In Conversation with Max Riese, Winner of the 2026 Hellenic Mountain Race

Note: The Mountain Races podcast is produced for the ear and designed to be heard. If you are able, we strongly encourage you to listen to the audio, which includes emotion and emphasis that’s not on the page. This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and is kept as close to verbatim as possible.

Mel Webb: Welcome to the finish line. Is this your first big win?

Max Riese: Arguably yes, I guess.

Mel Webb: How does it feel?

Max Riese: Uh, a bit surreal. I didn’t know until I actually hit the finish if that would come true, because of Marc being so persistent.

Mel Webb: Well, we’ll get to your race with Marc, and I think the best place to start is really your goals coming in and how you approached the race and all of those things. Was it clearly a goal to come in and target a podium for this one?

Max Riese: Yes, definitely. I can say that I invest way too much time and effort to not say, “I didn’t come here for a podium.” So I had some pressure, for sure, and maybe that’s also a hard part, you know, like putting that pressure on yourself. But then in this case, fortunately, it went good.

Mel Webb: Yeah, and to your point about all of the preparation that you’ve done, let’s kind of dig into that a little bit more, ’cause you’ve done some quite extensive work on inputting the route into some crazy programs. Let’s just start right there and all the stuff you did to dissect the route file and prepare yourself from a nutrition standpoint and also taking all of your breaks.

Max Riese: I mean, that honestly was more like a joke. I just wanted to know if it works, but then I was so surprised of the outcome that I sent it to Nelson before the race, and he was like, “What the f—?” I basically used my fit files from 2023 and then put in the GPX from this year, and I made like a little Python application and asked like an AI agent to please tell me, “Is sub-four days possible for me if I ride around like 210 watts average? How much do I need to eat? I’m planning to do 100 grams of carbs. Will that be possible? What should I buy in shops?” And then it put something out where I was like, “Ooh, that is way too close to what I planned myself by hand,” and it took me probably, a few minutes.

Mel Webb: And how long by hand did it take you to go through all of those things?

Max Riese: Well, I mean, like you go through the route kilometer by kilometer, right? You want to know like where are the hike-a-bikes, where are the significant passes, difficult descents, what are my resupplies, what will I find there. Is Google Maps even a thing here enough to say like I can rely on this being a shop, hotel, or whatever? So it’s always like a bit, you know, you look back and forth, and you try and find things and make your notes, and it’s surprising how good those things become these days.

Mel Webb: It’s cool to have another data point and another thing to just reassure you that you’ve maybe uncovered all of the things. Are you the type of person who goes on Google Street View and looks for bivy spots and marks them on your map?

Max Riese: Uh, definitely. Yeah, in a way, yes. I mean, not Google Street that much. In some sections where I’m unsure, I try to use it. But like I like to more look at what I can find in POIs on OpenStreetMap or other map layers. I combine different map layers and try and find like, okay, this is possible that I will find this there.

Mel Webb: And when you were doing your planning, so you had nutrition—how did you strategize around where to stop? Is there a certain number of hours you were trying to target before you slept or something like that?

Max Riese: So I like to sleep. I was planning around like three to four hours per night, and then it becomes pretty… Like, in this case, it was surprisingly easy because it was all very close to the checkpoints.

Mel Webb: Mm-hmm.

Max Riese: Yeah, and then you only find, okay, like if I’m sleeping three to four hours, then potentially I will be stopped at least like six hours a day, maybe more. Depends on what happens. And the rest of it will be riding, and then you can sort of calculate what will be possible, I guess.

Mel Webb: The first time I saw you was at CP1, and you stopped to sleep there. You looked quite, at least from my view, quite shell-shocked when you came into the checkpoint, having come down that descent.

Max Riese: Really?

Mel Webb: Maybe it’s just ’cause it was late at night, but just having, like… I think, did Benedek pass you on the way down, or where did he pass you?

Max Riese: He came bombing down, yeah. I didn’t want to take that much risk, and obviously he was on the full suspension with dropper and flat bars, and I was on the full compromised bike with drop bars, hardtail and semi-slick tires. So I had to get off a few times more, definitely, than him, and I also didn’t ride as fucking quick as him. He was really quick down there.

