Whenever I chat to bike racers who are ready to step away from competition there’s always one aspect of racing that has particularly turned them off the lifestyle. It’s not the sacrifices, the diet, or the training. It’s not the nerves, the uncertainty, or the agony of racing… Nope, it’s the waiting. Days spent in […]
Ferreira and Neff win XCM World Championships
On a gloriously sunny day in the Aveyron, Swiss star Jolanda Neff and Portuguese powerhouse Tiago Ferreira won the 2016 UCI XCM World Championships, raced on a hilly, technical course that started and finished in Laissac, France. The elite women started first as the morning had barely hit 10 degrees. Men would start 25 minutes later. […]
Bike Check: Imogen Smith’s Norco Revolver 29 FS
We have taken a look at Imogen Smith’s team bike in the past, both in 2014 before the Crocodile Trophy, and then almost a year later before the Swiss Epic. While the Bianchi Methanol 29 FS frame and Stan’s NoTubes Valor wheels remained the same those times – in 2016 the whole Subaru-MarathonMTB.com Team are […]
Who can win the 2016 XCM World Championships?
Entry lists for the 2016 XCM World Championships have been published, and as the race falls just one week ahead of the XCO World Championships in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic, you might expect the start lists to take a different shape. And in a way, they have. While some XCO racers are steering clear, others […]
Jolanda Neff to race UCI XCM World Championships
With the UCI Cross-Country Marathon (XCM) World Championships falling just one week ahead of the Cross-Country World Championships, you could expect the start lists in the XCM Worlds to be somewhat diminished with the premier cross-country discipline taking place in Nove Mesto in early July. However, not only have Annika Langvad and Jaroslav Kulhavy announced […]
Champions confirmed for Laissac
The 2016 Cross-Country Marathon (XCM) Mountain Bike World Championships are barely a fortnight away. This is the 3rd time the event has landed on French soil, and the town of Laissac is exceptionally proud to host the event after the Massif de l’Oisans hosted the Championships in 2006, and Ornans hosted the race in 2012. The […]
Chris Hellman’s trail to XCM World Championships
You know those cyclists you read about, blessed with an abundance of natural talent, who recount their entry into the sport of cycling by winning their very first bike race? Or they just know from a very early age that they’re somehow ‘different’ from the rest of their competitors? Well, that’s not me. I can […]
XCM Champs: What does it cost to wear green and gold?
Marathon mountain biking isn’t a glamorous sport. In the past year I’ve got nude in a rainy paddock surrounded by blokes because there was nowhere else to get changed, slept in the boot of a car, smuggled a $7.50 toaster into a hotel room to avoid having to pay for breakfast, and washed filthy kit […]
Chasing XCM World Championship qualification
It’s nearly April, but for XCM racing, the year is just beginning. Overseas, a lot of the top pros (plus a couple of thousand amateurs) have started their season with the ABSA Cape Epic, the world’s biggest, toughest, most helicoptered mountain bike stage race. Here at home, our XCO national season is over, and those […]
Roc Laissagais UCI World Marathon Series
This past weekend Roc Laissagais hosted the first European round of the 2015 UCI Marathon World Cup Series. The event takes place in Laissac which is a small village about 30 minutes east of Rodez. Laissac is in the Aveyron region which is located in the north of the Pyrenees region of southern France […]