The small alpine community of Courmayeur is situated beneath the monolithic Monte Bianco peak on the Italian side of the French-Italian border. Towering at some 4810m Monte Bianco, or otherwise known by its less melodic name Mont Blanc, is Europe’s tallest mountain. A suitable location to hold a mountain bike race! Being a ski town, […]
Seb Jayne’s Euro Odyssey: Chapter 1
After five weeks, Chapter 1 of my European racing trip has come to an end. And just like a good book it went exceedingly fast. From Germany to Austria to the Czech Republic and back to Germany, each country and race has thrown up its fair share of challenges. Four back-to-back top level XC races […]
Sebastian Jayne, checking in from the road
The time between the national championships and now has seemed to fly by. As soon as I crossed the finish line in Bright it was time to get the maps out and finish planning my European season. For this year I wanted to switch things up and focus on doing well at races as opposed […]
Sebastian Jayne: Looking back at Toowoomba
Form can be a complex maze to negotiate. A left turn instead of a right can have you on the start line feeling like you’re dragging bricks. But are your legs the only ones to fault? Since making the change to training myself for this season, I’ve done a lot of digging around on the […]
Counting the top 10 of 2014
I’ll readily admit that there is still a lot of 2014 left to go. About 10% of it actually. And living in Sydney, Australia, means that it’s actually one of the best times of the year to ride right now. But after the Crocodile Trophy, a few easy weeks have been very much enjoyed, and […]
One last Fling for the year
I woke up yesterday morning insisting that I was not going to race the Highland Fling. I’d had no sleep. I was clearly getting tonsillitis (again). I still had Croc Trophy saddle sores that refused to heal. I hadn’t ridden my bike for a fortnight. I’d dropped from the elite 110km race to the 55km […]
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 […]
Variety – The key to life
Variety is the key of life. Especially, variety packs of chocolates. But mid-year racing variety is always good to keep things fresh and interesting. Preparation for the Kowalski Classic and races later in the year is going well, with races and rides both on the road and, thankfully, on the dirt. Last weekend was the […]
Not racing, gambling. The 2014 Eiger Bike Challenge
After racing Sudety MTB Challenge as a mixed pair, Mike and I had spent some time training in Livigno (pasta, altitude, trails, bikewash. Oh, and freezing rain), then travelled to Grindewald in Switzerland to write about MTB tourism in the area for Australian Mountain Bike magazine and race the Eiger Bike Challenge, a famous Swiss marathon […]
Sudety MTB Challenge 2014 Stage 5: The final to Kudowa-Zdroj
Stage 5 – Walim to Kudowa-Zdroj: 80 kilometres What happened? After a whole day of rain yesterday, a bit more overnight, and a cloudy, foggy morning, riders could have been forgiven for wishing that organisers would take pity on them and shorten the 80km Queen Stage of Sudety MTB Challenge 2014 just a little. Yesterday’s 44km […]