I wasn’t too stressed. Like, people were talking about Rick all the time, obviously. But then you never know in a race like this, like Hellenic—you know, like last year, how many people scratched in the top 10 on the last day.

Mel Webb: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Max Riese: I wasn’t too stressed about it. It’s more like, okay, what do I do now? Do I continue to Konitsa because I was later than I wanted to be at the checkpoint? And so basically, I decided, okay, I’ll try and go with the dormitory here at the checkpoint, and that was not a good decision. I should have continued to the next village and just tried to ring out some hotel guy to give me a room.

Mel Webb: Was that just because it was, like, louder in the dormitory and you weren’t getting as good rest, or you were maybe being a bit more conservative in when to stop that night and you could have pushed a little bit further?

Max Riese: The sleep quality was just terrible because people arrived after me. So I came to my room, everything was good. There was no warm water. I was like, “Eh,” before I figure out why they don’t have warm water now, I just wash myself cold and okay. But I maybe was sleeping for like 20 minutes, and then first people started walking in, turning on the lights and stuff, and it’s like, “Ah, okay, that was not a good decision.”

Mel Webb: It’s tough to know, I guess, in that moment what the right thing is to do, but you can only learn from making the mistake once, and then now you know, don’t do it again.

Max Riese: Maybe I was lucky because I originally wanted to push to CP2 on the second day, which would’ve been time-wise possible for sure. But I got into such a crazy hail and thunderstorm that I went into hypothermia. I couldn’t do anything anymore, and I walked into Syrakko.

Mel Webb: The beautiful stone village. I mean, you wouldn’t have maybe seen how beautiful it was in the dead of the night, but it’s, like, a very picturesque place.

Max Riese: It must’ve been an absolute absurd situation. Like, I walked into a taverna and basically told them, like, “I need tea,” or something, and I was shivering my whole body. And they looked at me, and like two people helped me to get out of my clothes. And then they were like, “Yeah, we also have food.” I’m like, “Yeah, please, food.” And then the owner was like, “I have a room. You can stay here.” I’m like, “Oh, that’s quite convenient.” So I stayed there and slept nearly four hours, which was great, and I started with dried clothes. I had a coffee in the morning. I had pastry that I took to bed and stuff. that day I worked way better, and Marc told me that the dormitory in CP2 was also not perfect.

Mel Webb: The thing is making choices that are gonna work really well for you, and I know that it wasn’t your plan necessarily to stop there, but to your point, you couldn’t really continue—but some people might choose to just say, “I’m gonna try anyways.” So well done for making a choice that worked for you, and it seemed to pan out. I mean, you basically had a bike-packing trip. You had a coffee in the morning and you were relaxed.

Max Riese: I mean, that’s what we all do, right? Like, we adapt around the situation that we have. It doesn’t change just because you’re further up front.

Mel Webb: So what position did you come into CP2 in?

Max Riese: Uh, I think fourth. Elijus was before me, Benedek, and I think Marc.

Mel Webb: And so that’s about the halfway point of the race. Were you starting to think, “Okay, I wanna move up in positions,” or what was the point where maybe you started to think about that?

Max Riese: No, I didn’t feel any pressure for that. I just wanted to stay in contention, stay in my plan, so to say. And I knew, like, okay, I basically made myself 1,000 meters of climbing more for day three than I planned, but that’s the way those things go. And I was actually quite happy because I started in the dry in the morning, and you could see that everything was still wet, so probably it rained for quite a bit longer. So I would have shivered all through the night, and it would’ve been a lot of energy. And that pass after CP2, I had such vivid and cool memories of that, and it was perfect to be there again. It was such a good memory.

Mel Webb: ’Cause the first time you did it was the first edition when it was covered in snow, and Nelson dug the trench so that you could all go through.

Max Riese: Yeah, we were there just before Nelson that year, I think. It was really sketchy.

Mel Webb: But not the same level of snow this year. There was still a little bit lingering up there, but…

Max Riese: No, it was just like a bit narrow at the top with the snow that was still there, but just beautiful. Really beautiful. And so, you know, like, if you’re in that mindset, it didn’t really matter. Like, obviously, I realized that I left the CP as the second person, and I sort of knew that Abe was quite close to me, and I didn’t want to get him to me again. I also knew that Marc was not too far ahead, which was also motivating, but I was just really trying to do my thing because I had to trust myself somehow.

