Europe

Joe Houghton continues his dream European enduro-bikepacking trip. Stage 2 takes him from Italy up to Poland and then back to Austria.

Joe Houghton has filed his report from Finale on the first leg of his dream bikepacking experience. Three months pedalling across Europe, hoping to race a few Enduro World Cups and the Megavalanche along the way.

Dave Mitchell and Ditte van der Meulen pay homage to Italy’s famous mountain bike playground of Finale Ligure.

Jimmy Ashby provides a debrief after smashing out 2523 km from Vienna to Barcelona in the unsupported 2023 Three Peaks Bike Race.

After a series of full-on Australian desert missions, Jimmy Ashby takes his bike on holiday in Europe for a loop around the Alps and out through the Trappist Abbeys of Belgium.

Jamie Nicoll reflects on his sixth, and last (as in the event is no longer happening) Trans Provence - the iconic multi-day enduro race that traverses the mountains of Southern France, before rolling into Menton and the azure blue Mediterranean.

According to family folklore, my Great Grandfather was New Zealand’s honorary Swiss Consul between 1926 and 1933. Perhaps it is therefore genetics that keep drawing me back to the Confoederatio Helvetica, although it’s more probably that my wife and half of my daughter are Swiss and we have family to visit.

Jamie's latest Europe adventure comes with a his and hers perspective. The getting there is a little tough, but worth it on this romantic Swiss get-away to a rustic Swiss refuge hut in La Derbonne Valley of western Switzerland.

Tony Hutcheson and his venerable Olympus recently banked an indulgent four weeks of European singletrack. Mid trip, he and Malcolm Stoney hooked up with Jamie Nicoll and Max Schumann for a week of gnarl, gnocchi and grappa in Val Gardena.

Jamie Nicoll, along with good mates Ines Thoma and Max Schumann, upgraded their usual camping adventures to luxuriate in the decadence of St Moritz for a long weekend. Initially sceptical about such an indulgent adventure, Jamie was quickly swayed by Egyptian cotton sheets and the abundance of high-alpine technical and flow tracks. Plus the Swiss-punctual train uplifts. He'll be back.

Jamie Nicoll, along with fellow Santa Cruz adventurer Max Schumann and a tight group of like-minded masochists braved the Arctic night, -30 degree temperatures and feral reindeer to ride the length of Pallas Ylläs Park in Finland.

Jamie recounts the last five months away from NZ with adventures in the Alaskan mountains, the Arctic Circle and various missions in the European Alps.