the Cité d’Orion.

Photo taken during route scouting October 2024.

05/12/202405/12/2024

Photo from the Sahara

Terrifying? Fascinating? Impressive? Breathtaking?
From the new piste section to the Cité d’Orion.

Photo taken during route scouting October 2024

04/12/202404/12/2024

New piste

CAUTION:

Do not look too long and too deeply into this picture – risk of addiction!

(to get the full effect, click into the picture to make it big)

This is a new piste for the Morocco-BikeAdventure leading to the Cité d’Orion. We could also call it: Sahara Experience.

The application for the piste route is open:
https://morocco-bikeadventure.com/2025-application-for-the-piste-route/

For the registration of the road route use this link:
https://morocco-bikeadventure.com/registration-for-the-2025-moroccan-adventure/

Photo taken during route scouting October 2024

01/12/202401/12/2024

The application for the piste route opens tonight

Tonight at 20:00 (8pm) CET the application for the Morocco-BikeAdventure piste route will open.

The registration process is now the same as it was for the Alaska-Divide already this year.

How to get to the start

Gain essential insights into Morocco’s wilderness and the route and study the website carefully.
Complete the questionnaire of the application.
We’ll review your answers, and upon successful completion, you’ll receive the access for the registration.
Secure your spot for the Morocco-BikeAdventure 2025.
Plan your route and gear up for the adventure.
Meet us in Tangier on October 5th, 2025.

Photo: MBA2024, Scott in the Rif mountains

29/11/202428/11/2024

New checkpoint: La Cárcel Portuguesa

La Cárcel Portuguesa is back as checkpoint on the piste route.

This crater was used as a film stage for a James Bond film, as well as the Brendan Fraser blockbuster film, The Mummy. The Mummy (1999) is set in Egypt, but filmed mostly in Morocco. In the southeastern Moroccan desert, an entire set was built for the fictional Egyptian city, Hamunaptra. The set for this fictional city was constructed in a dormant volcanic crater close to the real-life oasis town, Erfoud.

Photo: MBA2019

28/11/202428/11/2024

New checkpoint: Stairway to Heaven

Stairway to Heaven is the 3rd new checkpoint and the first of Hannsjörg Voth artistic objects in the Moroccan desert. The three objects from Hannsjöeg Voth form a 10km parcour.

The Himmelstreppe (Stairway to Heaven) was built and self-financed between 1980 and 1987. Fascinated by astronomy, he built a staircase whose top side walls are narrowed, creating a vertical slit facing the stars. The structure/sculpture is 19m high and has 56 steps, creating a shadow that runs all around. The interior of this monumental staircase is also accessible, as different rooms are built into the structure.
Source: Senses Atlas

Photo: May 2024, Stairway to Heaven

27/11/202427/11/2024

New checkpoint: the Golden Spiral

The Golden Spiral is the second new checkpoint and located in the Marha plain a short distance after La Cité d’Orion. This immense work of art was Hannsjörg Voth second project in the Marha plain and built from 1993 until 1997 with local artisan using their hand skills in a traditional manner.

Photo: May 2024, the Golden Spiral

26/11/202426/11/2024

New checkpoint: La Cité d’Orion

We added 4 new checkpoints to the piste adventure.
“La Cité d’Orion” is the first of the new checkpoints. It’s situated on a new 55km long piste section starting south of the Valée de Ziz palm grove, one of the biggest in Maroc. The “City of Orion” was built between 1998 and 2003 by the German artist Hannsjörg Voth.

“La Cité d’Orion” is made up of 7 large towers that form a three-dimensional model of the constellation of Orion. Once again its intention is to connect the earth to the sky and more particularly to the celestial. The constellation of Orion is one of the most mythical constellations in many civilizations. It is notably associated with Osiris among the Egyptians but is also present in Sumerian, Greek (from which it takes its name) or Chinese mythology.
The arrangements of these towers are not insignificant: their dimensions have been calculated in proportion to the size and brightness of the stars. The rectangular towers are built in cob, like its previous desertic works. They are obviously observatory towers allowing to follow the course of the 7 most visible stars of the constellation.
Source: Senses Atlas

Photo: October 2024, La Cité d’Orion in the green desert after the rain

24/11/202424/11/2024

How to get a start place for the piste route?

