This vision of goldness is GT’s extraordinarily limited edition Golden Bike Zaskar, complete with custom-finished XTR, Thomson and Mavic parts. It’s a bike that you can’t buy – the only way to get hold of one (or a similarly-blingiferated Marathon or Force) is to win it. And the only way to do that is to win a race.

Specifically, you need to be the fastest amateur (as in: not paid to ride, not supplied with a bike by a sponsor, not a holder of a pro race license, over 18) at one of 21 Golden Bike Races worldwide. All the Golden Bike Races are piggybacked on to existing (and mostly already prominent) races, including the UK’s Original Source Mountain Mayhem. Win any of the races, you win a bike. You can take part in as many of the races as you like (although we’ll be impressed if anyone manages to get to all of them…) but you can only win one bike.

The full Golden Race schedule is as follows:

April

• Canberra, Australia 4/4/09 24 Hour Enduro
• Ontario, Canada 4/19/09 Paris to Ancaster Bike Race
• Faro – Algarve, Portugal 4/25/09 Maratona D’alte

May

• Solothurn, Switzerland 5/10/09 Bike Days/Racer Bikes Cup
• Daejun City, South Korea 5/16/09 Samchuly Bicycle National MTB Championship
• L’esquirol, Spain
  5/24/09 17a Cabrerès BTT

June

• FongShan Reservoir, Taiwan 6/13/09 FongShan Reservior Cross Country
• Willingen, Germany 6/13/09 Bike Festival in Willingen
• Ledbury (Herefordshire), UK 6/20/09 Mountain Mayhem
• Maribor, Slovenia 6/21/09 Nissan UCI WC race

July

• Villabassa, Italy 7/12/09 Sudtirol Dolomiti Superbike

August

• Eger, Hungary 8/2/09 BÜKK MARATON XC race
• Oppdal, Norway 8/8/09 SykkelEner’n
• Sopo, Cundinamarca, Colombia 8/18/09 Andean Cross Country Open

September

• Jedovnice, Czech Republic 9/12/09 GT Zaskar 2009
• Joulemae, Estonia 9/12/09 Elion Cup
• Otaki, Japan 9/20/09 Try Bike

October

• Frejus, France 10/1/09 Roc d’Azur
• Rototura, New Zealand 10/3/09 Whaka 100 in Rotorua
• Parys, South Africa 10/10/09 The Ride Mag Crater Cruise
• Pueblo Eden, Uruguay 10/18/09 AventuraGT

Full details at www.GTisGolden.com.