I’m sitting on a train, travelling backwards on the way to Zurich. Every now and then I take a cursory glance at my bike bag near the train’s entry. My final destination today is Scuol, right in the east of Switzerland in the canton of Graubuenden. But this is far from my final destination on […]
Bike Check: Imogen Smith’s Factor Lando XC
For 2023, our team riders made the move to the recently released Factor Lando XC full-suspension frames. The bikes were released in 2022, one of two mountain bikes that Factor have designed and built. Given their place in the high end road, gravel and triathlon markets, it is no surprise that both the Factor Lando […]
6 reasons to ride The Redback this August
Mountain bike stage races and Alice Springs go together like red wine and cheese. The city in the centre of Australia has hosted mountain bike stage races for two decades, with riders visiting from the edges of the continent to ride the sweet singletrack in the red centre. In 2023 The Redback runs from 18-21 […]
Bike check: Mike Blewitt’s Factor LS for the Devil’s Cardigan
Here at MarathonMTB.com we’ve realised there is a lot of crossover between the training, racing, and outlook of marathon events and gravel events. And that’s why along with Justin Morris and Imogen Smith, I’m mixing in a few gravel events this year. Having used a Norco Threshold for cyclocross racing, road racing, training and gravel […]
Unbound Gravel a marriage of XCM & Road Racing?
Team rider Justin Morris parked the MTB to tackle likely the most famous gravel race in the world, the Unbound in Kansas, USA. Hear about his dissection of the race from an MTBer and Roadie angle.
Goosebumps and Gravel – The Sunday Creek Classic
On Wednesday I picked up my first ever gravel bike, a sweet little Trek Checkpoint SL 5. On Thursday I rode it up and down Mt Coot-tha. It seemed fine. So on Saturday I raced it for the first time, driving it up to the cute town of Kenilworth for The Sunday Creek Classic. The […]
BeMC – Beautiful scenery, beer and bike racing
A pilgrimage according to the Cambridge dictionary is a visit to a place is considered special. Since 2010 I’ve visited the Ardennes most years for a bike race! This obsession started when I raced the final ever Houffalize round of the UCI World Cup Cross Country Series, then a few years later in 2014 I […]
9 things I learnt from an overnight bikepacking trip
This weekend I packed up my bike and a few key things and joined a mate for a bikepacking meet up, called the Jimna Escape. The concept is simple – everyone meets at Jimna Base Camp, which is a school in a timber town that has passed it’s use by date. So now the school […]
Catching up with the Convict 100
On May 6th, Max Adventure hosted another successful edition of the Convict 100, with the premier 100km distances being won by National XCM Champion Em Viotto and Joel Green. With 2022 being a wash out (what wasn’t?) the event had a bumper field of riders ready to tackle the 44km, 68km and 100km routes. There […]
A closer look at the Pinarello Dogma XC bike of Pidcock and Ferrand-Prevot
INEOS Grenadiers riders Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and Tom Pidcock have just had their new Pinarello Dogma XC bike revealed. It’s a full-suspension XC bike that will be tested between the tape at the opening round of the UCI Cross-country World Cup in Nové Město, Czech Republic, on 11th – 14th May. Pinarello have a renewed focus […]