If you’re a bit of a weight weenie, and chances are you are, then you will probably have heard of Tubolito Tubes. The bright orange inner tubes are pretty special as far as inner tubes go for a variety of reasons. They’re light – 85g for a standard 29″ tube. Tubolito claim they are twice […]
The Redback day 4: Final stage again finishes in sprint. De Rooze and Thomson take GC crowns
A few tired legs on the start line in downtown Alice Springs for the final and arguably hardest stage of this year’s Redback MTB stage race. Rider’s today faced 45km of predominantly the rocky, well cambered singletrack that typifies the riding in central Australia. Chatting among the riders there was more or less complete agreement […]
Redback MTB day 3: A sprint finish after riders rewarded with Alice Spring’s best trails!
Day 3 of The Redback MTB stage race is the first single stage day of the race. A longer and more challenging 42km course from the race hotel to the lush ‘Telegraph Station’ just north of Alice Springs took riders onto some of the finest trails of the region. A perfect mix of singletrack, fire […]
The Redback Day 2: Sun and Moon stage’s
Day 2 of racing in the red centre of Australia for the Redback stage race involved two 22km races one a TT and one a mass start race both competed on the same course but with one BIG differentiating factor. One competed under the warmth of the sun and the other under the stars and […]
Finding balance – Stage 4 of the Rothaus Bike Giro
Back in start block D this morning at the final stage of the Rothaus Bike Giro I settled on a different strategy from the day before. Yesterday I’d gone out hard on a secret mission to escape from start block D, and that hadn’t worked out at all. Today I was going to embrace it […]
Gains and losses at the Rothaus Bike Giro
Friday 17th August dawned sunny and warm in the Hochschwarzland, home for the Rothaus Bike Giro. Birds chirped, the rising sun warmed the cool overnight air, and many Germans contemplated their fruhstuck. But while the day was waking up, two devoted MarathonMTB.com Team riders were not. Imogen and I slumbered on through the early, and […]
Reef to Reef: The fourth and final stage
And just like that, it’s over! Reef to Reef today finished with a sweet 50-kilometre stage that took in some icons of tropical north Queensland riding: Wetherby Station, The Bump Track, and Port Douglas’s Four Mile Beach. Logistically, this was a tricky one to manage: everyone corralled in the dark at 6am to load bikes […]
Colombians rule supreme on Stage three at La Leyenda
The 27 km third stage of La Leyenda del Dorado 2018 was another day where the Colombian stage race showed just how varied it is. The sun was out, and the XC stage went the way of the Colombians in the Elite categories. Racers completed three laps on a route that stood out for its technicality and and this was where Colombians […]
New leaders on day 3 at La Leyenda
Tuesday was a cool, damp day in Caldas but one that was definitely warmed up by the people of Arauca, Irra, La Felisa, La Merced y Salamina, where the locals made sure they didn’t miss the spectacle of the second stage of La Leyenda del Dorado 2018 passing by. With 250 racers from 21 countries, they all experienced an extreme stage yesterday due to the incessant rain and […]
Imogen Smith: The ultimate comeback
It’s been quite some time since I’ve written a blog for MarathonMTB.com. Far too long, in fact, if you read the fine-print on my contract. But it’s not by accident. The last time I wrote just after National XCM Champs I managed to compose a cheery-ish, superficial post that sufficiently, I thought, masked the utter […]