The hub for marathon mountain biking
Yesterday The Redback’s sixth and final stage took in 45 kilometres of desert trails, sand traps, and rock features. We lined up just south of the Telegraph Station, the town’s trail hub, and rolled up the bike path, at a neutral pace. I hoped to catch sight of the dingo munching on a dead kangaroo […]
If you think of all the sports in all the world, from archery to zorb football, then divide all these sports into their different disciplines, so that gymnastics becomes parallel bars, pommel horse, the rings, beam, and so on, you’d have what – a couple thousand? I can lay these sports end to end on […]
What’s my favourite thing about mountain bike stage racing, you ask. The camaraderie? Wrong! The epic scenery? Wrong! Visiting new places and experiencing new cultures? That’s great, but wrong! Nope, it’s the buffet breakfasts. So. The Redback got off to a good start for me when I hit the buffet at the Mercure Alice Springs […]
Next month will mark the 7th occurrence of what is fast becoming a cornerstone of the international marathon mountain bike stage race calendar. The Mongolia Bike Challenge was first held in 2010 and spanned 10 days and over 1400km and was won by Italian’s Marzio Deho and Allania Vassechi. The race has since been shortened to […]
Returning to racing Recovering from injury has taken longer than I’d hoped (you can read more about what happened in my last blog), but I finally got rid of my walking stick about five weeks ago and got the all-clear to start some strength work on my weak left arm and shoulder, so it’s time […]
The final stage of the Port to Port aptly wrapped up today in the Port city of Newcastle just north of Sydney. Famous for it’s coal port and steelworks, the strong working class heritage of this town has forged many a strong athlete over the years including 2nd place at this year’s MTB XCO national […]
The Picturesque Port to Port MTB stage race moved inland today to the world famous Hunter Valley wine growing region. Along with a fine drop of vino the area has some serious hills making it a stunning yet demanding area for cycling. Today’s stage took riders on a 50km trip over two categorised climbs and […]
While Alice Springs might be the closest town to every beach in Australia, it’s also prohibitively far from all the nation’s capital cities. For many of us, this means a longish flight or maybe two; it means a fair bit of holiday budget sunk into airfares and accommodation; and it means we might think twice […]
As a semi professional racer I have limited opportunities to travel due to other work commitments, I have limited sponsorship resources, for these and other reasons its crucial to make the most of every race weekend. When issues occur like teammates being ill or bike mechanical it’s incredible frustrating but when race organisers let you and […]
Just over a week separates us from the starting gun of the sixth edition of Faget Marathon. MarathonMTB.com will on that start line and reporting from this round of the UCI World Marathon Series. The trails have been prepared to receive all the brave participants, weekend warriors or full-time riders alike. Typical spring weather will […]
