For Subaru-MarathonMTB.com’s team at the Omnicane Southern Tropical Challenge, of Jeff Bossler and Will Hayter, today was a reminder of how much challenge is added to a race by running it as a two-man team event. I had one of those rare, 1 in 100, days where really good legs arrive on race day. Every […]
Archives for November 2012
OSTC 2012 – St 1 – GreenField convincing winners
Today’s first full stage of the Omnicane Southern Tropical Challenge 2012 was a true proverbial game of two halves. It took in a 65km loop around the southern part of the island, through some truly beautiful scenery. The first half of the stage, though, was a bit of a phony war. All the climbing in […]
Athletic Development by Solo Racing
The Australian mountain biking scene has a love affair with laps and hours. Three hour races, four hour races, six hour races, seven, eight, twelve, eighteen and twenty-four hour lap based races. We love them. Put one on and we will enter in droves. I’m certain that if XCO events were still a little longer […]
10 Things I have learnt from Marathon and Stage Racing
2012, in terms of racing, pretty much wrapped up last weekend for me at the SRAM Singletrack Mind Race at Awaba. This was not a race I entered to contest, just one to race with some friends. As for races that I was aiming to contest, that all finished up almost three weeks ago, at […]
OSTC 2012 – Prologue
Day one of the 2012 Omnicane Southern Tropical Challenge was a nice short sharp intro – a 6km prologue round the estate of the Domaine de Lagrave, an area of forest near the self-explanatorily named village of Bananes, in the Midlands. Further from my home Midlands of glamorous Leicester, Dudley and Rugby you could not […]
Riders swelter as Awaba puts on a sizzling finale to the SRAM Singletrack Mind Series
After five exciting rounds, the SRAM Singletrack Mind Series was set for an action packed finale at the Awaba Mountain Bike park near Newcastle. As the largest round in the Series with over 360 entrants, it’s pretty clear that the swooping singletrack of Awaba is universally adored! Not even the thought of 8 hours of […]
OSTC 2012 – exploring Mauritius
The Omnicane Southern Tropical Challenge is now one day away from kicking off in Mauritius. With that has come the chance to do some exploring, while doing a few days of acclimatisation. And that acclimatisation is pretty necessary, having left behind rain and 5 degrees in London, to arrive to 30 degrees, (mostly) sunshine and fairly […]
Ben Thomas: Signing off on 2012
Ben Thomas is one of the most prolific endurance mountain biker racers in the United Kingdom. 2012 took him to Spain, South Africa, the Czech Republic, France and many other locations to race his bike – fast! Now, he is looking to 2013. The time available to write blogs has been minimal since my last […]
Stage towns set for 1st BIKE Four Peaks
The framework for the 1st BIKE Four Peaks is set, the secret about the stage towns of the new mountain bike stage race has been disclosed. The successor event of the Trans Germany will kick off in Ruhpolding on June 5. From the Upper Bavarian town situated in the Chiemgau Alps area the route will […]
Re-thinking the free hub. Kappius Components
As mountain bikers, we have been spoilt by continual product evolution. The bikes we ride and the clothing we wear have moved forward in leaps and bounds. Even bikes from five years ago can look antiquated to what is available now. Many features are the same for a basic cross country bike, but the specificity […]