Riders woke today to a perfect Snowy Mountain dawn – still mountains, pink glowing eucalypts, and bright sunshine. Much of the water that came down from the enormous ranges had washed away overnight, as had the wind, leaving the mountains brightly-scrubbed and the trails in mint condition. After an early shuttle to Friday Flat at […]
Day Two at the Snowies MTB Festival
Rain delays and flooded trails The adventures of today actually started at about 5pm yesterday when the rain started to fall. A sprinkle at first became a howling mountain gale that raged through the night. The stiff wind blew the clouds eastward by morning, but the system had dropped over 100mm of water on the […]
Day One at the Snowies MTB Festival
Thanks to a lot of hard work from a lot of people, the 2021 Snowies MTB Festival is ON. It is tempting – so tempting – to draw some inspo from that poem (all the tried and noted riders… loved hard riding… hidden ground full of wombat holes…etc. etc.) but someone’s probably done that already […]
Rocky Trail Shimano MTB GP in Queensland
In a tumultuous year for mountain bike racing and alas everything else in life, organising and executing events has been more difficult than ever. Constantly evolving regulations and travel restrictions have placed unseen challenges on event promoters. With over 10 years of mountain bike event hosting, Rocky Trail Entertainment tested the waters in Queensland in […]
Turkish delight at World Marathon Championships
In a year where bike racing fell off the calendar due to a global pandemic it was amazing that the MTB circus was travelling to Turkey for the UCI MTB World Marathon Championships. It was only three weeks before that I finally committed to attend as I waited to see what travel restrictions would be […]
BeMC Marathon – A yearly pilgrimage
My love affair with the Belgian Ardennes continues, it hasn’t always been a kind relationship, so many times this place has inspired and then demolished dreams. Each May we make our pilgrimage to the area to battle around these beautiful hills, it’s a trip I’ve been making for around six years for marathon races and […]
Snow Challenges Velo Vert Festival
The weather forecasters were right, the snow falls Friday night and as we stand on the start line of the latest UCI World Marathon Series race it’s a high probability that heavy snow will restart soon after the gun fires. We launch over the timing belt before slowing as our tyres crunch through the snowy […]
Racing During a Global Pandemic – O Tour Bike Marathon
It’s been eleven months since I spent two weeks travelling around France and Spain to three different bike races, now finally it was time to release my competitive spirit once again! In March this year we spent three weeks training in Gran Canaria ahead of the start of the season in April, with those races […]
Shimano MTB GP rocks Townsville
Last Saturday marked the return of the HOT ROCK RACE to Townsville XC racing with the Shimano MTB Grand Prix by Rocky Trail Entertainment and supported by the Townsville Enterprise Limited. The event might have had lower than expected numbers but there wasn’t a lack of competition. The 4 hour and 7 hour format might […]
Zwift Haute Route Watopia 3 Day
This past weekend I should have been in France racing the first event on my 2020 calendar, instead my calendar looks like a young childs notepad with random crosses for cancellations and arrows for postponements. Roc Laissagais which would have been the first European 2020 round of the UCI World Marathon Series was going to […]