Time waits for no man (or woman), and this seems increasingly true as every year passes. The pressures of work, rest and play can actually add up quite a lot. Seeing an Australian summer as an ‘off season’ is odd – even though there are plenty of pro’s who do just that. The sun is […]
That’s how it is in Jozi
Stu Spies is a London based mountain bike, road and cyclocross habitual racer. The pendulum has swung towards all things Marathon Mountain Biking, and he is riding for the MarathonMTB.com-Repack Team in South Africa. Well its been a full month, I’m gearing up for my first Ultra of the year, Barberton, and as is the […]
Going Wild(side) with Rob Parbery
Rob Parbery is a Sydney, Australia, based Mountain Biker who has completed most Australian Mountain Bike Events singlespeed, on a ‘cross bike, fixed – or a combination of all of those. If you have had the chance to relax post-race with ‘Parbs’ and part of the cold selection from his Esky – count yourself lucky. […]
MTB Tourism: Victoria, Australia
Buller. Forrest. Beauty. Beechworth. The Youies…Places I’ve long dreamed to experience by bike but never quite got there. It was clearly time for a good, long holiday – one that takes in all these places and then some. My partner and I therefore spent the first three weeks of January completely exhausting ourselves with a […]
Putting bonkers into perspective
Sean Conway – racing round the world For many of the non-cyclists in my life – family, friends, work colleagues – some of the stuff I do on a bicycle seems a bit daft. Indeed probably to some cyclists as well. To take a couple of examples: riding the queen stage of the 2010 Transalp, […]
Polar Opposites
Time moves on, dates change, but some things remain the same. My racing and travel calendar is morphing into a 2012 format, involving lessons learnt from previous years, but maintaining a strange penchant to return to suffering. Certainly each season is linked to the last – as previous performances and the desire to either prove […]
Music to turn pedals by
I’m a big believer in music as a training tool. Obviously it isn’t useful when you’re riding in a group; although I have seen people attempting to contradict this by keeping their iPod on while in a chaingang. That’s not the chaingang for me. Also there are times when I’m out on a mountain bike […]
Training or tourism?
Each Christmas or shortly before is when I usually think of training as really starting. Before that, having had a break after the racing season, I normally just ride without much in the way of an objective other than turning the legs over and having some fun on the mountain bike. So Christmas is the […]
2011: Thanks to those who made it happen
The past 12 months or more have been pretty hectic, to say the least. Trying to report on the best Marathon Mountain Bike races and Stage Races from around the globe is a bit of a task – especially if you aim to have a team member or yourself in the event. There have been […]
Path to the Kona Odyssey
Inspired by Pete’s journey to the Kona Odyssey, his first epic marathon, I felt it fitting to compare experiences leading up to arguably Australia’s hardest marathon. Two regular guys taking on the Otway trails in hope of glory. Ok, maybe not the glory associated with winning, but glory of having a great day out on […]