Carbon wheels have been making inroads in mountain biking for well over 5 years. Although the first options were limited, and eye-wateringly expensive, the options for mountain bikers have grown – there is now so much choice on the market. From major manufacturers like Enve, who keep on expanding their range as the market changes […]
Search Results for: stage race
The Swiss Epic as a ready-made holiday
Related Event: Perskindol Swiss Epic
Imogen Smith explores the Swiss Epic and finds the mountain bike stage race and package holiday together at last. Stage racing is the perfect way to combine a massive mountain bike hit with an overseas experience but, until recently, roughing it and complex logistics have held many of us back from what might otherwise be the perfect […]
Norco Ithaqua: Full fat, low weight
Fat bikes aren’t always the first thing that comes to mind when you think of marathon and stage races – but think a little deeper, and events like the Iditarod come up, or even the Snow Epic. So while fatbikes are synonymous with adventure rides, people who can’t go fast so want to get something […]
Transalp 2016: The final push to Arco
Related Event: Craft BIKE Transalp
Transalp Stage 7: Trento to Arco – 53.6km and 2042m climbing The Transalp 2016 ends today, and with it almost a thousand people go from facing the simple struggles of pushing bikes and bodies over the mountains back to the complexity of every day life. We will all take away different memories from the final […]
Transalp 2016: Mezzana to Trento
Related Event: Craft BIKE Transalp
Transalp Stage 6: Mezzano to Treno – 88.24 with 2364m climbing Day 6. It’s when you can start to smell the finish. You know that, barring unmitigated disaster, there’s a very good chance you’ll make it to the end of the race, but everyone’s tired and tempers are a little frayed. Back when I was […]
Transalp 2016: Nauders to Scuol
Related Event: Craft BIKE Transalp
Transalp Stage 2: 56.17km with 2126m climbing Today’s transalp stage once again treated riders to perfect racing weather, with beautiful sunshine and mild temperatures greeting sleepy riders in the tiny border town of Nauders, sandwiched between Austria, Italy and Switzerland. A compact stage, there was still plenty of ascent waiting in the form of two […]
Transalp 2016: Imst to Nauders
Related Event: Craft BIKE Transalp
Transalp Stage One: 88.85km, 2960m climbing Chris and I were just saying yesterday as we were stuck in a traffic jam in Germany on the way to TransAlp that we are much more chilled out about bike racing than we used to be. Years ago we would carb load on pasta the night before and […]
Out of Hibernation
Related Event: Trans Schwarzwald
Previous years Euro races have been reduced to ‘not being lapped’ so this year I was eager to try a little something different. At least until my quads get a little bigger. So this year I’m targeting smaller races like this weekend’s Cat 2 at Pec Pod Snezkou in the Czech Republic. After the World Championships […]
Who can win the 2016 Craft BIKE Transalp?
If you think of a marathon stage race, chances are you’ll come up with imagery from one of the oldest and greatest of them all – Transalp. This year, Transalp celebrates its 19th anniversary of crossing the alps from north to south. Having recently changed from eight days to seven, Transalp has also seen dramatic […]
Riding Lapierre’s new XR full-suspension bike
Last week, French manufacturer Lapierre released their updated cross-country full-suspension bike – the XR. They’ve billed it as the bike for the racer inside. The Lapierre XR has sat within the Lapierre mountain bike range for a few years, and was one of the first bikes in the line-up to use the e:i automatic suspension management […]