Mel Webb: And you and Marc are quite good friends, so at a certain point, you two did catch up to one another. How did that whole situation play out? And I guess, when did you first run into each other?

Max Riese: So I chased him the whole day, and I didn’t see him. I knew that he must’ve been close because you see the tire marks and everything. And then there was a hotel and restaurant just before the climb to CP3, and he was sitting in there, and I just, like, locked the brakes, went in, and just, like, high-fived him and said, like, “Well done, man.”

Mel Webb: You didn’t wanna get the jump?

Max Riese: I was just like, “I don’t know. I need to say hi to him,” and we laughed at each other, and it was just so funny. And he was having a full meal there. She offered me a coffee. I was like, “Oh, that might be a good idea.” So I took that coffee. She gave me some sweets. She didn’t want to accept any money for it. It was a bit like—I left five euros then for the stuff. And basically went on the bike again, and Marc was on my wheel like maybe a few minutes later.

And then it was the same thing, you know. Like, I’m always a bit faster on the ascents, so he was sort of holding my wheel, so to say. And then he always plays those little funny mind games. Like in the tunnel at the end, he accelerated and went into the descent first.

Mel Webb: Really?

Max Riese: And then it started raining. He nearly missed a corner, and then we just rolled more respectfully of the conditions into CP3. And from there on, from that moment where we met at that restaurant until the finish, we were basically on and off. We saw each other like every few minutes.

Mel Webb: Oh my God.

Max Riese: And it really got to my head at some point, and I know that he’s laughing if he’s listening to this, because he said it—it was exactly what he wanted.

Mel Webb: Yeah, he said the same thing to me yesterday when I spoke to him. He was saying he loved to play the mind games, and he really tried to bomb the descents to come after you, and he was really satisfied that he could get you back every time.

Max Riese: At some point, it was a bit like, you know, he ran a 38 chainring in the front.

Mel Webb: My eyes are bugging out of my head right now.

Max Riese: Yeah, so sometimes we had really steep sections, and he had to get off the bike, or he just needed to provide so much torque, so I could just pedal away. And it was like, “Cool, I have a gap now. Just do your thing.” And then like maybe 20 minutes later, he just rocks up next to you again, and you’re like, “Ah, come on. This is not possible.”

Mel Webb: Just couldn’t get rid of the guy.

Mel Webb: And did it make it hard to race against someone that you have, like, such camaraderie with? ’Cause I could imagine… if it’s somebody who’s just purely a competitor, you’d be like, “Right, I wanna beat this guy.” But somebody who you’re good friends with—did that add any kind of challenge to things?

Max Riese: I think a good background story is maybe that we met at Atlas first time, and couldn’t shake each other on the last 100 kilometers to the finish. decided to get to the finish together. And since then, we had a lot of contact. We texted each other, and at some point he said, like, “How about we drive to Greece in my old Volvo?” So we did that, and we had a few very intense days, like, before the race, already driving here. And then being the two guys at the front of the race was funny, to say the least.

And we had a chat at some point. We rode next to each other, and it’s like, “Yeah, how is this gonna pan out now? This is gonna be a pretty interesting situation for a friendship.” And we both agreed that if we would be happy for anyone else to get the win here, it would be each other, which was sort of like—yeah, but that doesn’t give us any solution.

Mel Webb: Yeah, you still have to race to the end, and someone still has to win.

Max Riese: And so we did our things, and there was always like a moment where I was up front or then he was a bit up front. And basically I turned into the supermarket in Thermo for the last bit of resupply, and he turned up later, like just at the same time basically, and he put out two stools and sat next to me, and we chatted with each other. And then Nelson came around the corner, like, “Guys, this is a race. You shouldn’t be chatting to each other.”

Mel Webb: You need to get a move on.

Max Riese: So from there on, you know, there was no stopping anymore. I think I put a pretty big attack on the small hill out of Thermo. Then he attacked me on the downhill where I was a bit like, “Oh, God, I don’t wanna bin it now.” then it was basically like a road race up the last climb.

Max Riese: And that’s where we finally had our separation at some point.

