For 2017 the Australian National Series has taken a slightly different approach. Gone are some of the more standard locations like Mt Stromlo, the You Yangs, or even Pemberton. Instead, Mountain Bike Australia (MTBA) are championing more double-headers, with 3 weekends of two races, then a standalone Oceania Championships at Toowoomba, and then National Championships […]
Archives for December 2016
The pull of marathon MTB racing
To paraphrase Dan Atherton, I couldn’t wait to get school out of the way so I could get on with life, specifically racing and training full time. I finished my Abitur (German High School finals) in May having half-heartedly prepared for both the exams and early season racing. My first race was round one of […]
Last-minute Christmas gifts for mountain bikers
Christmas is just a few days away, and for the busy gift-buyer with a mountain-biking-significant-other it’s getting a bit late to order a pair of shoes or helmet, or shop around for kit in just the right sizes… Never fear! MarathonMTB.com is at the rescue with a bunch of fabulous biker gifts that you can […]
What’s under our tree for the Subaru MarathonMTB.com Team
Christmas is drawing close and the MarathonMTB team are in full festive swing. We’re a close group of bike riders, including a husband and wife pair, so we thought we’d give you an insight into the gifts we’ll be giving and receiving this Christmas and beyond. We chatted to each of our team riders and […]
Norco Revolver MarathonMTB team bike builds
In 2016 our team switched from Bianchi Methanol bikes to Norco Revolver models. This wasn’t a decision made quickly or easily, and spawned from a quick bike test on one of the Revolver models before they were released in early August 2015. As an amateur sporting team, our bikes are purchased. Sometimes up-front, other times […]
Sipping cappuccino in starting block A
Related Event: Craft BIKE Transalp
“I will not rest until I sip cappuccino in starting block A” This was a strong statement, delivered by a friend I made at my first mountain bike stage race, the 2008 Transalp. Thomas Dooley had uttered the sentence with the mix of determination and irony that I would come to learn typified his personality. […]
Five ways to survive a marathon MTB event
Most mountain bikers will participate in a marathon event, or at the very least a challenging marathon ride, at least once. Marathons usually take four or more hours to complete, and the physical test of pushing the body for that long is surpassed only by the mental challenge of staying focused, positive, and coping with […]
Tankwa Trek steps into the UCI category for 2017
The Tankwa Trek isn’t South Africa’s oldest three-day mountain bike stage race. Neither is it the biggest. But it is firmly on track to become the most internationally recognised, following the addition of two new sponsors and the upgrade to International Cycling Union (UCI) status. The three-day race, which was only established in 2013, has […]
Cory Wallace: Attacking the Yak Attack
All Yak Attack photos by Rupert Fowler By far the Yak Attack was the most scenic race I’ve been to, as we rode through the heart of the largest mountains on earth and into the hidden world of an old Buddhist kingdom. A region rarely visited with stunning mountain peaks, true mountain people and a mystical […]
Bike Buller for XC demons
Related Event: Bike Buller
Bike Buller has been growing and evolving over the past years, and it would be easy to look at the line up and think there isn’t as much to offer the cross-country or marathon racer as there used to be. But that would be wrong. While many of the newer events are gravity focused, the […]