Click. Beep. Click. Beep. Click. Beep. Ok I’m definitely in my smallest gear, but how is that possible? I’ll just check again. Beep. Yep. Shit. Getting going again Today Mike and I started Stage four of The Pioneer with the goal of making it to the first feed zone, then reassessing things after our nightmare […]
Snowy Peaked Alps Bike Festival
Related Event: Alps Bike Festival - UCI XCM Series
This is real mountain biking! The Alps Bike Festival and La Clusaz delivered with kilometre after kilometre of technical trails through beautiful mountain scenery. La Clusaz, a cycling destination. I should have known better than to bring my hardtail, this race is all about showing off the 112 kilometres of dedicated mountain bike tracks. […]
The Golden Triangle Epic provides another battle royale for Australia’s MTB elite!
Related Event: Golden Triangle Epic
The Bendigo MTB club has now for many years run one of Australia’s iconic marathon MTB events. The ‘Golden Triangle Epic’, held in the gold mining town of Bendigo about 1.5 hours drive from Melbourne has played host to some of the most exciting races and racers on the famed 52km loop that XCM racers […]
Bekken and Dreyer victorious in 2018 36ONE MTB
Ramses Bekkenk and Jeannie Dreyer rode to dominant victories at the 2018 36ONE MTB Challenge in Oudtshoorn on Saturday, the 21st of April. While Bekkenk started fast and missed out on the course record, Dreyer paced her race to perfection; finishing strong to smash her 2015 record by half an hour. In the other categories, […]
Standish and Mullens victors at 2018 Otway Odyssey after an eventful 98km!
Related Event: Otway Odyssey
The 12th edition of the Otway Odyssey was run and won under grey skies in the singletrack wonderland that is Forrest, Victoria, Australia. With the national XCO championships occurring on the same weekend a number of key big name riders were notable absent. However, the women’s field showed significant depth with 4 former winners on […]
How to train for a marathon mountain bike race
Responding to popular demand, we’re publishing a new series on how to train, prepare, and race your first marathon. Not your first marathon? Read on anyway and pick up some tips we’ve put together from years of experience. First up, here’s our best advice on how to prepare for your first marathon MTB race, including […]
Day 1 at the Australian National XCM Championships
Related Event: Australian XCM Championships - UCI XCM Series
Since 2015, the Australian National Cross-Country Marathon (XCM) Championships have been split across two days. This allows less traffic on the course as a short, lap-based event has been used to contest the titles since 2011, as opposed to a traditional point-to-point or big loop marathon. And the 2017 edition in Townsville, Queensland, is no […]
Fortune favours Kleinhans and Beers at Cape Pioneer Trek
The tides are turning at the Cape Pioneer Trek, as South Africans Erik Kleinhans and Matt Beers turned up the heat even further on Thursday to win Stage 4 of the Cape Pioneer Trek international mountain bike stage race; as overall leaders, Gawie Combrinck and Nico Bell, lost a chunk of their advantage when they […]
How to coach yourself
Interested in coaching yourself? Over two posts Imogen Smith takes you through your options In law they have a saying (sometimes attributed to Abraham Lincoln) that the attorney who represents himself in court has a fool for a client… So if you decide to write your own program for your next mountain bike marathon, how […]
Questing the Croc
A few weeks ago, when I was wondering out loud why the hell I torture myself with so much mountain bike racing, a friend looked me straight in the face and said ‘I think you just thrive on the drama.’ She’s undeniably right, and it got me thinking that what really gets a lot of […]