Mel Webb: Yeah, maybe you got lucky that it was indeed a final climb up to the sea and maybe not just a descent straight down if we had…

Max Riese: I mean, he worked his game so well that even in the descent I was riding, like, full risk, full speed. Well, not full. I didn’t fully risk the corners because that descent is a bit… it’s a wide road, but it’s sometimes a bit gravelly and washboardy with the trucks that go up there. And even through the town, I sprinted out of every corner because I was just so paranoid he would just show up out of nowhere again. But it worked out.

Mel Webb: Did you find yourself looking over your shoulder, or were you just eyes forward, like, “I just have to go”?

Max Riese: Uh, on the top in the switchbacks I looked behind if I could see him, and I could not, so I was pretty confident. But then I would’ve probably killed myself for just, like, soft pedalling to the finish, you know?

Mel Webb: Yeah, you gotta go all in. And I mean, it’s, like, clear across all of the photos of you at the finish line. You looked absolutely depleted, like you had given it everything you had.

Max Riese: I think Marc achieved his goal. He’s happy like this. For me it’s also obviously not too bad to have this outcome.

Mel Webb: I mean, a win is a win, and what a good one at that. It was such a strong field, and of course people scratch, but that is part of the game. You have to outlast each other. I wonder, aside from really thorough preparation—obviously you train very hard—are there other things you did to help set yourself up for success in showing up here?

Max Riese: That’s a good question. Oh, I went into some nerdy details. I had to laugh so much because when I decided… I had a chat with some aerodynamicists and stuff, and they were like, “Yeah, you probably should invest more in that.” And so I came here with an aero helmet where my ears are covered, and aero socks, white, because they were not available in another color. And you know, like, it looks so ridiculous.

Mel Webb: You looked a bit like a stormtrooper, I’m not gonna lie, with the very big helmet on your head.

Max Riese: It looks like Darth Vader, that helmet. But I thought, “Okay, if it saves me a bit of energy, maybe that makes a difference.” And Nelson before sent me like a screenshot of his calculation of, in a 100 meter sprint, what difference would it have been—the difference between me and Marc, because it was 24 minutes in the end.

Mel Webb: I think it was 0.0125 or something like that. Seconds. The equivalent of a bike throw.

Max Riese: So I went into details like this. I changed the position of my bike dramatically, which I cannot recommend to anyone, but I’m basically sitting on my hardtail mountain bike like on a TT bike.

Mel Webb: Wow.

Max Riese: So I had a custom CNC machined seat post clamp to get the saddle further. And there’s a lot of little small things that you cannot tell anyone. It’s just unreasonable to do that stuff. But I went that length, and it felt good, so I went for it.

Mel Webb: You called your bike the full compromise bike. Do you feel like you maybe… that statement leads me to think you might have changed some things potentially, or I guess maybe unpack the compromises you made.

Max Riese: I mean, of course. I went here with flat bars the first time, and my hands were terrible. And then I thought, “Okay, I really feel comfortable on the drop bars. Do I feel comfortable enough to descend technical descents with them?” Yes—if they have a good flare, if I can get into the drops and still have like a pretty wide stance. So the handlebars sort of was one of the decisions. The seat position. The tires were complete compromise, semi-slick tires.

Mel Webb: Would you change that next time?

Max Riese: Mm, I was very happy with it. If the conditions would look way more terrible than they were—because the muddy sections, obviously, you’re just like spinning to somehow get through it, and if you would have a bit more mud-proof tire, that would surely make a difference. And I’m not even sure if I wouldn’t go with the full suspension. I decided against it for saving a bit of weight, but you get thrown along a lot, and if you don’t finish because you just get rattled to absolute death, then what’s the point of having a lighter bike?

Mel Webb: I think that’s a really important distinction. People often think like, “Oh, save the weight, save the weight, save the weight.” But really, comfort for most folks is speed. And then that will carry you through.

Max Riese: Yeah, totally. There’s a lot of things of comfort that you can put into a bike, like thicker handlebar tape, maybe gel pads, or putting a lot into hygiene because, you know, with all of the little bumps that you take, you also need to take care of all your contact points, which I did. I did drop the aero socks on the last day for my Merino socks, just because it felt like a new day, just getting into those dry and really comfy socks. It’s always like a bit… you need to consider, okay, what’s your priority? And if that’s getting to the finish line, then you can’t go completely aero and weight. I don’t know. I carried 2.5 kilos of maltodextrin with me, so you know.

