February 25, 2004 – After less than one  month, all 500 team-slots for the 7th adidas BIKE Transalp Challenge are  already allocated. “The demand for slots exceeds our expectations by far,” says  says an overwhelmed Transalp-project manager  Lars Mentgen. “Increasing the team-slots from 400 to 500 teams was the right decision.  Participants from 29 nations from all over the world have applied to take  part in this unique event. Even Bikers from Israel, New Zealand, South Africa  and Canada take the challenge starting on July 17th, 2004 in the beautiful  Bavarian village of Mittenwald.” Late entries are unfortunately not possible.

The  Transalp will take place from July  17-24, 2004. A field of  1,000 well-trained international mountain bikers will challenge the Alpes and  battle in the categories Men, Women, Masters and Mixed for a total  prize-money of 20.000 Euro. The 500 twin-teams will have to manage about  600K and almost 20,000 attitude metres.

“We are happy to have a  stage in Switzerland in the beautiful region of Engadin for the first time in seven  Transalp years”, says Mentgen. The already known stages in the established  tourism regions of South-Tirol (Italy), Trentino (Italy), Tyrol (Austria) and  Bavaria (Germany) will complete the challenge. The exact course will be  presented shortly and will reveal the toughness of this year's Transalp.

More information about the 7th adidas BIKE Transalp Challenge  2004 are available at www.transalpchallenge.com.