That is why the philosophy is simple, even if the route is not. Start slow. Ride in your lowest gear. Conserve energy. Forget the clock. SNEAK PEAKS is not designed tobe conquered in isolation. It is designed so that riders meet again and again. At rifugios. On climbs. On descents. Teams form naturally. Conversations happen. Friendships grow. But only if you give yourself the chance to arrive there.

Scouting the routes took place over several years, across multiple seasons. More than fifty rifugios were visited in person, not via maps or emails, but face to face. The questions were always the same. Does this place feel welcoming? Does it fit the spirit of the event? Can riders realistically reach it by bike? Almost all of them said yes — and many were excited to become part of something new.

Nature always came first. Wherever possible, the route avoids busy roads, tourist hotspots, and crowded valleys. The goal was to take riders far off the beaten track, into remote areas that most people never see, let alone by bike. Off-road was preferred over on-road, but never blindly. If an off-road option meant unnecessary danger, excessive hike-a-bike, or conflict with hikers or locals, an alternative was chosen. Sometimes that meant quiet tarmac backroads. Sometimes it meant letting go of a “cool” trail for the sake of safety and flow.

Safety played a bigger role than many riders might assume. Some spectacular singletracks simply did not make the cut because they become dangerous in wet weather or darkness. The route is meant to be experienced in daylight. The landscapes deserve to be seen, not survived.

Designing a SNEAK PEAKS route is not about creating the hardest line on a map. It is not about brutality for the sake of suffering, and it is definitely not about dragging bikes across terrain where they simply do not belong.

At its core, the route is a social idea. It is about bringing people together in a landscape so vast and demanding that riding it completely alone becomes almost impossible. The mountains set the tone. The route simply follows.

From the beginning, SNEAK PEAKS was built around local infrastructure. Rifugios are not checkpoints by coincidence. They are the heartbeat of the route. They sit high in the mountains, often far away from valleys and main roads, which naturally leads to steep climbs, long ascents, and serious elevation gain across all distances. This is not accidental. It is the price of connection — to people, to places, and to a slower rhythm of movement.

One thing became very clear after the first edition. Those who raced from the very first kilometer often paid the price later. Some of the most experienced riders scratched early because they burned too many matches. Others, with less experience but more patience, finished strong. The route does not reward ego. It rewards restraint.