GIRO DEL MONVISO - Glenn MacArthur's Fastest Known Time around The Stone King on a Tallboy

Monviso marks an important point of the Southern Alps. The imposing 3,841-metre giant stands over 500m higher than any other peak surrounding it. It’s this prominence that gives it its name. Monviso translates to ‘the mountain clearly visible (from everywhere)’. It sits inside Italy but overlooks France, a meeting place not just for borders but also for people, communities and commerce. The trails that flank this mountain mark the passage of traders and even armies that stretch back thousands of years. Today the mountain’s routes are mainly trodden by hikers who take 3-4 days to circumnavigate the mighty Stone King. But 21-year old Glenn MacArther, who lives in the shadow of the mountain, wanted to establish a benchmark for traversing it on a mountain bike.

He succeeded.

52.9km route length
3,183m of ascending
6 hours 49 minutes
October 31st, 2022

The Italian nickname for the mountain is The Stone King, which also inspired the name for the multi-day mountain bike event, The Stone King Rally (https://stonekingrally.org/), which winds through the region surrounding this peak. At times the Giro del Viso passes within a few hundred metres of the 2022 Stone King Rally route.

Film by Jules Bellot

For this itinerary Glenn rode his Santa Cruz Tallboy, a 120-mm travel 29-inch wheeled mountain bike that has earned a loyal following amongst those who seek a go-to bike that will hold up to the relentless hammering of "power hour" hot laps or long days in the saddle harvesting the best trails. The highly-refined VPP™ suspension on the Tallboy combines pedaling efficiency and all-out bump-chomping prowess. Lightweight, efficient but no compromises for when the trail gets technical. If ever there was a gravity riders’ XC bike, the Tallboy is it.


• About Santa Cruz Bikes •
Santa Cruz Bicycles creates category-leading downhill, cross country, and electric bikes, but the company is best known for models that combine the same pedalability and descending prowess the OG Tazmon brought to the table. We design, research, engineer, manufacture and assemble the very highest quality bikes. We do most of this ourselves in Santa Cruz, CA. Our bikes are so simply advanced that they perform at the highest level and are made to last many lifetimes of real world abuse.
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