I know from experience that you can’t pack much more than 2,000m of climbing into 50km if you want to finish in the same place you start – so while today’s Swiss Epic stage looks mercifully short, it was bloody hard work, and that’s how it always stood out from the race route. Swiss Epic […]
Swiss Epic 2019 Stage 3
Every race has one, and today was the Swiss Epic’s Queen Stage. The most demanding, most emotional, hardest stage of the race. Today took in 80km and 2,200m of climbing, and while on paper this may look easier than other stages (think stage 1, with 3,000m climbing), the technicality of today’s trails, and the repeated, […]
Swiss Epic 2019 Stage 2
The Swiss Epic’s second stage presented us with a grand tour of St Moritz, the iconic ski town of luxury shops and private jets. So it was kindof a shame to see two hundred bikers tramp through reception in filthy gear yesterday and pretty much ruin the carpet at our lovely hotel, but nobody seemed […]
Swiss Epic 2019 Stage 1
Last time I came to the Swiss Epic was in 2015 and the event was based in the Valais region, with the route taking us from Verbier to Zermatt. This year, the fifth year of the race, the Swiss Epic roadshow has left the Valais region for the first time and headed to Graubuenden – […]
Ahead of the Swiss Epic 2019
I have often said that the day before a stage race can be as hard as a race itself. And even with planning, today was not without stress. The Swiss Epic starts tomorrow, and as I’m about to set off for some dinner in Davos, it seems like there has been little time to rest […]
How to prepare for a MTB Stage Race
The 2019 Swiss Epic stage race is just around the corner, and like any major mountain bike stage race, there is quite a bit of preparation that is involved in arriving at the start line ready to race. Here’s a look at what Imogen Smith and I have been doing to get ready, along with […]
Final Stage of Port to Port delivers singletrack heaven in Newcastle
Revered as some of the finest singletrack in the country the Port to Port have made a conscious effort to string together one of the funnest stages of any MTB stage race in Australia. Riders were spared any long significant hill climbs today much to the relief of most riders after the brutal climb of […]
Swiss Epic release their 2019 route
The Swiss Epic is the European cousin in the global Epic Series, and under that larger umbrella it has taken a slightly different shape. The Flow category is gone, and the 6 day race is now 5 days, with no opening prologue. But while those changes were already in effect in 2018, the big change […]
The Pioneer Stage five – Final stage brings a few surprises
Tired legs roll out of Bannockburn This morning we got up before dawn and munched through breakfast in the dark. It’s always unbelievable to me that, given my usual appetite, when we get into the depths of a stage race I find myself completely without interest in food, so that eating is stripped of any […]
Queenstown rocks The Pioneer’s first stage
Related Event: The Pioneer
Sure, we all raced a prologue yesterday. We did 20km, got a bit muddy and had some fun. And while it gave us our start position, and settled some nerves, it was but a drop in the ocean for what lay ahead. All that would start this morning. My pet hate at any stage race […]