Revolutionaries

Damian Stones wings his way to the Northern Territories with his trusty Santa Cruz in the hold and favourite mattock in the overhead locker. He regales us with stories of hot-weather trail building, urban cycle ways and bugs that bite.

With the tingly fingers and blackened toenails from April’s Cloudride finally subsiding, the itch had returned and I was well overdue for another bikepacking adventure, if only to break the daily monotony of a blustery Sydney existence.

Jamie Nicoll's progress through the 2014 World Enduro Series. Racing has taken Jamie from Scotland through Europe to Northern America on a huge range of awesome courses.

With busy lives that seem to follow us all, long weekends spark a strong temptation to cram in an extended adventure. Whether by fortune or design, the four and a half day break over Easter 2014 coincided with the inaugural Monaro Cloudride.

The Trans-Savoie (pronounced Sav-wah, or Saveloy in franglais) is a daring experiment in big mountain enduro racing. While mountain biking needs another niche sub-discipline like it needs a sidewall slash, big mountain enduro gets a big tick from me.