The hub for marathon mountain-biking
It was the hardest Andalucia Bike Race to date but the marathon king Tiago Ferreira still dominated the competition. Hildegunn Hovdenak took the ladies after winning the final 2 stages. The inclement weather in this year’s edition resulted in shortened stages plus a cancelled stage 5. Whilst the whole of Europe suffered with storms the […]
Back in February Ben Thomas Coaching hosted coaching clients and guests in the training haven of Gran Canaria. These weeks were a key part of preparation for the 2018 season. Here’s my view on this ‘Training Haven’. Whilst I’ve worked for guiding companies in the past this was my first attempt at hosting a training […]
Tiago Ferreira, twice winner of Andalucía Bike Race presented by Shimano comes back this year to contend for the final podium again. The portuguese is the current European MTB Marathon (XCM) Champion and World’s runner-up, title he won in 2016. Twice winner of Andalucía Bike Race presented by Shimano consecutively, in 2016 in team format […]
LaTramun brought Girona to the centre of attention this past week. Participants from various countries travelled to the Catalan region for this beautiful event. The race is known for its amazing scenery, unique landscape and technically challenging course. The city of Girona realise the events importance which is why they apply for the event to […]
I’ve been lucky enough to visit some great places and events this year but La Tramun is now the gold standard for race courses. Part of the UCI World Marathon Series for the first time the Girona based event has grown a reputation over the past 18 years for its technically challenging trails. A week […]
After 3 days of racing across the Easter weekend a total of 524 cyclists completed the Volcat GP, a UCI category 2 event. Sadly I was amongst the none finishers having picked up the bug on stage 2 which left me too ill to race stage 3. The 2 days I did experience though were […]
This Easter weekend, 25 – 27 March, the Spanish Catalan Hills will host the 3 day UCI category 2 Volcat GP. This year the town of Igualada will host all 3 stages making it logistically easier for participants. Whilst the Elite race competes for UCI points as individuals the open race is run as a […]
Stage 4, the finale of Costa Blanca Bike Race 2016, a 7km timetrial. The route looked simple enough on paper but there was a great big dirty 300 meter ascent in the last 2km’s. There was talk of there being sections of 30 or 40 percent gradient, not possible we thought! On arriving to the […]
In stark contrast to yesterday’s start today was pretty cold but the racing was still red hot. There are some seriously quick cross country riders here honing their form and collecting some UCI points for their Olympic qualification. Jirka Novák and Sebastian, plus Yana Belomoina and Margot Moschetti, both CST Superior Brentjens teams started the […]
Golden beaches and warm blue skies, the start of Costa Blanca Bike Race stage 1 could have been a dream of any cyclist. After a short dash through the streets of Benidorm the international field of athletes were treated to a fantastic route with some truly amazing singletrack. Sadly after 30km of the route course […]