We see more and more, how riders underestimate what’s awaiting them on the Morocco-BikeAdventure piste route. That’s why we change the registration process.

To register for the 2025 Morocco-BikeAdventure piste route, you have to go trough the application process that shows us, you are ready for this adventure. We will check your application and if successful, you can register for the MBA2025.

Wild card:

You finished minimum 50% of the piste route of a previous edition of the Morocco-BikeAdventure.
You finished the Morocco-BikeAdventure road route.
You finished the “Alaska-Divide“
You finished “Race to the Rock” (excluded 2022 edition)

The application will be open from 1st December 2024.

Photos from the Ahouli mines taken at MBA2024 and MBA 2022

23/11/202402/12/2024

New Concept: Time doesn’t matter.

October 2019 startet the first Morocco-BikeAdventure. The route has changed since. Pistes disapeared, new pistes added, a road version was introduced in 2021. Five times started the piste route. Time to introduce some more changes. Related to the years of experiences and feedback we got.

NEW: finisher Party Friday evening in Sidi Ifni
Finisher party Friday evening gives you more time for the journey back home and to be at your desk Monday morning.

New concept: TIME DOESN’T MATTER
With the new concept, it doesn’t matter how much time you need from the start to the finish. New it’s counting how many points you collect from the start to the finish.

How it works:
You get a selection of piste sections. Out of these piste sections or modules, you build your route. Between the selected piste sections you can use paved roads. Related to the difficulty of the piste section it’s counting one, two, or three points per km. You are allowed, to change your route after the start. This gives you the opportunity to react to circumstances on the way to the finish.
Additionally, at the checkpoints you can collect points too. It depends on the difficulty to reach the checkpoint, how many points it adds. It’s up to you which checkpoints you add to your route.
To be listed on the finisher ranking, you have to show up at the finisher party.

https://morocco-bikeadventure.com/rules-piste-route/

Nothing changes for the MBA road route and the 2-Continents Adventure: 2480km fixed road route from Tangier to Sidi Ifni. And the 4000km gravel/piste and 4200km road fixed routes from Irun to Sidi Ifni.

The registration for the road route is open. The registration for the piste route will open around 1st December.

Photos from the Middle Atlas taken at the MBA2024

22/11/202422/11/2024

The Morocco-BikeAdventure 2024 is history

The Morocco-BikeAdventure 2024 was our last bikepacking event of the year. Unfortunately no rider finished the road or piste parcour this year. Lot’s of unusual rain the weeks before the start and in the Sahara desert also during the event, made this edition at some section more challenging as usual.

Benoid had to scratch only 300km before the finish. A swolen ankle and pain that made even walking a challange made it unpossible to finish on his bike. Paddy came in the night in a storm and 25km after Zagora the road was heavely damaged and a crossing of the river, that usually has no water, was not possible. Back in Zagora Paddy scratched 2 days later. Tomos scratched only 490km after the start.

On the piste route Bart got issues with his hands and decided to stop. Scott left the piste route on the stretch from Boudnip to Merzouga. On this 160km remote stretch a minimum of 8l water is mandatory when leaving Boudnip. Scott made the mistake, not eating and drinking enough in Boudnoup. With his 40mm tires he made only slow progress and needed too much water. So he decided to continue on the road route but soon felt not the same motivation anymore and stopped in Alnif his journey.

The next Morocco-BikeAdventure will kick off in Tangier 4th October 2025. The finisher party will be new Friday evening 17th October in Sidi Ifni.

Registration for the 2025 road route is open: click here

The registration for 2025 piste route will open around 1st December. Until then we work on the new concept, a different kind of competition you not seen so far.

