Earlier this year I reached out to Selle Repente about testing one of their saddles. I wasn’t very aware of the entire range, but had seen a few athletes (Italian riders specifically) using them, and their designs looked intriguing. While I have moved to the flat, wide, short style of saddles over the past few […]
Bikepacking the Swiss Alpine Bike #1 MTB Route
Last week I set off to ride the Swiss Alpine Bike #1 MTB route, which runs across Switzerland from Scuol to Aigle (or Aigle to Scuol), covering 670km and 24700m of climbing. It is suggested to cover the route in 16 days, but I planned around 8, booked my accommodation on Booking.com and arrived in […]
Alpine Bike #1 route in Switzerland – the preparation
I’m sitting on a train, travelling backwards on the way to Zurich. Every now and then I take a cursory glance at my bike bag near the train’s entry. My final destination today is Scuol, right in the east of Switzerland in the canton of Graubuenden. But this is far from my final destination on […]
Bike Check: Imogen Smith’s Factor Lando XC
For 2023, our team riders made the move to the recently released Factor Lando XC full-suspension frames. The bikes were released in 2022, one of two mountain bikes that Factor have designed and built. Given their place in the high end road, gravel and triathlon markets, it is no surprise that both the Factor Lando […]
6 reasons to ride The Redback this August
Mountain bike stage races and Alice Springs go together like red wine and cheese. The city in the centre of Australia has hosted mountain bike stage races for two decades, with riders visiting from the edges of the continent to ride the sweet singletrack in the red centre. In 2023 The Redback runs from 18-21 […]
Bike check: Mike Blewitt’s Factor LS for the Devil’s Cardigan
Here at MarathonMTB.com we’ve realised there is a lot of crossover between the training, racing, and outlook of marathon events and gravel events. And that’s why along with Justin Morris and Imogen Smith, I’m mixing in a few gravel events this year. Having used a Norco Threshold for cyclocross racing, road racing, training and gravel […]
9 things I learnt from an overnight bikepacking trip
This weekend I packed up my bike and a few key things and joined a mate for a bikepacking meet up, called the Jimna Escape. The concept is simple – everyone meets at Jimna Base Camp, which is a school in a timber town that has passed it’s use by date. So now the school […]
Catching up with the Convict 100
On May 6th, Max Adventure hosted another successful edition of the Convict 100, with the premier 100km distances being won by National XCM Champion Em Viotto and Joel Green. With 2022 being a wash out (what wasn’t?) the event had a bumper field of riders ready to tackle the 44km, 68km and 100km routes. There […]
A closer look at the Pinarello Dogma XC bike of Pidcock and Ferrand-Prevot
INEOS Grenadiers riders Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and Tom Pidcock have just had their new Pinarello Dogma XC bike revealed. It’s a full-suspension XC bike that will be tested between the tape at the opening round of the UCI Cross-country World Cup in Nové Město, Czech Republic, on 11th – 14th May. Pinarello have a renewed focus […]
Malevil Cup returns for 2023
The Malevil Cup is one of the most traditional and prestigious mountain bike marathons in the Czech Republic. In recent years, the bike marathon in northern Bohemia has hosted the European marathonchampionships, the national championships and the prestigious UCI MTB marathon series. In 2023 the Malevil Cup has a UCI C1 classification, which should attract […]