I promised myself I’d be packed, I’d be packed, prepped, primed, preened and perfectly prepared! All by WAY before my flight leaves right? Then why am I looking at a bike that is in 500 pieces, have a deadline driving me crazy and a presentation with a disagreeable client looming like a vulture ALL the […]
Sports Massage: Myth or Magic?
Since my first 100km event as a wobbly teenager (giraffe, rollerskates, you get the picture) I’ve been amazed at the recuperating benefits of sports massage. For me it was clear, I did a long ride, I could barely walk afterwards, I got a massage, I felt relatively human again, since then I’ve never turned back! […]
The Art of Crashing
Subaru-MarathonMTB.com Racer Stu Spies loves a road race – in fact he just loves racing. Stu checks in with his thoughts on crashing. Surely part of his build towards the 2014 Transalp? We don’t like to talk about it, sometimes we barely acknowledge its existence, but it is woven into the fabric of what we […]
Confessions of a secret roadie… Eat, sleep, bike. Repeat.
I am quite literally in the vortex, the road racing season has kicked off, the crit season is well and truly underway, time trials are looming and there is that small issue that I race for a MTB team which has universally raised the bar and will be expecting some solid results this year. In […]
How to Prepare for Transalp, Mixed
When my Dad decided this parenting malarkey was best done more at arms length than in the trenches, I landed up with a little more feminine perspective than is probably healthy for a 9 year old boy. Thankfully Dad was always on hand to keep the scales balanced (albeit after an hour pedal to the […]
A guide to Cyclocross Team Champs
You knew it was coming, the post apocolypctic account of a season in the mud, I did warn you in November! For the uninitiated, and I can’t think there are many, please do yourself a favour and watch the World Championships that recently took place in Hoogerheide in the Netherlands. What you will witness may […]
Stu Spies’ Blog: The ‘Cross Season Timeline
9 rounds in and the London Cross family of riders, dogs, kids, mums, dads, broken mechs and snapped chains steadies itself for the second start of the season, the bit where it gets COLD! In late September, it is basically tropical, your only issue is if you’ve glued your mud tyres to your one set […]
I remember now… Stu Spies at the O-Tour 2013
Funny thing this marathon racing, you spend a lot of time staring at your front wheel don’t you? Or the dirt in front of it, or your fork crown or your lock-out latch or someone else’s rear tyre, rear end, rear something. It can be a little, zombie, right? Basically you are putting out just […]
O-Tour Preparation – Stu Spies Style
As mountain bikers we’re a pretty adventurous lot, we seek out trails and places that the general masses gloss over or drive past without batting an eyelid to all that potential fun hidden just behind a fence or slightly off the main drag. We revel in our secret knowledge of cut throughs, alleys, drainage canals, […]
Stu Spies’ Blog: Get out of the box and into the race
Top 50, we better, top 40, doable, top 30….oof! So Northern Monkey aka Matt bridge, harbinger of hurt, had set us some straight forward goals, I liked these, I agreed. I’m a 4 time vet of Transalp, this is Bridgey’s 3rd, so we are wise, respectful of the event and the raft of ups and […]