Photos: The best from Morocco at the 2019 Garmin Titan Desert Race

The Garmin Titan Desert, which completed its fourteenth edition this year, is a 6-day multi stage mountain bike race that takes some the most elilte cyclists through 600 kilometres and a combined altitudinal change of 5500 meters through the desert dunes and arid landscapes of Morocco. The hardest MTB race in the world has riders charting the mountainous territories and the Moroccan desert. The Titan Desert is the stage of a fight against extreme athletes and a struggle against the elements in one of the planet’s most inhospitable locations. ...read more

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Competitors ride during a training session on April 27, on the eve of the start of the 14rd edition of Titan Desert 2019, around Merzouga in Morocco. The Titan desert 2019 race began at the town of Merzouga and snaked its way to the final checkpoint at Maadid from April 28 to May 3. (Franck Fife / AFP)

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Competitors ride their bikes along sand dunes during the Stage 1 around Merzouga in Morocco. Merzouga is a small Moroccan town in the Sahara Desert, near the Algerian border. (Franck Fife / AFP)

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Competitors climb a sand dune during the Stage 1. Merzouga is known as a gateway to Erg Chebbi, a huge expanse of sand dunes north of the town. (Franck Fife / AFP)

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A competitor reacts during the second stage of the Titan Desert 2019 mountain biking race, between Merzouga and Ouzina. (Franck Fife / AFP)

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A competitor pushes a bicycle along a sand dune during Stage 2. Beginning in 2006 with four stages and 143 riders, the Titan Desert has grown to the 675 participants and six gruelling stages witnessed this year. (Franck Fife / AFP)

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Competitors rest at the bivouac after taking part in the second stage, between Merzouga and Ouzina. The race logistics saw the relocation of a 24,000 m2 bivouac or temporary shelter accompany the participants across the dunes. (Franck Fife / AFP)

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Competitors pay tribute to deceased competitor Fernando Civera in a minute of silence at the bivouac in Ouzina before the start of Stage 3, in Morocco. Fernando Civera passed away from cardiac arrest at km 55 of the stage two --the first death in the race’s history. (Franck Fife / AFP)

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Competitors cool themselves off during the unranked Stage 3, as a tribute to Civera. The stage looped back from Ouzina to Merzouga. (Franck Fife / AFP)

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Competitors ride their bikes during Stage 4 between Merzouga and M’ssici. This year’s edition took riders across a frequently changing landscape of dunes, flats and oases spread over 640 km. (Franck Fife / AFP)

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A competitor rides Merzouga and M’ssici. A week of strenuous cycling across stages that averaged 100 km, Titan Desert ran through an estimated 63,000 litres of water. (Franck Fife / AFP)

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Competitors ride their bikes during Stage 5 between M’ssici and El Jorf. The race saw a combines positive elevation of 5900 mtrs this year. (Franck Fife / AFP)

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Sapin's Alex Roca Campillo celebrates with his girlfriend at the end of Stage 5. (Franck Fife / AFP)

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Competitors ride their bikes during Stage 6 El Jorf and Erfoud in Morocco. Josep Betalú and Anna Ramirez emerged this year’s winners with times of 18H 12’ 00’’ and 21H 18’ 31’’ respectively. This was Betalú’s fourth consecutive Titan Desert win, a record in the event, (Franck Fife / AFP)