The final stage of the Swiss Epic, stage 5, took the race in full circle, back to Davos. Covering 64 kilometres and 2,350m of climbing, the stage promised no easy finale, with a number of challenging climbs. MarathonMTB.com’s day at the Swiss Epic With one day to go and over 6 minutes lead, Imogen and […]
Swiss Epic 2019 Stage 4
I know from experience that you can’t pack much more than 2,000m of climbing into 50km if you want to finish in the same place you start – so while today’s Swiss Epic stage looks mercifully short, it was bloody hard work, and that’s how it always stood out from the race route. Swiss Epic […]
Swiss Epic 2019 Stage 3
Every race has one, and today was the Swiss Epic’s Queen Stage. The most demanding, most emotional, hardest stage of the race. Today took in 80km and 2,200m of climbing, and while on paper this may look easier than other stages (think stage 1, with 3,000m climbing), the technicality of today’s trails, and the repeated, […]
Swiss Epic 2019 Stage 1
Last time I came to the Swiss Epic was in 2015 and the event was based in the Valais region, with the route taking us from Verbier to Zermatt. This year, the fifth year of the race, the Swiss Epic roadshow has left the Valais region for the first time and headed to Graubuenden – […]
Australian XCM World Championships Team for 2019 announced
Mountain Bike Australia (MTBA) have just released the complete team list for the 2019 UCI Cross Country Marathon (XCM) World Championships, which will be taking place in Graechen, in the Valais canton in Switzerland. The team will be made up of five riders in 2019, including two members of the MarathonMTB.com Team. Elite MenJustin MorrisSebastian […]
How to prepare for a MTB Stage Race
The 2019 Swiss Epic stage race is just around the corner, and like any major mountain bike stage race, there is quite a bit of preparation that is involved in arriving at the start line ready to race. Here’s a look at what Imogen Smith and I have been doing to get ready, along with […]
Swiss alpine meadows and snowy peaked mountains – Raid Evolenard
A small town called Evolène situated within the Valais area of Switzerland and Pennine Alps hosts a marathon event called Raid Evolenard. This past weekend was my opportunity to discover why this event comes with such enthusiastic recommendations, attracts such a star studied line-up, has hosted numerous Swiss National Championships and has been awarded European […]
Swiss Epic release their 2019 route
The Swiss Epic is the European cousin in the global Epic Series, and under that larger umbrella it has taken a slightly different shape. The Flow category is gone, and the 6 day race is now 5 days, with no opening prologue. But while those changes were already in effect in 2018, the big change […]
The Raid Evolénard, Authentic Swiss Mountain Biking
In recent years, the Raid Evolénard has been a growing success, attracting more and more mountain bike enthusiasts who no longer hesitate to cross the border to participate in this race. There are many reasons for the success of the race but the biggest reasons are the beauty of the landscapes along the race route […]
Spa weekends in Scuol
Graubünden has come into the international mountain bike spotlight in the past year, being touted as the ‘Home of Trails’ and promoted to mountain bikers around the world. The eastern canton of Switzerland has long been on the radar of our contributors and race team – for all the reasons you might imagine. There are […]