The hub for marathon mountain biking
Today was the last day of the first Pioneer mountain bike stage race. Final stages are different beasts in every stage race I’ve done. In shorter stage races, there’s no need for a parade, or gifted wins. In some longer stage races, the race leaders might grace a stage win to other teams, if they […]
The Pioneer camp was busy this morning, the influx of 3 Day Traverse racers has increased the size of the camp, and for everyone who survived yesterday’s monster stage, today’s 67km with a ‘mere’ 2000m of climbing to Snow Farm seemed like it would be a walk in the park. And best of all, the […]
All photos by Tim Bardsley-Smith Every marathon stage race has a Queen stage – the longest stage of the race. Not always the hardest, but sometimes it is. Today, the Queen Stage at The Pioneer was 116km long and with about 3600m of climbing. It was a real battle falling on Day 5 of the […]
The Pioneer mountain bike stage race is built upon three pillars: Find Stunning, Find Character, Find Welcome. Through the first four days, I think I’ve ticked off each one already. I found my character yesterday, realising I much prefer to race than just ride. And I found welcome early on, given the friendly event vibe […]
Another day, another bike race. Such is the beauty, or the banality, of a marathon stage race. When you’re on a roll, it’s a case of rolling on from one stage to the next. You nail your routine in the morning. From the coffee line, to breakfast, to the bike park, to finish packing and […]
While The Pioneer started on Sunday with a Prologue around the Port Hills trails, today could be considered the true start of the marathon stage race. Regardless, the winner’s in Open Men’s stayed the same, as Anton Cooper and Dan McConnell rode an aggressive race and put more time into their rivals on stage one. […]
Stage 4, the finale of Costa Blanca Bike Race 2016, a 7km timetrial. The route looked simple enough on paper but there was a great big dirty 300 meter ascent in the last 2km’s. There was talk of there being sections of 30 or 40 percent gradient, not possible we thought! On arriving to the […]
I’d like to know who can line up on a start line with no trepidation. Surely it can only be the over-confident, or misinformed? Starting the inaugural edition of The Pioneer in Christchurch today with a 37km Prologue, I was wondering which one I was. Lining up with Huw Brassington, a Welsh outdoor athlete, I […]
In stark contrast to yesterday’s start today was pretty cold but the racing was still red hot. There are some seriously quick cross country riders here honing their form and collecting some UCI points for their Olympic qualification. Jirka Novák and Sebastian, plus Yana Belomoina and Margot Moschetti, both CST Superior Brentjens teams started the […]
Golden beaches and warm blue skies, the start of Costa Blanca Bike Race stage 1 could have been a dream of any cyclist. After a short dash through the streets of Benidorm the international field of athletes were treated to a fantastic route with some truly amazing singletrack. Sadly after 30km of the route course […]