Mel Webb: That is a lot.

Max Riese: Yeah, but I knew that it would be helpful.

Mel Webb: Yeah, of course. And you finished all of it?

Max Riese: Yes.

Mel Webb: Do you ever get tired of that stuff?

Max Riese: Well, I think the biggest problem is if you only eat sweets, which is what you eat mostly, you have this feeling at some point you just can’t do it any longer, and the maltodextrin stuff is nearly tasteless. So it’s really weird. It’s like this weird drink that you drink that sort of doesn’t have a real taste, doesn’t have a real consistency, and you put it into your stomach and something happens, and you can pedal a bit again sort of.

Mel Webb: So weird.

Max Riese: But it’s again like a good compromise to say, okay, you can’t just shove gummies or chocolate into your mouth for like three and a half days. That’s not gonna work.

Max Riese: And this gives you a good amount of carbs, so you can burn through them, and then you need a real meal. That’s also something that I really learned, and I would rather sit down 20 minutes for like a pita or whatever than compromise on being way slower and depressed probably from not having any real food.

Mel Webb: Yeah, and being happy leads to being faster and whatnot. To your point about stopping and eating food, what were the things that you found yourself looking for and that you found really worked in terms of meals?

Max Riese: like a lot of pita. I even had, like, tzatziki and bread because that’s also super quick and, you know, the yogurt is just really good for your gut. Bread gives you a bit more carbs. It’s salty. Like, all of the stuff that you can quickly have, you know? You don’t want—I don’t know, what would be a really bad meal? Probably like a platter of freshly grilled fish or something, you know.

Mel Webb: Something greasy and a lot of it. Just gut bomb. But, I mean, it’s nice. That’s the nice thing about Greece is you can get pretty good meals regularly, like at least once a day.

Max Riese: Yes.

Mel Webb: And it can feel risky to stop and think, “Oh, I’m wasting time,” but to your point, taking the time to fuel properly is something that will set you up for success.

Max Riese: And I mean, it’s also about your head in a way. It makes such a difference if you have like a… I stopped for a proper coffee once.

Mel Webb: Really?

Max Riese: There was a cafe on the side of the road, and they had a proper machine. I just stopped there and drank my flat white and was like, “Oh.”

Mel Webb: Felt like a human instead of a bike racer for a minute.

Max Riese: Surely not good in terms of moving forwards, but you know, afterwards you just feel so much better.

Mel Webb: Were there ever times that you questioned yourself or hit a really low low and that you had to get yourself out of it?

Max Riese: Um, yeah. Surely the storm after Metsovo. Oh, first of all, slashing my tire on the way down from the first descent.

Mel Webb: Oh, really?

Max Riese: That was not really how I wanted to start, but I managed to fix it. Three plugs and a bit of wiggling and then, made it work somehow. But then you’re already in this stress like, “Okay, I need to push now to make up the time to the front.”

The storm after Metsovo for sure, because it was really rough and really hard. And maybe there was also a bit of a thing where towards the end of day three, I wasn’t sure if I was ever gonna catch up with Marc. I knew that he was close, but I never saw him, not once. And at some point you just question, like, “Okay, what’s happening here? How can I ride this hard for so long and never see this guy? It’s not possible.”

Mel Webb: It’s so funny to hear you say that because surely folks dot-watching… from a computer screen, it looks like, oh, they must see each other all the time. And of course you did in the later day, but when you were chasing, no, you never saw him.

Max Riese: Yeah, it was incredible. I looked at the tracker a few times and I saw that he must be… well, he had this tracker issue as well. So I didn’t know exactly where he was, but I knew he must be close. But if you don’t see him, you know, it’s… you ride really hard every uphill. You try to push yourself in every downhill, and still he seems like he’s just… you know, it messes with your head.

Mel Webb: So that point when you saw him at the restaurant surely must have been such a boost to be like, “I’ve finally done it.”

Mel Webb: I wanna go back to the bike specs a little bit because people always ask. Marc was running a 38-tooth chainring. What were you running?

