Across the Alps on Two Wheels: Michal Kawalec's Transalp Journey

Michal Kawalec climbed 2,000 meters on his first day of riding. He had trained for the trip by doing 80-kilometer rides around Poznań, Poland — a city where the highest hill is 60 meters.

That mismatch, he admits freely, is exactly what made the Transalp experience what it was. Kawalec, a Senior Software Engineer who has been with X-Team for many years, completed a week-long mountain bike journey across the Alps in July 2021, starting in Nauders, Austria and finishing in Italy, covering ground he had never ridden before and encountering more than a few things he had not planned for. In this story, he traces the itinerary, the moments that went sideways and what he would do differently.

The Itinerary — and the Chaos Before It Started

Kawalec had first read about the Transalp Race and watched people attempting similar routes on YouTube. When the pandemic broke his mountain biking routine, the Transalp became a natural target: a way to break the hiatus in the most demanding way possible.

He drove to Landeck, Austria on July 23, left his car there, took a bus to Nauders and started riding the following day. The first day took him briefly through Austria before the route continued entirely through Italy. He slept in hostels along the way. On the final day, he caught a train from the finish back to Landeck to retrieve his car. The full route is mapped out here.

The day before he started riding had already gone sideways. He'd allocated a buffer day to get to his starting location, but five highway crashes cost him four hours — he arrived just 40 minutes before the last bus to Nauders. Then, in a decision he'd reconsider immediately, he cleaned his brake rotors with a chain degreaser that turned out to contain chain lubricant. It destroyed his brake pads entirely. He had spare pads, and a bicycle repair shop early on day one lent him isopropyl alcohol to sort out what remained of the problem — but it was not the calm start he'd envisioned.

The highlight of the whole trip came from the same first day: coasting down a mountain pass after a 1,600-meter climb, marmots and horses visible along the route. "That mountain pass on the first day was unreal," he says.

What the Alps Did to His Legs

Kawalec prepared for the trip with three 80-kilometer rides per week for two months. In a flat city, that felt like solid preparation.

"To be honest, I was completely unprepared for how tough it ended up being," he says. The volume of climbing — ascending 2,000 meters in a single day — was something the training simply couldn't replicate. Ultimately, he rode half the route and took the bus for the other half. He frames this without any apparent regret: the sights were worth the trip regardless of how he covered the ground.

His bike for the journey was a Kross Soil Ex full suspension, heavily modified. The brakes were Magura MT7 — "wonderful if somewhat tricky to align properly," he says. The dropper post was a BikeYoke Revive. He ran CushCore inserts in the tires, and the tire combo was a Maxxis Minion DHR II and Rekon pairing — a switch from his usual Schwalbes, which were hard to find during the pandemic. He came away a convert: "I loved these Maxxis Minion tires and can highly recommend the combo."

He also carried a 35-liter backpack with clothing, bicycle repair gear and a camera, working from this Polish-language packing checklist with his own modifications. The full pack weighed just under 8 kilos.

What He'd Tell Anyone Who Wants to Do the Same

Kawalec came back from the Alps with a changed perspective on the equipment question — specifically, on electric mountain bikes.

He would want to do the trip again. But not on the same bike. "This trip really convinced me of the advantages of electric mountain bikes," he says. "I would want to repeat the trip, but I'd most likely do it on an electric bike instead." The Alps offer too many remarkable sights to rush through them on a timeline set by what his legs could manage. An electric bike would let him spend more time in those moments and less time calculating how much he had left in reserve.

It's a practical conclusion from someone who approached the whole undertaking with the same spirit: plan what you can, adapt to everything else, and keep moving.

Ready to build work you're proud of? Apply for an open role at X-Team.