The hub for marathon mountain biking
Belgian Mountainbike Challenge is billed as the toughest bike race in the Benelux but I was left wondering if it’s actually the toughest in the World!? The Ardennes is a famous location for road racing and has a rich history of mountain bike racing with the town of Houffalize hosting the UCI MTB World Cup […]
The 2017 World Cup season is about to start, and we caught up with the BMC team in April at a training camp, and looked over the two bikes that Swiss racer Lukas Fluckiger can choose for his races in 2017. BMC have a refined range, with the 100mm travel Fourstroke, and also the […]
While Alice Springs might be the closest town to every beach in Australia, it’s also prohibitively far from all the nation’s capital cities. For many of us, this means a longish flight or maybe two; it means a fair bit of holiday budget sunk into airfares and accommodation; and it means we might think twice […]
Ever since Shimano XTR M9000 and XTR Di2 were released in 2014, riders, bike mechanics, and tech gurus have been weighing up the benefits and disadvantages of each system. And this has also involved, quite literally, weighing the components of each system as well. I have been a long-time user of Shimano’s XTR components, with […]
In the summer of 2016, a new European stage race was born, and this year the team at MarathonMTB.com couldn’t be more excited. Not since the Swiss Epic launched in 2014 has Europe hosted a new stage race with all the trimmings and all the ingredients for a truly epic experience: a journey through hidden […]
The Port Hills Classic was scheduled for March 2017 as a 30th anniversary of mountain bike racing on Christchurch’s Port Hills. Then, in February, this happened: Rescheduled to April, the event went charging ahead at the trails of Halswell Quarry. While the original Port Hills Classics had, in various forms, consisted of riding various forms […]
There’s no better way to finish a MTB race than soaking in a thermal hot tub. Well, possibly soaking in a thermal hot-tub with a rather nice frothy amber-coloured beverage in hand. And that’s part of the appeal of the Craters Classic. The Craters Classic – scheduled for 11th June 2017 – has just opened another […]
St Albans is a sleepy town on the banks of the MacDonald River, a tributary of the Hawkesbury River about 2hrs drive north of Sydney. Settled in 1842 it doesn’t see a lot of heavy traffic other that 1 weekend in May for the Convict 100. Due to the location from Sydney, many opt to […]
If I think back, I remember buying an 11-28 7 speed cassette for my rigid chromoly mountain bike. I was pretty happy to stick to that size even when the 11-30 was available as my Sugino cranks had a 20t little ring after all. Times change, and with the advent of 1×11 (and 1×12) gearing […]
As a semi professional racer I have limited opportunities to travel due to other work commitments, I have limited sponsorship resources, for these and other reasons its crucial to make the most of every race weekend. When issues occur like teammates being ill or bike mechanical it’s incredible frustrating but when race organisers let you and […]