Photos from the route of the MBA2024

#moroccobikeadventure2024 #cyclingmorocco #ultracycling #africa #rusjanbag #bikepacking #bikepackinglife #saharadesert #atlasmountains #adventurecycling #adventurebybike #travel #ciclismo #rower #rifmountains #ultraendurancecycling #cyclinglife #morocco #cyclingsahara #transbikeadventures #2continentsride

13/10/202413/10/2024

A day off and broken roads

6 days on the MBA route, Paddy took a brake in Zagora. This morning he left early to continue his journey on the route direction Foum Zguid. About 25km after Zagora, he got stopped, water destroyed the road. Short decision, going back to the hotel in Zagora. Paddy is now waiting for information, when the road will be open again.

07/10/202413/10/2024

The Morocco-BikeAdventure riders are in the Rif mountains

All the riders, road and piste past checkpoint 1 Chefchaouen already. The piste riders reached the blue city Chefchaouen yesterday evening and started early morning to the Talassemtane National park with it’s more then 2100m high mountains. The smell of the hemp plants crowing in the valley of Affaska is all over in the air.
Bart Denys went already yesterday evening to the checkpoint 1 above Chefchaouen, a 200m vertical climb and back down to the city. he went there just the right time for the sunset.

Benoit Boquet is leading the road riders with 255km covered on the hilly route at the end of day one. Followed by Paddy Cope who stopped at km 228 last night. Tomos Packer was not feeling well yesterday and stopped at Rueda km 135.

Follow the riders on the tracking:
https://morocco-bikeadventure.com/2024-tracking/

Photos from day one.

06/10/202406/10/2024

Start of the 2024 Morocco-BikeAdventure

The Morocco-BikeAdventure starts today 09:00 CET. Follow the riders on the tracking:
https://morocco-bikeadventure.com/2024-tracking/

Photos from the last route checking yesterday in the Rif mountains.

28/07/202428/07/2024

Registration closes 1st of August

A photo from the Morocco-BikeAdventure 2022. Rider Radislav Zemandl in the Sahara desert. The only rider who finished the piste route in 2022.

The registration for this years edition start 6th October 2024 closes 1st of August.

Registration for the piste route:
https://morocco-bikeadventure.com/registration_2024/

Registration for the road route:
https://morocco-bikeadventure.com/registration-for-the-2024-moroccan-road-adventure/

15/07/202415/07/2024

New: Tissint to Tata 50% piste

Just out of Tissint, the route goes off the paved road and heads on a piste to Akka Ighane. This dirt road is also the first time part of the Morocco-BikeAdventure.
The route to Tata follows now 50km of the total 94km on piste. In 2023 it was all the way on the paved road.

Photo: from the route check May 2024.

14/07/202414/07/2024

New: 100% piste from M’Hamid to Tissint

In May, we checked a 35 km long piste heading directly to Tissint. The new route bypasses the 15 km paved road near Tissint that was still part of the piste route in 2023.

The new route now extends over a 238 km piste from M’Hamid to Tissint.

Along the way, riders pass tent camps at the dunes of Erg Chigaga and the legendary Titanic café at the Iriqui lake. In past editions, the Titanic was a popular stop for riders to have breakfast, lunch, or dinner, or even spend the night.

Photos from May 2024, route check on the bike.

11/06/202411/06/2024

Palm Oasis in the Sahara desert

This Palm Oasis on the piste (dirt road) in the Sahara desert was added to the route for the first time last year. It features a water well and a small spring.

Water supply guaranteed!

Photos: taken during route scouting this May.

#moroccobikeadventure #transbikeadventures #adventurecycling #ultracycling #bikepacking #saharadesert #atlasmountains #worldbybike34 #tangier #sidiifini #morocco #rowery #ciclismo #rusjanbag

09/06/202409/06/2024

Oasis Sacréé

The Oasis Sacréé – the oasis sacred – in the Sahara desert is at the Morocco-BikeAdventure route. A place riders can stop and rest.