In Australia, The Mountain Bike Australia (MTBA) XCO National Championships is the race that brings out all the big names. 2020 was no exception, with previous winners returning to defend their titles in Elite Men and Women, under 23 Men and Women, and other big names like Cam Ivory (2018 XCO, XCM, XCC champ), Brendan […]
Cape Epic 2020 – we need more than luck
Everyone wishing me well for the Cape Epic has reminded me to be safe, and wished me luck. It’s no accident that these two things come up time and again in conversations about the great untamed African race. In 2018, my team-mate Briony managed to get food poisoning, have all her money stolen by an […]
Sizing up the Absa Cape Epic 2020
The Cape Epic is coming, and I am going to be there. The world’s most televised mountain bike event. The untamed, the big one, the Tour de France of mountain biking. Call it what you will, I’ve seen the routes, seen the GoPro vision, seen the helicopters, and I am smart enough to know that […]
Can I take my XC bike to Maydena Bike Park?
If you live in Australia you would have heard about the launch of Maydena Bike Park in early 2018. About 90 minutes north west of Hobart, Tasmania, the town of Maydena sits on the doorstep of the wild west of the island state. This is where the vast expanse of protected wilderness starts. This is […]
Thoughts and Sensations of competing at a World Title
Close to 300 men and women will compete at the MTB marathon elite world championship this weekend here in Grachen, Switzerland. Some will be vying for the honour of spending the next 12months in the coveted rainbow jersey, a widely respected prize throughout the world of cycling. Others will be lining for the sheer experience […]
Swiss Epic 2019 Stage 5
The final stage of the Swiss Epic, stage 5, took the race in full circle, back to Davos. Covering 64 kilometres and 2,350m of climbing, the stage promised no easy finale, with a number of challenging climbs. MarathonMTB.com’s day at the Swiss Epic With one day to go and over 6 minutes lead, Imogen and […]
Swiss Epic 2019 Stage 4
I know from experience that you can’t pack much more than 2,000m of climbing into 50km if you want to finish in the same place you start – so while today’s Swiss Epic stage looks mercifully short, it was bloody hard work, and that’s how it always stood out from the race route. Swiss Epic […]
Swiss Epic 2019 Stage 3
Every race has one, and today was the Swiss Epic’s Queen Stage. The most demanding, most emotional, hardest stage of the race. Today took in 80km and 2,200m of climbing, and while on paper this may look easier than other stages (think stage 1, with 3,000m climbing), the technicality of today’s trails, and the repeated, […]
Swiss Epic 2019 Stage 2
The Swiss Epic’s second stage presented us with a grand tour of St Moritz, the iconic ski town of luxury shops and private jets. So it was kindof a shame to see two hundred bikers tramp through reception in filthy gear yesterday and pretty much ruin the carpet at our lovely hotel, but nobody seemed […]
Swiss Epic 2019 Stage 1
Last time I came to the Swiss Epic was in 2015 and the event was based in the Valais region, with the route taking us from Verbier to Zermatt. This year, the fifth year of the race, the Swiss Epic roadshow has left the Valais region for the first time and headed to Graubuenden – […]