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May 20, 2018 By Ed McDonald Leave a Comment

Escaping winter at the Ashburton 6h

It’s a famous phrase – “the winter of my discontent” – reiterated and echoed on an annual basis with surprise each time that the inevitable does return.  Short daylight hours barely exceeding the time spent at work, cold driving rain, grey skies – it’s a time of year better suited to books and hot chocolate than to […]

Filed Under: Diaries Tagged With: 6 hour, ashburton, h6, marathon, mid canterbury, MTB, Race

March 13, 2018 By Ed McDonald Leave a Comment

Majestic Motatapu

There are some races in the world that become house-hold names by reputation – either for drawing amazing fields and deep racing, for promise of spectacular scenery through beautiful parts of the world, or for amazing adventure.  TransAlp, BC Bike Race and the Cape Epic spring to mind.  New Zealand’s equivalent is the Motatapu – […]

Filed Under: Reports Tagged With: MarathonMTB, Motatapu, mountain bike, New Zealand

March 4, 2018 By Ed McDonald Leave a Comment

Muddy fun in the sun at the Mt Somers Classic

For all the slick and commercial events of the world, sometimes some of the best experiences are delivered by the small club-level races.  The Mt Somers Classic is an excellent example – a fundraising race organised by the Mayfield Lions club that has run for 13 years and generated over $200,000 of reinvestment into the […]

Filed Under: Reports Tagged With: MarathonMTB, mt somers, muddy, New Zealand, south island

February 19, 2018 By Ed McDonald Leave a Comment

Racing a Classic: the Coppermine

Before the days of Trailforks, finding an epic trail was all about distant magazine articles.  One of the most lauded trails was the Dun Mountain loop, a short back-country loop based out of Nelson, New Zealand.  Like many of New Zealand’s back country rides, it follows an historic route through the hills, tracing the old […]

Filed Under: Diaries, Reports Tagged With: coppermine, dun mountain, Epic, gravity nelson, marathon, nelson mtb, Race

February 7, 2018 By Ed McDonald Leave a Comment

A Bag for the Epics: Camelbak HAWG review

Camelbak MarathonMTB HAWG review mountain bike

A little while ago, I saw a pretty inflammatory Camelbak advertisement: the last time you bought a hydration pack, they looked like this. Nothing could be truer for me.  I had an ancient blue Camelbak Mule, complete with zips busted from chronic overloading, horrendous fading and sweat staining, and a certified biohazard status.  But, for all […]

Filed Under: Tech Tagged With: Bike, bladder, camelbak, HAWG, hydration, mountain, Mule, pack

January 28, 2018 By Ed McDonald Leave a Comment

Backcountry Beauty: The St James Epic

St James Epic New Zealand

The St James is a loose name for a backcountry area of New Zealand’s south island around the headwaters of the Waiau river, spanning from the alpine divide down towards the Hanmer Plain.  In the 1990s, the New Zealand Government purchased the area from the landholders for a tidy sum of $40,000,000.  Given that this […]

Filed Under: Reports Tagged With: 100km, Epic, hanmer, marathon, MTB, Race, st james

December 18, 2017 By Ed McDonald Leave a Comment

The Joy (and Stupidity) of Singlespeeding

A little while ago, I read an article on the internet that infuriated me greatly.  Surprisingly, it wasn’t just pure clickbait fake news from the Murdoch press inciting against cyclists via facebook memes, but an article on Pinkbike: Riding Rigid is Ridiculous. Putting my keyboard warrior posturing aside, the Pinkbike article makes a very solid […]

Filed Under: Diaries, Features Tagged With: Ed McDonald, marathon mountain bike, MarathonMTB, Singlespeed

November 29, 2017 By Ed McDonald Leave a Comment

Racing the Wilderness: The West Coast Wilderness Trail

A few years ago, New Zealand’s (then) Prime Minister John Key was faced with an interesting dilemma: how to promote cycle tourism in a country with roads that barely fit two vehicles, let alone cyclists. The solution was a novel one: Te Ara Ahi, the Great New Zealand Cycle Trail. A network of off-road pathways, […]

Filed Under: Diaries, MarathonMTB.com

October 31, 2017 By Ed McDonald Leave a Comment

One of the Toughest, and one of the Best: The Whaka 100

It’s a typical Rotorua morning – there’s a cold drizzle and a slight wind, the forests are shrowded in deep mist, and the air is redolent of sulfurous fumes. On this particular morning, a couple of hundred riders are lined up at the Waipa mill in a colourful display that belies the monotonal grey skies.  […]

Filed Under: Reports Tagged With: 100, marathon, MarathonMTB, MTB, New Zealand, redwoods, rotorua, rotovegas, whaka, whakarewarewa

October 9, 2017 By Ed McDonald Leave a Comment

Getting ready for one of the toughest: the Whaka 100

Rotorua has long been touted as one of the greatest mountain biking destinations, with the trails of the Redwoods – the hard work of the Rotorua Trails Trust – becoming almost mythical in their allure. While principally a destination for those who enjoy the Southstar shuttle service and reps of the great Corners or Little Red Riding Huck […]

Filed Under: News Tagged With: marathon, MarathonMTB, mountain biking, MTB, rotorua, whaka 100, XCM

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