Revolutionaries

Sasha Smith continues the story of her adventures on the Great Divide Trail - making new friends and avoiding bears as she traverses Montana, eventually arriving at the geothermal wonderland of Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.

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.

Damian Stones, Grant Stirling and Mike Anderson recently hit the historic mining town and contemporary mountain bike mecca of Reefton. The wicked singletrack up and back from Kirwans Hut is must-do backcountry mission, albeit at the technical end of the scale. Check out the video from their trip.

With the biennial influx of international pros here for the EWS, the 2019 NZ Enduro was guaranteed to be a high octane affair. The weather gods did not treat the pros kindly though with heavy rain over the first two days. None of this diluted the big grins and general stoke though.

Earlier in the month, Jamie rounded up his mates Max Schumann, Ines Thoma and Anja McDonald for a session on the Old Ghost Road. Stefanus Stahl from the German magazine Mtb News joined the fray and produced a sharp video of the trip with Jamie narrating. Great to get a feel for the OGR if you haven’t yet indulged, and excellent to reminisce if you have.

Sam's hectic summer of racing and adventure continues with a whirlwind trip to Welly for the Karapoti, Eminem and the Wainui Enduro. The following weekend found him storming the NZ Enduro around Marlborough. Then back to Rotorua to pick up a bronze in the National XCO Champs.

With the kiwi summer marching on at full volume and the event calendar half done ’n’ dusted we’ve complied a selection of hand-crafted photos from Jamie Nicoll’s Nomadic Weekend at the 440 Mtb Park and the Dodzy Memorial Enduro at Wairoa Gorge.

After completing the Tour Aotearoa, I then (bravely) informed work that I'd be leaving at the end of the month. I was “heading overseas" for another solo cycle tour, yet still hadn't figured out where. I had a few ideas, but committed to none. Then fate popped the Tour Divide race up on my browser. I dug deeper and tickets were soon booked to Canada. I planned riding 8 weeks south to Durango.

The Old Ghost Road and Heaphy Track are hot destinations for backcountry cyclists. Damian Stones and Eric Hall recently linked them together in a grand loop over 6 days.  Impressive snowfall on the OGR and Eric taking his first tilt at bikepacking added colour and challenge to the journey.

Ground Effect Revolutionary Ollie Whalley recently defended his title in the Milk and Honey winning the men's team category along with his 'Fast and Hairy' team mate Martin. Fellow Revolutionary, Anja McDonald and Ollie’s wife Heidi raced as the Spinnarets. They won the women's team category. Anja also smashed the enduro.

Sam Shaw has been off-shore and on-the-road-hunting down the Enduro World Series as a privateer. His regular despatches from the field are wrapped up with Round 7 in Spain and the final in Italy's Finale Ligure.

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.