Stage 2: Vuelta a Stronie Slaskie: What happened? After what felt like a brutal stage yesterday on Stage 1, today was a little friendlier, earning a ‘3’ for difficulty rather than the ‘4’ of yesterday (from a scale of 1-6). What this meant was that the climbs were a little less steep, the descents a […]
Sudety MTB Challenge 2014 Stage 1 – Touring Stronie Slaskie
Stage 1 – Tour de Stronie Slaskie What happened? After yesterday’s short, 15 km prologue, the real Sudety MTB Challenge started today, with a 65 km course that included 2423 metres of climbing. Starting in the beautiful park in central Stronie Slaskie, the course quickly turned off the main road and onto a steep climb […]
Sudety MTB Challenge: Prologue and ‘Pure MTB’
The Sudety MTB Challenge has begun, and for a race that promises to be ‘Pure MTB’ and an “Unusual event” plus being “an above average race” I’m surprised more people don’t know about it. Today the Prologue began in the afternoon, one that was forecast to be plagued with rain but in reality just had an […]
Stage 7 Transalp 2014: 62.73km and 2325hm
The final day of a multiday race such as Transalp is never as easy as the guidebook depicts and our stage 7 was equally as tough as any of the 6 stages we had completed prior. On paper the stage looked simple… 62.7km with a mere 2300hm from Trento to Riva Del Garda… an uphill […]
Kaufmann and Kass defend lead at Transalp
Markus Kaufmann and Jochen Käß have won the sixth stage from Kaltern to Trento at the Craft Bike Transalp. Centurion Vaude 1 completed the 98.25 km and 2,894 metres of climbing in 4:07:37.4 extending their lead over third ranked team mates Daniel Geismayr and Hannes Genze (4:10:37.4) in the overall ranking to 10:44 minutes. Second place went to Alban Lakata and […]
Transalp Stage 5 – Sarntal to Kaltern (67km – 2785hm)
Today was, in a nutshell, BRUTAL! Due to our unfortunate Day 2 (Naomi’s muddy eyeball) we start each day in the mad house that is ‘Pen B’. Why is it a madhouse? Well simply put you have a serious mix of fitness capability, competitiveness and technical skill. This all culminates in a furious attack […]
Transalp Stage 4: Naturns to Sarntal (73km and 2645hm)
The most important thing to remember about a race like Transalp is that there is NEVER an easy day.. today was a mere 73km on paper (very sociable compared to yesterdays 100km and the preceding days of 87km and 97km) but the fine print includes a 30km climb from around 32km to 62km taking us […]
Transalp 2014 stage 3 “The Queen Stage”
Firstly, I will have to up-speed on the events of stage 2 (yesterdays stage from Imst to Nauders) Stu and I were otherwise occupied and failed to log a full report. Stage 2 started in Imst, in the rain and the rain continued for the entire stage… Stu and I rode well (to clarify […]
Craft Bike Transalp 2014 – Oberammergau to Imst – 96km
Wow! Ok so that was part reality check and part amazing, the reality check coming right at the 75km mark when I realized there may actually be a dark art to racing as a mixed pair! The stage started with a slightly terrifying ‘neutralised’ section of 20km, this is generally meant to safely ferry riders […]
Is your life like this?
I promised myself I’d be packed, I’d be packed, prepped, primed, preened and perfectly prepared! All by WAY before my flight leaves right? Then why am I looking at a bike that is in 500 pieces, have a deadline driving me crazy and a presentation with a disagreeable client looming like a vulture ALL the […]