Mountain Races 2027 Coaching
The race doesn't break you at night
It breaks in the safety of a town, when you can't face another remote section with low resupply.
Coaching for the Mountain Races—and the races that demand the same level of preparation.
Most athletes training for Mountain Races focus on fitness. But the right fitness is key for the Mountain Races. They demand more than just turning the pedals on the bike. There are many elements in the Mountain Races that will challenge and surprise you.
The riders who don't finish are rarely the least fit in the field. They're the ones who ran out of mental scaffold, who hadn't planned for the moment their plan fell apart, who didn't know themselves well enough to know what they'd do when everything went wrong all at once.
This is what we prepare you for.
What makes this different
We've done these races. We know what will get you when you come into town
You can't plan for what you don't know.
There are coaches who offer bikepacking packages. They can write a training plan with long rides in it. We give you the training blocks that prepare you for what the Mountain Races will throw at you, tested over years and proven by athletes finishing at the front, mid pack or simply just wanting to finish. We can look at your Mountain road book and kit list with a critical eye to ensure all your bases are covered.
Our knowledge comes from experience.
Peta McSharry raced Silk Road Mountain Race in 2018, when the race was unknown and half the field turned up on gravel bikes, with no vibration dampening. The lure of Naryn was strong and the effects of the food were race ending. She coaches athletes through these races, understanding the impacts these remote places hold. What the race provides in a good race manual, it strips away through when the rubber meets the road. Peta will be at the inaugural 2026 Taurus Mountain Race.
Meaghan Hackinen raced all three Mountain Races in 2025, winning Hellenic and Silk Road, with 2nd in Atlas. She'll be on the start line for the inaugural Taurus Mountain Race in 2026. Her feedback into the system brings a view from the front end of the race. The feedback from the midpack balances out the knowledge needed to finish these races.
Between us, our knowledge of these routes is not academic. It is the kind that comes from making mistakes in remote places and passing on that knowledge to you in a live setting.
The coaching framework
Training is one layer. We work on all of them.
Most coaching starts with fitness. We start with something harder: knowing yourself.
Every athlete is different. Before I can help you, we need to understand how you plan, how you respond under fatigue, what your risk profile is, and what your mental bedrock looks like when you're destroyed at 3am and want to quit. These aren't soft questions. They are the questions that help you prepare to finish.
- Know yourself — planning personality, risk profile, self-monitoring.
- Physical durability — not just endurance, but fatigue resistance: the ability to resist slowing down, making errors, losing appetite and decision-making when already exhausted.
- Comfort systems — bike fit, contact point protection, hygiene protocols. Pain ends races. This is engineering, not luxury.
- Route intelligence — three-phase research, road book construction, resupply mapping, pacing strategy.
- Mental bedrock — your why, your dark moments script, your quitting rules, written in advance for the version of you that can no longer think straight.
We work through all of these in a the monthly group workshops using pre-call questionnaires and analysis to help you get the most out of the workshops. Along with your 1:1 calls, feedback in Training Peaks and the planning portal, the system is their to support all of your training and preparation.
What the coaching covers
From your first training block to the start line—and everything in between.
Training blocks that work for Tour Divide, not just long rides.
I recommend a minimum of 9 months coaching to prepare for Tour Divide to ensure we cover the fitness aspect but also time for the content below.
Durability and Strength
Endurance gets you to the start line. Durability gets you to the finish. We build strength training and fatigue resistance—the ability to hold power, posture, nutrition, and decision-making when you've already been riding for several days.
Comfort
Saddle sores, hand numbness, hot foot, Achilles pain—these are the real race enders. We cover bike fit for ultra-endurance, contact point protection, and in-race triage so small problems don't become scratches.
Planning and kit selection
Route research, kit selection and resupply windows are key for these races. But so is understanding your pace so you know how much food to carry. We also help you understand your planning personality—whether you're an Engineer who needs detailed protocols or an Adventurer who needs to know their non-negotiables — and build a plan that works for how your brain actually operates.
Mental preparation
Your Mental Bedrock Document is your worst '3am self' self-help guide. You write it rested, for the version of you that has lost access to why they started. We guide you through knowing yourself and then building it.
Planning portal*
Everything you need to prepare. In one place.
Training for a Mountain Race is only half the preparation. The planning—route research, road books, resupply strategy, mental preparation, kit choice—is where this system can help athletes prepare better.
