Australia’s official Solo 24 Hour Mountain Bike National Championships will be held at The Australian Botanic Garden, Mt Annan near Sydney on 29-30 November 2014. The Championships are an annual event sanctioned by Mountain Bike Australia, the governing body for the sport in Australia. In 2014, the event will be presented by Rocky Trail Entertainment, who […]
Archives for November 2014
Core work for Mountain Biking
For a body designed to run around in an upright position chasing mountain lions, cycling is a pretty out there concept. Sitting hunched over, neck out and pedalling circles is far from natural. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, the body makes changes so that your cycling position becomes more sustainable. […]
Stu Spies: Mo’vember For Bikes
‘You doing Mo’vember Spies?’ The pressure from a colleague had increased dramatically come month end October. I’d run out of excuses, I couldn’t avoid him, he sits near the door to the office and my only escape. ‘ARGH! Alright, but I get to choose my charity.’ After much debate the dice was cast, the razor […]
Racing 2014 Part 1 – My year in numbers
I was too tired to be gleeful when my racing year ended two weeks ago, but now that a bit of time’s passed, I’ve been enjoying looking back on it all, so much that I thought I’d write about it. I’m calling it my racing year, rather than my season, because in Australia, and especially […]
How to increase your speed
Marathon racing in summer is wrapping up, with just a couple of events left for the year, notably the Hellfire Cup and Husky 100. But that doesn’t mean you need to hang the bike up (although if you need to, you should). Just about everyone who focuses on marathon racing could be guilty of not […]
Reviewing the 2014 Maverick Series
The Maverick Series was created to give ‘mountain bikers exactly what they need – a great series featuring key established events conducted over a manageable race calendar’. The inaugural Maverick Series unified four established marathon events across 2 states and a territory, spanning a nine-month time period from March to November. The events incorporated into […]
Naomi Hansen Signs Off: Camelbak Highland Fling 2014
The Camelbak Highland Fling is the final race of the 2014 Maverick Series and my final mountain bike race for a while… I am not one to say never again but it will be a little while. I first raced the Highlang Fling in 2012 in the 100 mile category and although the distance was […]
One last Fling for the year
I woke up yesterday morning insisting that I was not going to race the Highland Fling. I’d had no sleep. I was clearly getting tonsillitis (again). I still had Croc Trophy saddle sores that refused to heal. I hadn’t ridden my bike for a fortnight. I’d dropped from the elite 110km race to the 55km […]
Iceman Cometh 2014 – Slip’n’Slide in North America
The ‘Iceman’ MTB race in the USA carries a somewhat mythical status among the North American MTB community. The annual 31 mile point-to-point race from Kalksaka to Traverse City in Northern Michigan has grown to become largest point to point race in North America with nearly 6000 competitors attempting the trail through sweeping singletrack, dirt […]
How to become a World Champion
There’s a burning question amongst many cyclists out there – how do I become a champion? Or, more pertinently: How do you become a World Champion when you are too old, lack talent and ability, and don’t have time to train? I sat down with Grant Johnston after his prestigious win in the Rolloff World Championships […]