If there is a rite of passage for an endurance mountain biker in Australia, it must be doing a stage race in Alice Springs. And mountain bikers from across Australia will race along kilometres of hand built singletrack in Alice Springs this August as The Redback, a four-day, six-stage race invites riders to escape the colder temperatures […]
Archives for January 2017
Ashburton Investments match women’s prize money in response to Lüthi’s message
On the weekend, Ariane Lüthi posted on her Facebook page that she would sit out the race in Grabouw as the event did not offer equal prize money for men and women. But on Monday, Ashburton Investments, the title sponsor of the South African National MTB Series, has announced it will equal the Elite women’s prize money. While […]
National XCO Racers back up in Armidale
Armidale’s University of New England campus hosted its second round of the National XCO Series today on a day that began with perfect sunny skies but gave way to brief storms in the afternoon. Today’s track included some elements of yesterday’s course, with the same start loop and a few early trails in common, but […]
Henderson and Ivory conquer Armidale
Armidale, halfway between Sydney and Brisbane in the northern tablelands of NSW, hosts this weekend’s Australian XCO National Series double header (rounds three and four). Double-headers are appearing more and more frequently on the XCO calendar in Australia, a welcome strategy for keeping costs down as riders travel immense distances to race in our largely empty […]
Team Bulls set to give it horns at the Cape Epic
Winning the 2016 Absa Cape Epic was the “biggest feeling” ever on mountain bike for Urs Huber, and now he and Team Bulls partner Karl Platt are determined to defend their title. But if the pressure of going for a historic sixth Absa Cape Epic win is getting to Platt he is doing an excellent […]
Gstaad Snow Bike Festival: Victory for Rohrbach and Leumann
Under perfect sunny skies, Switzerland’s spectacular Gstaad was once again home of the start to the third and final stage of the Snow Bike Festival. This stage took the riders from the town’s Promenade through the picturesque Chalet area of Gstaad, deep into the Turbachtal and then down the stunning Lauenental, before turning down the […]
Karl Platt hits the road for Cape Epic preparation
The Bestmed Tour of Good Hope’s international reputation was further enhanced this week after confirmation that five-time Cape Epic champion Karl Platt will be on the start line in early March. The German will lead a strong team in South Africa’s premier road stage race that stretches over five days and 490km in the Cape […]
Elite ranks fill for the Otway Odyssey
The racing year is underway, with the first two national XCO rounds done, and the next two on the horizon. But it is the Otway Odyssey which kicks off the marathon racing season. One of the hardest, yet most scenic, marathon MTB races on the calendar, the Otway Odyssey always draws a crowd. And as […]
Sauser and Langvad claim 2017 Attakwas titles
Swiss mountain bike racing legend, Christoph Sauser didn’t only mark his return from retirement at the Fairview Attakwas Extreme MTB Challenge in South Africa on Saturday, he won the gruelling 121km race after the most incredible comeback following a mechanical delay early on. The 40-year-old Investec-Songo-Specialized rider clocked a winning time of 04 hours 50 […]
Challenging climbs and big views at Gstaad Snow Bike Festival
Freezing cold met the riders at the start of the Snow Bike Festival in the middle of the picturesque Promenade in Gstaad. After the opening prologue, the first stage of the race took riders down the valley towards Saanen. Temperatures headed downwards as well, as riders had to endure -18°C in the shade, before embarking […]