The hub for marathon mountain biking
Words: Alex Malone | Photography: Trent van der Jagt The journey into off-road stage racing has been an exciting one for the team at Cyclist Australia/NZ magazine. Our primary focus has always been around road cycling but with the ever-increasing popularity around gravel and multi-surface drop bar riding, the gap to wider tyres and full […]
It doesn’t seem all that long ago that mountain bike magazines and blogs were abuzz with the question “who really needs carbon mountain bike wheels?”. In the heady days of 2010, we had just about accepted that carbon bars were not going to explode and kill you if you accidentally scratched them with a sharp […]
Travel and bike racing combine to give you some of the best, long-lasting memories. The combination can also create considerable stress when it comes to getting everything organised. If you have found the perfect stage race to do, the logistics of getting yourself there with your bike and your team mate can seem a bit […]
Last weekend saw the Southern Peaks race kickstart the Southern MTB Festival in Albany, Western Australia. The weather was unsure what it wanted to do on Saturday, but the riders who had ventured to Albany were not. Rain and sunshine greeted the Southern Peak riders with a diverse terrain as they embarked on the 37KM […]
2017 was the eighth edition of the Mongolia Bike Challenge which has now established itself as a ‘bucket list’ race for international mountain bike stage racers. What makes this race so epic? And why do athletes travel from far and wide to compete in such an obscure and remote part of the world? Having completed […]
The Snow Bike Festival has announced that it has once again received Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) accreditation and has been upgraded to a “Stage Race Class 1”, making it one of only 13 stage races worldwide to be classified this highly. This results in an increased prize purse and additional UCI points. The event will […]
The final day of the Crocodile Trophy arrived, and like any stage race it was greeted with a mix of enthusiasm and of dismay. Very few people would willingly spend another night under canvas, or using portaloos, even when the tents were spacious and the loos were clean. But still, when you realise that the […]
Every mountain bike stage race reaches a point where competitors would be happy for it to finish. Fatigue builds, the joy of camping wears thin, and everyone is ready for a day off. I went to bed after Stage 6 ready for the final stage, understanding that instead I would be waking to the penultimate […]
Day 6 of the 2017 Crocodile Trophy marks the start of our march towards the coast. For the past few years the Crocodile Trophy has ended at Port Douglas, instead of Cooktown, with a run from Wetherby Station down the Bump Track. This 2017 stage plan has us spend two nights at Wetherby Station, one […]
The benefit of finishing a stage of a marathon stage race at a coffee plantation and cafe, is that you start there again the next day. And as we are here at Skybury coffee for two nights, we come back again as well. So this morning the coffee machines were buzzing as riders in the […]
