Tired legs roll out of Bannockburn This morning we got up before dawn and munched through breakfast in the dark. It’s always unbelievable to me that, given my usual appetite, when we get into the depths of a stage race I find myself completely without interest in food, so that eating is stripped of any […]
The Pioneer Stage 4 – Mt Difficulty and other difficult climbs
Click. Beep. Click. Beep. Click. Beep. Ok I’m definitely in my smallest gear, but how is that possible? I’ll just check again. Beep. Yep. Shit. Getting going again Today Mike and I started Stage four of The Pioneer with the goal of making it to the first feed zone, then reassessing things after our nightmare […]
Pioneer hits the Alex trails for the Queen Stage
Why is it that we only crash when things are great? All those awful, cold, wet grovels where you’d pay good money for a legitimate Out, nothing. Nothing goes wrong. Except maybe a flat tyre, but that’s fixable. Now when you’re ripping through trails, performing well, loving it – that’s when life deals you a […]
Pioneer Prologue-2018 event kicks off in challenging conditions
Related Event: The Pioneer
Cold. It was cold. We got up at 5:10am, which if you’ve just arrived from Australia feels a lot like 2:10am, and bolted some breakfast before heading for the first shuttle up to Coronet Peak, the ski station that towers above Queenstown and just happened to be under a whole lot of snow just a […]
What’s it like to race XCO World Champs? Imogen Smith reports on Lenzerheide
I may not be an XCO racer most of the time, and on paper my result was nothing to write home about, but unless I suddenly become a rockstar, nothing I do in my life will come close to the exhilaration of racing XCO World Championships in Lenzerheide. So what’s it like racing XCO World […]
Livigno Training Camp: Day Six
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 […]
Livigno Training Camp: Day Four
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, […]
Livigno Training Camp: Day Two
Mike and I were always going to go our separate ways in Livigno. For Mike, this is a special place overlaid with memories of gypsyish Euro-tripping bikefests of day-long, epic rides over high passes and into wild valleys, all of which he wants to relive. For me, this is the last chance to get in […]
Finding balance – Stage 4 of the Rothaus Bike Giro
Related Event: Rothaus Bike Giro Hochschwarzwald
Back in start block D this morning at the final stage of the Rothaus Bike Giro I settled on a different strategy from the day before. Yesterday I’d gone out hard on a secret mission to escape from start block D, and that hadn’t worked out at all. Today I was going to embrace it […]
Testing the legs on day 3 of the Rothaus Bike Giro
Related Event: Rothaus Bike Giro Hochschwarzwald
You know it’s a bike race when you hear a drone buzzing overhead and a dirt bike kick starts behind you. Standing on a sharp upward slope beneath an enormous Rothaus beer inflatable arch, in start block D is where my Rothaus Bike Giro finally got underway, after a start to our 2018 European trip […]