The hub for marathon mountain biking
“Ja!”, “Si!”, “Yo!”, “Here!”. Roll call at school was always seen as a painful burden of the educational system, at international mountain bike races, it’s like you’re sitting in the front row at the UN. The Mongolia Bike Challenge packed itself up and left the ritzy surrounds of Ulaanbaatar on Saturday morning, headed for a […]
I’m sitting in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport en route to Ulaanbaatar for the Mongolia Bike Challenge. And a challenge it will be. I was searching for a way to explain the race to friends a few days ago in terms they could understand. “I’m essentially riding Sydney to Melbourne next week. On a mountain bike.” It […]
The desire for adventure, and a challenge, that uproots you from the normalcy of everyday life, is something that many people around the world have, and mountain bikers especially. Although some might be happy with the relative safety and comfort of riding their local trails, and achieving ‘PBs’ and claiming ‘KOMs’ or ‘QOMs’ – there […]
I’m getting on a plane to Mongolia next month and I’m taking Whyte’s 29-C with me. I’m approaching the Mongolia Bike Challenge with a heady mix of apprehension and excitement. The race is 856km. Based on some (rough) guess work, I’ll spend upwards of 40 hours of my time in Mongolia on board the 29-C. […]
At 856km, the Mongolia Bike Challenge covers some serious mileage. Sitting down to consider the nature of the course, which includes vast tracts of double track trails as well as some 13,400m of climbing, Mike and I had forever enjoyable task of putting together a bike for me to take on the Challenge. Enter the […]
A bewildering number of mountain bike stage races exist across six continents. Some claim to be the toughest, others the most scenic, while a few boast of being the greatest. Nevertheless, one race which appears to stand alone, in extraordinary ways, is the Mongolian Bike Challenge. Having raced the event in 2013, Phil Welch explains some […]