The coaching includes access to a dedicated planning portal, organised into modules, tailored specifically to the Mountain Races, that walk you through every aspect of off-the-bike preparation. No searching Google for fragmented information. No guessing what you've missed. Clear resources, actionable tasks, and a structured path through everything the race demands.
Your training and strength workouts are delivered through TrainingPeaks. The portal handles everything else—and Peta monitors your progress across both, so nothing falls through the gaps.
Every resource in the portal is built from first-hand knowledge or rider feedback for these races. What kit worked, what gearing worked (or often didn't work). Where the race manual lacked the detain needed to be more prepared. What are the key characteristics of each race that need careful consideration.
* Advanced level gives you detailed modules through an online platform with a structure and dedicated space to manage your planning. For Fundamental level, you receive a wireframe module to help you plan your race.
Your coach
Peta McSharry
The routes are in her legs. The knowledge is in your plan.
Peta began bikepacking in 2012, racing ultra-distance events since the inaugural TransAm Bike Race and TransContinental. She raced Tour Divide, the inaugral Silk Road Mountain Race, Route 66 Bike Race, the Hope 1000, Paris-Brest-Paris (to mention a few), and will be on the start line for the Taurus Mountain Race. She is a qualified British Cycling Level 3 performance cycling coach, sports massage therapist, and myofascial therapist with over 20 years of treating and coaching athletes.
She holds a qualification in designing and delivering learning for adults, this shapes everything about how she coaches. The frameworks she built for bikepacking preparation are not borrowed from conventional coaching methodology. They are structured around how people actually learn, process information under fatigue, and make decisions in remote and stressful environments. Combined with years of deep analytical work studying how athletes perform and fail in these races, it has produced a coaching approach that is specific to bikepacking in a way that generic plans simply are not.
She only coaches bikepacking athletes. Bikepacking demands a fundamentally different kind of preparation—physically, mentally, and logistically—and her entire practice is built around that reality.
Her coaching philosophy starts with one principle: know yourself. Everything else follows from there..
Featured contributor
Meaghan Hackinen
Racing experience you can learn from..
Meaghan is an experienced ultra-distance bikepacking racer. She finished and won Tour Divide in record time, won the women's category at Silk Road Mountain Race and Hellenic Mountain Race, 2nd in Atlas Mountain Race and will be starting the Taurus Mountain Race in October.
She contributes to our monthly group calls, sharing what she has learned from doing these races at the highest level—on fuelling, packing efficiency, gear decisions, and the psychological reality of multi-week racing. Her knowledge comes from experience, not from reading about it.
Meaghan is an author and definitely recommend reading her books, there is great bikepacking insight in them..
Who this is for?
The Mountain Races. But also races that demand the same preparation.
Information about these races is everywhere. Knowing what applies to you is a different problem entirely.
The coaching framework is built for the Mountain Races but the preparation it demands — detailed route research, fatigue resistance training, mental bedrock work, comfort systems — is identical to what any bikepacking race requires.
If you are preparing for the other races this coaching applies too. These are races we know from the inside.
How to work with me
Two ways in. Limited places for both.
Option A — Before your race is confirmed: Starting with a coach when you're not sure if you will get a place can be an unsure commitment. I designed the Foundation Track, a 3-4 month low touch plan, to get you started with training before you switch to 1:1 coaching. This guarantees you a place for 1:1 coaching.*
Option B — start once your race is confirmed: Once your race is confirmed you can apply for 1:1 coaching. There is a cap on the number of athletes I coach each year and cannot guarantee a place if you are not the Foundation Track before committing to coaching.
Here are your options for coaching for the 2027 Mountain Races.
This plan gives you structured system for training and preparing for Tour Divide
- Custom plan designed around a proven training formula for Tour Divide
- Online resources to help the planning and kit selection for Tour Divide
- Live group workshops to help understand your planning process and how you can plan better
- Fees charged monthly
Includes the features from the Fundamental level with additional coaching support, detailed analysis and more comprehensive planning modules.
- In depth analysis if you are looking for performance gains,
- Analysis presented via a PDF for discussion on how to make those gains
- More support and knowledge sharing for planning and kit selection
- Workouts delivered monthly or weekly depending on your needs
- Fees charged monthly
Not ready for the full coaching experience, but need structured training? This 3-4 month plan gets you training before you start 1:1 coaching.
- Pre-designed to build your base
- Move workouts as needed*
- Weekly monitoring system with coach feedback via Training Peaks
- Different plan levels to suit your current fitness
- Fees charged in 4 week blocks
Going the distance, together!
Not just for those at the front end of the race. I help all levels achieve their race goals.