Max Riese: Uh, 34, and then 10-52 in the back.

Mel Webb: Would you do the same next time? Perfect for you?

Max Riese: Yeah, perfect.

Mel Webb: Nice. And then we talked about you’re on a hardtail, drop bars, which I think the caveat with the drop bars is if you’re not a technical descender, you’re compromising your ability there. And obviously you’re a really good mountain biker, maybe not as good as Benedek, but—

Max Riese: By far not, no.

Mel Webb: Will you keep the same setup going forwards to Silk Road in August?

Max Riese: Uh, for sure the full suspension, but probably the same drop bars.

Mel Webb: Oh, cool, so you’ll shift to a full suspension for Silk? Is that directly from the learnings here, or?

Max Riese: Uh, no, no, already like the last years—I mean, even in Atlas I went with the full suspension. I think it was a good decision. And here I was just worried about the really steep and punchy climbs, so I felt like maybe the hardtail is a bit of a better solution. It’s also more tarmac. It sounds a bit ridiculous, but, you know, enough to say like, well, maybe there I can go a bit faster with a hardtail. And in Kyrgyzstan, no.

Mel Webb: It’s—

Max Riese: Washboard city. Everything is washboard or hard, and I think you really appreciate, or your butt mainly really appreciates, full suspension there. So I’m very sure I will go with the full suspension. Pretty similar setup but a bit more comfortable.

Mel Webb: I think it was at the finish line that you said that of all—well, you said Hellenic over Atlas. Would you also choose Hellenic over Silk Road now that you’ve raced them all?

Max Riese: Oh, that would be so hard. I don’t know. It really also depends on the route, obviously. Like this course is really something that speaks to me, like this relentless up and down, no flat parts and stuff. But Kyrgyzstan is amazing in a different way. Those high mountainous landscapes and the extreme remoteness and untouchedness sometimes of the landscapes—it’s something completely different, and the challenges you have in Kyrgyzstan are also different with the weather, the food. I have a hard time even comparing the two.

Mel Webb: They’re very different.

Max Riese: I’ve been at Silk Road three times, and I’m going again, so I think then you need to say, like, there’s something so special about that place that probably that is still my favorite.

Mel Webb: Thinking about the three races, would you say that this is a good stepping stone on your way to doing any of the others, or is there one that you would say, “Do that first and then do this one”? Just thinking about how folks can kind of get into doing the races.

Max Riese: That is a hard question. I think there’s no easy Nelson race. It doesn’t happen. And you know what you get. Sometimes you want to cheat your way around, but you need to be absolutely prepared to even get to the finish line. I would say that to get to the finish line, probably Atlas will be the easiest—depends on the year and the weather you get—but Silk Road might be easier than getting to the finish line here. Here you might be thrown off because you did not expect what you’re getting thrown at you. So it’s hard to say. I would say that Hellenic and Silk Road are close to each other.

Mel Webb: Cool. Well, I think one thing I wanted to touch on before we wrap up is I know music is hugely important to you.

Mel Webb: So I have to know what was on rotation while you were out there.

Max Riese: Um, it was bipolar for sure. On one hand, I had a lot of, like hard rock and metal stuff, more like Stoned Jesus, Deftones, a bit of Kyuss and even Desert Sessions and stuff like this. And on the other hand, I was listening to a lot of drum and bass and EDM. It was a funny mix. But somehow it worked really well for me and motivated me through the race, and sometimes you just have the perfect song and the perfect moment, and then you need to laugh, and that’s a good thing. Music can still put me in a good place any time.

Mel Webb: Is there one song that, without fail, you’re having a bad time, you put that song on, and you know it’s gonna help you get out of it?

Max Riese: Huh. There’s a few. For this race, I would love to say “Shut Up Kiss Me.” I think it’s—I need to look it up quickly, but it’s just such a passionate song that she put there. Oh, Angel Olsen is her name. “Shut Up Kiss Me.”

Mel Webb: Love it. Cool. Well, congratulations. Super stoked for you. Really happy to see you pull it off, and we’ll look forward to seeing you in a few months in Kyrgyzstan.

Max Riese: Looking forward to that. Thanks for having me.