Australia’s largest mountain bike marathon and the final race in the 2012 Real Insurance XCM Series is set to go off with a bang on Sunday 11th November, in the town of Bundanoon. The Bundanoon Dash on Saturday has become a feature of the Highland Fling race weekend and features a race within a race, […]
2013 Craft BIKE Transalp Dates and Rego announced
In 2013, the Craft BIKE Transalp will take place for the 16th time. Over the course of eight days, from July 13 thru 20, 600 mountain bike teams of two, consisting of pros as well as amateurs, will tackle the challenge of crossing the Alps. The registration for the world’s toughest mountain bike stage race […]
Highland Fling – who should watch who?
We are days away from the final round of the Real Insurance XCM Series, the Briars Highland Fling. The series started well in 2011, but it has exploded in 2012, drawing racers from up and down the East Coast of Australia to compete in some of the premier Marathon MTB races that make up the […]
BIKE Trans Germany becomes BIKE Four Peaks
A new face, new routing, and new challenge: as of now, one of the most popular and well-known German mountain bike stage races for both pros and amateurs gets a facelift. After a total of six editions, the event formerly known as BIKE Trans Germany becomes the BIKE Four Peaks which will last over four […]
Croc Trophy 2012: The Closing Stages
With stage 6 being quite a brutal stage for all but the strong and the canny, it was a triumphant cheer that went up at dinner on Thursday when Race Organiser Gerhard Schoenbacher announced that the 120km stage would be cut to 90km. With the route making a 90km trip to Maytown, and the extra […]
Stage 5: Hump Day at the Croc
Stage 5 Irvinebank – Mt Mulligan Hump day. There is a point in any mountain bike stage race where you finally feel that the end is in sight. We’ve just made it there in the Crocodile Trophy, finishing 5 out of 9 stages. There was an air of uncertainty yesterday about whether the riders who […]
Rybarik seemingly unstoppable
Czech rider Ivan Rybarik wins the fourth stage of the 2012 Crocodile Trophy at Irvinebank today and the overall race result stays the same with Czech and Austrian riders dominating the top five positions: Rybarik leads ahead of fellow Czech rider Ondrej Fojtik in second and the Austrian Wolfgang Krenn is third. Ondrej Slezak (CZE) […]
Getting over the ranges, and defending a Jersey!
Another sweaty day, another 111km to race in Far North Queensland. It must be the Crocodile Trophy. This is a race that draws people from all over the globe, although quite a few from Central and Eastern Europe. The Subaru-MarathonMTB.com Team even has a UK/RSA representative this year, with Werner van der Merve flying out […]
The Ivanator gets his jersey back
Stage 3, Lake Tinaroo – Irvinebank. 111 km, 2700m The Australian media has called it the “Czech domination” at the Crocodile Trophy and also their fellow riders admit that Ivan Rybarik and Ondrej Fojtik’s performances of the last three stages are to be admired. After today’s wild ride across the rough terrain of the Hasties Swamp […]
Croc Trophy Stage 1: Smithfield XC
In a big change from 2011, the 2012 Crocodile Trophy started with a standard cross country format race. Using the old World Cup/World Championship trails in Smithfield, the local course setters came up with a challenging but not overly technical 6km loop for the racers to start on. With 130 racers in Cairns for the […]