With news last week that Ariane Luthi would be racing with Christina Kollman, and now word that Sabine Spitz and Robyn de Groot will return to the Cape Epic, along with Candice Lill and Adelheid Morath – it is clear that the Cape Epic is truly benefiting from making a seperate start for the women’s […]
Same firepower, new name for Canyon superstars
When you think of marathon and stage race super power you typically think of two teams: Topeak Ergon and Team Bulls, and of course more recently Centurion Vaude. In 2018, Canyon are expanding on their commitment to the world of marathon and stage racing creating Canyon Topeak Factory Racing. The Marathon specialists will be headed […]
Alban Lakata searches for a win at his ninth Absa Cape Epic
Alban Lakata has won just about every marathon mountain bike race that is worth winning, including the world title three times. But as he heads into his ninth Absa Cape Epic, Lakata is desperately seeking the win that has proved elusive for one of mountain biking’s true stars. Lakata will once again team up with […]
Liberty TransCape set to make a difference
The Liberty TransCape MTB Encounter, a seven-day, 614km race to be held next month, will be part of a concerted drive to support Africa Foundation. The event, supported by STANLIB and Volvo, begins in Knysna on February 4 and ends in Franschhoek in the Western Cape on the tenth. Now in its fourth year, the […]
Fast and furious at the Snow Bike Festival
There’s a funny sense of relief when the last day of a stage race rolls around. Even when it’s been something you have planned for, anticipated, saved for and trained for – when you’re tired you are still ready for it to finish. And despite the Snow Bike Festival being a popular 4-day format of […]
Snow Bike Festival Prologue – a comedy of errors
The Snow Bike Festival is the the first UCI S1 mountain bike stage race of the year, and also the only UCI race that is held on snow (although professional road racers might disagree some years when Paris-Nice gets hit hard by the weather!). With a home in the Swiss resort town of Gstaad, the […]
Hermida and Rodríguez return to the Absa Cape Epic
In 2017 former Mountain Bike World Champion José Antonio Hermida and retired road racing super star Joaquim ‘Purito’ Rodríguez took on the Absa Cape Epic, and in 2018 they will put on their ‘Merida Factory Racing’ kit once again and head to the start line of the biggest mountain bike stage race in the world. […]
XCO National Series Round 3 and 4 – inferno on the Commonwealth Games Course
I arrived early for Round Three of the Australian XCO National Series at the Commonwealth Games course at Nerang and watched the junior men race. By 8:30am it was already over 32 degrees and very, very humid. The field was completely devastated by the heat, many youths ending up in the first aid tent. I […]
For the love of mountain biking
I have been riding bikes to escape, spend time with friends, and explore since I can remember. As soon as I was allowed to ride to a friend’s house unaccompanied I did. When I asked to be allowed to go further, that was fine, and I had a physical boundary set by my parents, of […]
All eyes to the Attakwas Extreme MTB Challenge
The 2018 South African mountain biking season gets underway in a few short days, on the 20th of January, at the traditional season opener: the Momentum Health Attakwas Extreme, presented by Biogen. The one hundred and twenty one kilometre ultra-marathon – from Chandelier, near Oudtshoorn, to Pine Creek, in Great Brak River – has once […]