‘You doing Mo’vember Spies?’ The pressure from a colleague had increased dramatically come month end October. I’d run out of excuses, I couldn’t avoid him, he sits near the door to the office and my only escape. ‘ARGH! Alright, but I get to choose my charity.’ After much debate the dice was cast, the razor […]
Racing 2014 Part 1 – My year in numbers
I was too tired to be gleeful when my racing year ended two weeks ago, but now that a bit of time’s passed, I’ve been enjoying looking back on it all, so much that I thought I’d write about it. I’m calling it my racing year, rather than my season, because in Australia, and especially […]
Iceman Cometh 2014 – Slip’n’Slide in North America
The ‘Iceman’ MTB race in the USA carries a somewhat mythical status among the North American MTB community. The annual 31 mile point-to-point race from Kalksaka to Traverse City in Northern Michigan has grown to become largest point to point race in North America with nearly 6000 competitors attempting the trail through sweeping singletrack, dirt […]
Perskindol Swiss Epic – Stage 5 – Grächen to Zermatt 60km
A week ago I arrived in Switzerland, meeting race partner Stu for the first time in the baggage reclaim. Having not ridden with Stu before I was a little apprehensive to say the least. While I wasn’t at the Swiss Epic for a “result”, I still wanted to push myself and do well and a […]
Perskindol Swiss Epic – Stage 4 – Grachen 75km
I keep getting all ‘hero worship’ but heres todays chat, Matt to Karl Platt, ‘Hey Karl you doing the Munga?’ Karl to Matt ‘Yeah, it should be good but I’ve never done 24 hour racing before’, Kulhavy to Sauser ‘Hey Susie we go from the gun yeah?’ *nervous laughter from those in earshot* Sauser to […]
Perskindol Swiss Epic – Stage 3 – Leukerbad to Grächen 68km
3 days done, that’s the halfway point and we are on the run in now… except when its 3 days with elevation profiles that look like sharks teeth! On paper it was only 61km to Grächen, but within that it contained 3000m of climbing. How is that even possible?! On a road bike back home […]
Perskindol Swiss Epic – Stage 2 – Leukerbad to Leukerbad 70km
Well after yesterdays horror and semi-terminal implosion in the final 5km today was all about survival and pacing, no real tactics just get to the end respectably! Hard to do when you get sucked along in the vortex that is the mad UCI peloton but this faded the minute we hit the climb and my […]
Perskindol Swiss Epic – Verbier to Leukerbad, 95km Stage 1
Stage 1. Queen stage. 95km, 3050m climbing. BOOM! That was one tough day in the saddle. Around the start line it was pretty surreal, lining up in the same starting box as the people I have been watching on TV for years – even as the race started I stuck with them until it got […]
Perskindol Swiss Epic – Verbier to Verbier 16km Prologue
You can’t imagine any time trial near this Swiss town will be anything other than challenging. Verbier sits looking over a stunning valley at around 1600m, surrounded by 2000m plus ski runs that during the summer act as a magnet to any mountain biker who likes to keep things punchy. The climbs are tough, the […]
Perskindol Swiss Epic nerves
I’m a bit of a delicate flower, I look for a good bed, some good food and a warm shower when planning the next mtb adventure. You can call me soft but I’m just admitting that even Mr I-prefer-a-duvet wasn’t prepared for what waited for us in Verbier! Oh man! The Perskindol Swiss Epic is in […]