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 […]
Sudety MTB Challenge 2014 Stage 3 – Battling the border to Bardo
Stage 3 Stronie Slaskie to Bardo, 67 kilometres What happened? The race left Stronie Slaskie in beautiful weather and after a ‘neutral’ lap of this beautiful town, headed up, and up, and up, on a 13 km gravel climb, and into border country. The race then turned technical, inching through muddy singletrack made of roots […]
Sudety MTB Challenge 2014 Stage 2: Vuelta a Stronie Slaskie
Stage 2: Vuelta a Stronie Slaskie: What happened? After what felt like a brutal stage yesterday on Stage 1, today was a little friendlier, earning a ‘3’ for difficulty rather than the ‘4’ of yesterday (from a scale of 1-6). What this meant was that the climbs were a little less steep, the descents a […]
Journeys through Bohemia
I think the beauty of mountain biking lies beyond the cool equipment, the buzz of railing singletrack, the euphoria of twisty alpine climbs, the relief of cleaning a section you always baulk at and even the perverse joy of having funny tan lines. For me, adventure and travel are at the heart of what I […]
Sudety MTB Challenge celebrates 10 Years
Ask a keen mountain biker about international MTB stage races and they will likely list off some of the favourites: ABSA Cape Epic, Transalp, BC Bike Race. Maybe the Crocodile Trophy. There are some that get missed though, a few notables that bury great memories into the minds and MTB souls of those who have […]