My love affair with the Belgian Ardennes continues, it hasn’t always been a kind relationship, so many times this place has inspired and then demolished dreams. Each May we make our pilgrimage to the area to battle around these beautiful hills, it’s a trip I’ve been making for around six years for marathon races and […]
Racing bikes in the beautiful Ardennes – Belgian Mountainbike Challenge 2019
Belgian Mountainbike Challenge has become a yearly highlight for me and many other enthusiastic racers. The Ardennes are undeniably beautiful, a rolling range of green wooded hills hold a plethora of rooty and rocky descents. Whilst spectacular it can be a cruel place for a bike race with super steep climbs, the worst being the […]
Livigno Training Camp: Day Six
The rain, which Accuweather tauntingly promised us would clear up today, stuck around so resolutely that by 9am it was clear to me that I was going to need something special. I marched Mike up the road, in the freezing drizzle, to a pasticceria and forced him to order me a filled croissant, then, when […]
Transylvanian Experience: Faget UCI XCM Series
Related Event: Faget Marathon - UCI XCM Series
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 […]
Roc des Alpes Marathon – the best race I never finished
In the whole lead-up to this trip to Europe, I’ve focused more on the Roc des Alpes Marathon than the actual World Champs race. To be held a week before Worlds, I knew that if I was ever to have a chance at getting a podium in a UCI Series marathon in Europe, the Roc […]
Sudety MTB Challenge 2014 Stage 5: The final to Kudowa-Zdroj
Stage 5 – Walim to Kudowa-Zdroj: 80 kilometres What happened? After a whole day of rain yesterday, a bit more overnight, and a cloudy, foggy morning, riders could have been forgiven for wishing that organisers would take pity on them and shorten the 80km Queen Stage of Sudety MTB Challenge 2014 just a little. Yesterday’s 44km […]
MTN Series: Luus and de Groot on top in Dullstroom
The opening event in the world’s largest marathon MTB series kicked off the 2014 season in the quant Mpumalanga Highveld town of Dullstroom. The MTN National MTB Series #1 Dullstroom is a new addition on the calendar of the popular series that spans five provinces over eight national events. The event attracted an unprecedented 2500 […]
Extreme sur Loue – mud surfing in France
On Sunday 6 October Tim Dunford and Ben Thomas travelled the long journey in the comfort of the Vauxhall Vivaro team van to the Jura region of France to compete in the latest round of UCI Mountain Bike Marathon Series, Extreme Sur Loue. Here’s how they got on. As titles go Extreme-sur-Loue might conjure up […]
10 things you need to know about Euro racing
If you’re an antipodean coming to Europe to race for the first time like Imogen Smith, you’re probably prepared for big hills, dramatic landscapes, and hard racing. But here’s a few things Imo picked up that you can’t prepare for… 1. Eurobombing The way Euros descend on gravel is so distinctive there’s actually a special […]
Nienke’s Euro Blog: Racing Xterra Switzerland
Many thoughts can take over your mind when preparing for a big race, I believe female athletes might be slightly more extreme in falling into this negative spiral of doubts. “Am I good enough, did I train hard enough, do I belong here, do I look fit enough, will I get smashed, what if I […]