The hub for marathon mountain biking
Justifiably many competitors for Tour de Timor woke this morning a little lack lustre in energy level for the 70km stage and 2100m of elevation scheduled for today’s stage. Although the distances of stages here are short in comparison to other MTB stage races of similar difficulty regard such as the Mongolia Bike Challenge, what […]
Tour de Timor stage 2 greeted riders with another early morning wake up call. Early starts are a trend in this race predominantly to allow riders to complete the bulk of racing before the brutal heat of the afternoon sun here. So the 7am start had some riders reaching for the arm warmers and undershirts […]
Back in November last year I began coaching someone in Norway, he ran a bike race, his passion for the event was obvious from the beginning. It didn’t take much to persuade my fiancee and me that we needed to visit Skaidi Xtreme. Flights booked, we signed on for the ‘Different Experience’ and we were […]
The Tour de Timor got underway through the streets of Dili this morning. A neutral 20km section through the neighourhoods of Dili showcased the event to the locals whom all seeming get behind this race. Thousands of screaming fans cheered the riders more or less from start to finish of today’s 83km stage. Another example […]
What the hell just happened? How did an 8 day stay in Livigno just about come to an end? It seems like so recently that we arrived in Livigno, anticipating epic rides, amazing food, crazy Italians, thin air and mountain scenery. For the most part – Livigno delivered. While we didn’t have seven days of […]
Timor Leste in the Timor Sea north of Darwin, Australia lays claim to being one of the youngest country’s on the planet. Hence, hosting the 10th anniversary edition of the ‘Tour de Timor’ international MTB stage race is even more remarkable. Riders are now congregating in the nations capital Dili ready to start 5 days […]
The rain, which Accuweather tauntingly promised us would clear up today, stuck around so resolutely that by 9am it was clear to me that I was going to need something special. I marched Mike up the road, in the freezing drizzle, to a pasticceria and forced him to order me a filled croissant, then, when […]
Sitting here on an early Saturday evening, I just realised this is the longest I have spent in Livigno at one time. While in 2013 I came and visited for about 4 nights, headed off to race Dolomiti Superbike, then came back again for another four or five nights, this would be the longest consecutive […]
Words: Andrew Handyside. Photos: Melissa May The XCM World Championships are nearly upon us and, as any responsible national governing body would do, MTBA have named their athletes who will pull on the green and gold to represent us against the finest the world has to offer. As you know, kitting up for the lads […]
As Mike and I have been watching the weather forecast like the vital signs of a dying man, we knew today would be a great day to have off. But imagine my disappointment when, after the jubilant excesses of yesterday’s climb to the top of Livigno’s mountains, I woke up again with a painfully sore, […]
