Livigno is many things. It is a duty free shopping hub, an alpine town that is popular for snow sports, a farming village that has had rapid change – and an ever-growing base for altitude training. From runners, cross-country skiers, road cyclists, mountain bikers and more, Livigno offers about 1800m base elevation, with quiet trails, […]
Finding balance – Stage 4 of the Rothaus Bike Giro
Related Event: Rothaus Bike Giro Hochschwarzwald
Back in start block D this morning at the final stage of the Rothaus Bike Giro I settled on a different strategy from the day before. Yesterday I’d gone out hard on a secret mission to escape from start block D, and that hadn’t worked out at all. Today I was going to embrace it […]
Testing the legs on day 3 of the Rothaus Bike Giro
Related Event: Rothaus Bike Giro Hochschwarzwald
You know it’s a bike race when you hear a drone buzzing overhead and a dirt bike kick starts behind you. Standing on a sharp upward slope beneath an enormous Rothaus beer inflatable arch, in start block D is where my Rothaus Bike Giro finally got underway, after a start to our 2018 European trip […]
Gains and losses at the Rothaus Bike Giro
Related Event: Rothaus Bike Giro Hochschwarzwald
Friday 17th August dawned sunny and warm in the Hochschwarzland, home for the Rothaus Bike Giro. Birds chirped, the rising sun warmed the cool overnight air, and many Germans contemplated their fruhstuck. But while the day was waking up, two devoted MarathonMTB.com Team riders were not. Imogen and I slumbered on through the early, and […]
Rothaus Bike Giro: The Prologue
There is a certain mystique about heading overseas to ride and race your bike. If you’ve never travelled to pedal in anger it is easy to romanticise the experience. The climbs, the trails, the #fullpro experience, the class of European riding and racing (or other areas) and of course the chance to benchmark yourself against […]
Reef to Reef: The fourth and final stage
And just like that, it’s over! Reef to Reef today finished with a sweet 50-kilometre stage that took in some icons of tropical north Queensland riding: Wetherby Station, The Bump Track, and Port Douglas’s Four Mile Beach. Logistically, this was a tricky one to manage: everyone corralled in the dark at 6am to load bikes […]
Reef to Reef stage three
Stage three of Reef to Reef and we’re back. After all the challenges of the last fortnight or so (so sick!), Mike and I finally woke up feeling good. And excited. And not sick! Want to catch up? Check out our reports from Stage 1 and Stage 2 Today was the Queen Stage of the […]
Reef to Reef Stage Two
After having such a great time yesterday, Mike and I had a pretty average recovery and a revival of dodgy sick symptoms (me especially) and decided (excruciatingly) that it would be wise to sit the second day of Reef to Reef out. This nearly broke our hearts, especially when people started returning from the stage […]
Imogen Smith: The ultimate comeback
It’s been quite some time since I’ve written a blog for MarathonMTB.com. Far too long, in fact, if you read the fine-print on my contract. But it’s not by accident. The last time I wrote just after National XCM Champs I managed to compose a cheery-ish, superficial post that sufficiently, I thought, masked the utter […]
Cory Wallace: Remembering Narayan
On June 13th the World lost one of its rising cycling stars when Nepal’s National Mountain Bike Champion met his last day on this earth. Narayan Gopal Maharaja fell off a dam while in a race in Sri Lanka and drowned in the river below. I hadn’t cried in years but I was shedding tears the […]