In March this year I was given a few bags of Vietto’s Tears to try out, by Megabake head baker Brett. I bumped into Brett over three years ago when supporting my then fiancé Imogen Smith at the Chicks in the Sticks 3 hour race. At the time, Brett had one main product with the […]
Transalp 2019 route is revealed
The 2019 version of Bike Transalp has had the course revealed. Organisers say it will let you discover entirely new stage towns and completely new trails. And with a new start town in Tux, they might be right. From day one you shoot along the recently finished and never before ridden bike trail from Tuxerjoch […]
Are you a marathon man (person)?
Five of the top events in Germany, Italy, Austria and Czech Republic are again part of the popular international 2019 Mountain Bike Series. Some of the races have already more than 20 years experience and are an annual fixture for many mountain bikers. Once again more than 11.000 contestants are expected to be participating at […]
JetBlack Wild Wombat wows riders
The inaugural Jetblack Wild Wombat mountain bike event was held in Mogo on the NSW South Coast on 1 December 2018. The classic 12 hour format included a ‘Wild Solo Challenge’ and the seven-time 24-hour Solo World Champion Jason English from Newcastle reached his goal of completing 220km on the 10km circuit, winning the Solo […]
Ramses Bekkenk wins The Munga
On Wednesday morning at 12.00 local time in South Africa, Ramses Bekkenk started The Munga in Bloemfontein and then finished on Friday at 14:30 as winner in Wellington. The race conditions mainly had a headwind over 1070 kilometres through South Africa. The route has to be ridden within five days and Bekkenk succeeded more than […]
“That’s one of my hardest days on the bike” – midweek at The Pioneer
Related Event: The Pioneer
Today’s stage from Alexandra to Bannockburn looked a little innocuous on paper. 79km, with a couple of big climbs – but all farm track. That’s over 20km shorter than Stage 2, but similar climbing, but no singletrack – so it should be faster. And I think for many people, they probably liked it. And deep […]
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 […]
Pioneer Prologue-2018 event kicks off in challenging conditions
Related Event: The Pioneer
Cold. It was cold. We got up at 5:10am, which if you’ve just arrived from Australia feels a lot like 2:10am, and bolted some breakfast before heading for the first shuttle up to Coronet Peak, the ski station that towers above Queenstown and just happened to be under a whole lot of snow just a […]
How to set your bike up for The Pioneer
The Pioneer is just days away, and all in a rush it was time to actually make the changes to the bikes Imogen Smith and I are taking to The Pioneer for 2018. We’ve both done a number of mountain bike stage races, but this is the most ‘trail’ we have set up our race […]
European XCM Championships hosted by Malevil Cup in 2022
The European Championship will return to the Czech Republic in 2022. The European Marathon MTB Champions will be selected on the trails of the Malevil Cup in Lusatian Mountains, 10 years after the last time. The Commission of European Cycling Union entrusted the Malevil Cup organisers to host the European Championship in MTB Marathon (XCM) […]