The hub for marathon mountain biking
The Pioneer MTB stage race has now reached Lake Hawea close to Wanaka, New Zealand. The riders have now have close to 450km in their legs and some serious tales of struggle, suffering, spectacle, disappointment and victory up their sleeves. Today’s stage was suggested to be the ‘Queen Stage’ of this tour with 112km and […]
The second stage of the Engadin Bike Giro featured over 2,500 metres of climbing in 74 kilometres. Most of the uphill was in the second half of the course, including a whopping alpine climb from 1,750 to over 2,500 metres above sea level that started at the 47-kilometre mark. Having been ensconced in the world […]
Tomorrow the fifth edition of the Belgian Mountain Bike Challenge, in short the BeMC, will kick off in La Roche-en-Ardenne. During three days and 260 km covering 7800 meters of climbing over 500 participants from almost 20 different countries will fight for the final victory. I’m currently sat in our accommodation with 2 nervous Brits, […]
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 […]
They say you’ve got to be careful what you wish for. Just before heat-induced delirium set in about half-way through today’s stage I reflected that I’ve been walking around for years trumpeting my taste for hot races. Well, today I got what I wished for and more on the final stage at Easter in the […]
Lasseters Easter in the Alice is in its third year, but this time around organisers have departed from their usual format to introduce a hill-climb stage for the first race of day two, which is traditionally split into two stages, with a night race in the evening. Locals have long been familiar with Mt Gillen, […]
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 […]
This past weekend the UCI category 2 Algarve Bike Challenge took place. The event is a marathon stage race taking place over 3 days. You can read my preview for the event here https://marathonmtbcom.wpengine.com/2016/03/03/algarve-bike-challenge-preview-and-stage-race-catch-up/ The event was a pair’s race so I teamed up with Austrian Uwe Hochenwarter who rides for the Craft Rocky Mountain […]
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 […]
