It’s not too often you go somewhere and it lives up to the pictures in the holiday brochure. Engadin is one of those exceptional places you dream of visiting. The Engadin Bike Giro host town of St Moritz holds a prestigious place in history having held the Winter Olympics in 1928 and 1948. The second […]
Snowy Peaked Alps Bike Festival
This is real mountain biking! The Alps Bike Festival and La Clusaz delivered with kilometre after kilometre of technical trails through beautiful mountain scenery. La Clusaz, a cycling destination. I should have known better than to bring my hardtail, this race is all about showing off the 112 kilometres of dedicated mountain bike tracks. […]
Alps Bike Festival Returns to La Clusaz
Alps Bike Festival takes place in La Clusaz next week with 3 days of events. Around 4000 participants are expected to make the journey to the French mountain resort. With entries due to close on the 13th there’s still a few days left for you to make you’re booking. The event aims to bring families […]
Beer and trails at Belgian Mountainbike Challenge
With its sawtooth route profile Belgian Mountainbike Challenge (BeMC) is known as one of the toughest events on the calendar. The UCI S1 stage race over 3 days takes place in the beautiful Ardennes region starting in the host town of La Roche en Ardenne. The event attracts many top mountain bike pro’s and lots […]
Russian and Norwegians Scorch European Championships
A Russian upset the Italian train and a certain Norwegian legend added another title to her already huge palmares. European Championships was a scorcher both in terms of speed and temperatures! Alexey Medvedev and Gunn Rita Dahle are the new European Champions putting themselves into history books, winning a jersey they can now proudly wear […]
Snowy Adventure at Pretorian Bike Race
The racing calendar is awash with new stage races this year. Marathon and multi day racing continues to show healthy growth. Pretorian Bike Race is a new event from an established organiser and the event offered a 3 day adventure in a part of Portugal waiting to be explored. About 1hr30 north east of Porto […]
Bike Check: Markus Kaufmann’s Centurion Numinis Carbon XC Team
At Andalucia Bike Race a couple of weeks ago we had a chance to look at one of the most impressive looking bikes on the pro circuit, the Centurion Numinis Carbon XC Team of Markus Kaufmann and Team Centurion Vaude. Weighing in at a featherweight 9.3 kilograms this rocket ship will be ridden by the […]
Sensational Trails and Spectacular Views at Andalucia Bike Race
It was the hardest Andalucia Bike Race to date but the marathon king Tiago Ferreira still dominated the competition. Hildegunn Hovdenak took the ladies after winning the final 2 stages. The inclement weather in this year’s edition resulted in shortened stages plus a cancelled stage 5. Whilst the whole of Europe suffered with storms the […]
Gran Canaria – Training Haven
Back in February Ben Thomas Coaching hosted coaching clients and guests in the training haven of Gran Canaria. These weeks were a key part of preparation for the 2018 season. Here’s my view on this ‘Training Haven’. Whilst I’ve worked for guiding companies in the past this was my first attempt at hosting a training […]
Bikes of Andalucia Bike Race – Editors Simplon Cirex
Whilst I travelled with both hardtail and full suspension bikes to Andalucia Bike Race it was the Simplon Cirex full suss which I raced. The rocky terrain of the 3 locations, Jaen, Andujar and Cordoba, would test fitness abilities, technical skills, and mental stiffness. A full suspension bike was the obvious choice for this demanding […]