The hub for marathon mountain biking
The second stage of the Engadin Bike Giro featured over 2,500 metres of climbing in 74 kilometres. Most of the uphill was in the second half of the course, including a whopping alpine climb from 1,750 to over 2,500 metres above sea level that started at the 47-kilometre mark. Having been ensconced in the world […]
Whenever I chat to bike racers who are ready to step away from competition there’s always one aspect of racing that has particularly turned them off the lifestyle. It’s not the sacrifices, the diet, or the training. It’s not the nerves, the uncertainty, or the agony of racing… Nope, it’s the waiting. Days spent in […]
In the whole lead-up to this trip to Europe, I’ve focused more on the Roc des Alpes Marathon than the actual World Champs race. To be held a week before Worlds, I knew that if I was ever to have a chance at getting a podium in a UCI Series marathon in Europe, the Roc […]
I had intended to write about the lead-up to World Champs each week for a month beforehand, but life has got in the way of that plan. I’ve had a pretty eventful fortnight or so now, with Worlds just a week-and-a-half away, I’m afraid I’m going to have to squeeze it all in to a […]
Having done some of the world’s toughest marathon stage races, I often underestimate how hard what I think of as ‘mini stage races’ can be. Sure, you’re not on the bike for five or six hours a day, and you’re typically only racing for three or four days, but the pacing is different – racing […]
This morning Mike and I arrived at the race start rather early. Having thought the gun would be going off at 8am, we arrived at 7, only to find that we were wrong, and would have to wait until 9. This would have been fine, except it was arctically cold and windy. We found a […]
Port to Port is back and bigger than ever. Now in its third year, and now boasting a field of about 600, riders set off on the traditional sandblasting stage one today from the gorgeous marina in Nelsons Bay, dolphins playing in the water beside us. The first stage of Port to Port is always […]
Marathon mountain biking isn’t a glamorous sport. In the past year I’ve got nude in a rainy paddock surrounded by blokes because there was nowhere else to get changed, slept in the boot of a car, smuggled a $7.50 toaster into a hotel room to avoid having to pay for breakfast, and washed filthy kit […]
I wasn’t supposed to race the Convict 100 – not at all. Instead, I was supposed to be at a team training camp with my road team to prepare for the NRS race Battle on the Border. BUT it turned out that I was going to be in Canberra last week for some skills training […]
They say you’ve got to be careful what you wish for. Just before heat-induced delirium set in about half-way through today’s stage I reflected that I’ve been walking around for years trumpeting my taste for hot races. Well, today I got what I wished for and more on the final stage at Easter in the […]
