This year’s Tour de France will cover 3,600 kilometres [2,236 miles], including some of the most fearsome climbs in the Alps and the Pyrenees. It’s one of the toughest Tours in years, and yet perhaps the moment the peloton has been fearing most will arrive at about 4.30pm today, in between one bleak post-industrial town in southern Belgium and another in northern France. This is when the Tour hits the cobbles. Lance Armstrong predicted last week that there would be carnage and he wasn’t exaggerating. Â
Riding on cobbles might not sound as difficult as all that, but these are far from the perfectly ordered rows of neatly carved elongated ovals you might find in any city centre seeking to give itself an olde-worlde air. Rather they will  … Details
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… I first competed in this event 2 years ago at Les Deux Alpes as Team Wales with Ralph ‘Wrecking Ball’ Jones and Michael ‘Zeb’ Gray. It was a tough weekend with crashes, punctures and we all found it incredibly physical. It was an amazing format with so much quality riding packed into the weekend but we all said we would not do it again unless we were properly prepared both physically and with our bike set up and spares.
So I’m kind of kicking myself that just the other week when asked if I wanted to go over and race the 2010 Enduro des Nations with Duncan Ferris (DMR) and Martin Astley (Sunn) I said yes and we sped head first into the abyss with zilch preparation once again. By the end of the weekend we had worked up a pretty solid list of excuses, wrong tyres, too many clothes, not enough clothes, no gears, everyone else was cheating, too many pain au chocolates and of course that one that you can never hide behind; not fit enough … Details & Pictures
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Squaw Valley’s renowned mountain bike park will re-open on July 16 for the first time in almost a decade. The bike park will be open Friday through Sunday from 10:40 am to 7 pm starting July 16 to August 21 —remaining open through mid-September with an adjusted schedule.
Previously the venue for the Mountain Bike World Cup, the Fat Tire Festival and Downhill Mania events, Squaw Valley’s bike park crew has worked tirelessly to increase the flow of the trails and incorporate more freeride elements using the mountain’s natural terrain. Bikers can … Details