Enjoy reading this?
Get similar articles delivered directly to your inbox
As the cliche goes, it ain’t over till you’re towelling off and reaching for the talcum powder. And wasn’t that old adage reinforced today, with the supposedly comfortable lead of Tristan Ward practically dissolving before his eyes in a spray of tubeless sealant! It was brilliant, desperate racing, and we loved every minute of it. Finally, […]
The Watagans are a rabbit warren of trails, and today a few riders saw more of them than was intended! Day three of Port to Port MTB was certainly eventful, in both a positive and troublesome way. We saw some amazing racing, wicked new trails, and a few disoriented, exhausted riders too. At almost 65km in […]
For full event details, head to porttoportmtb.com It all gets underway a couple of hours north of Sydney in beautiful Port Stephens, where riders take on the shortest stage of the event. It’s a 35km loop out of Nelson Bay, through the loose sandy trails of the National Park, with plenty of coastal views along the way. […]
Intense Factory Racing Team is up and running, watch them shredding the trails of Lake Elsinore, CA. Intense Cycles announced its 2016 Factory Race Team. The new roster includes: – Jack Moir (Australia). – Luca Cometti (USA). – former Palmer Project junior phenom, Nik Nestoroff (USA). – Dean Lucas (Australia). For the full release: Click […]
With the Bogong High Plains sprawling at its doorstep, Falls Creek really is at the gateway to some incredibly spectacular country, and with so much of the riding here above the tree line, the views are breathtaking. Falls Creek has been investing heavily in a world-class trail network of late, folds of the terrain above […]
The Toyota Cannonball MTB Festival returned to Thredbo this weekend, bringing with it some of the world’s best mountain bike riders for a non-stop spectacle of dirt, thrills and spills. Over the weekend, 470 riders descended on Thredbo, making this the biggest gravity mountain biking event in Australia. The roll call of big name riders […]
It’s been a little over 12 months since Derby announced it was open for business as a mountain bike destination, and we came for a visit. Back then, the name Derby meant nothing to us – a bit of Googling revealed it to be a sleepy, some would say depressed, town of just a couple […]
STAGE 1 – Smithfield (5×6.5km laps/33km/900m) Italy takes the lead at 21st Crocodile Trophy The Italian Nicolas Pettina wins the first stage of the Crocodile Trophy with a respectable lead of 3:18.07 minutes at Smithfield MTB Park in Cairns ahead of Urs Huber from Switzerland and the Australian Brendan Johnston. It was a hot start […]
Following a successful inaugural event in 2014, Mt Buller will host the second annual Australian Mountain Bike Summit on 7-8 December, with an impressive line-up of keynote speakers confirmed to deliver invaluable insights vital to the growth of mountain biking in Australia. The two-day Summit program has been designed purely to meet the needs of […]
Falls Creek’s mountain bike program has been going absolutely bananas over the past few years. We took a trip up the mountain last year to take a look at what they’ve been building and it blew us away – watch the vid below for taste! Falls are celebrating the start of the summer season with […]
1. Dunsborough and Margaret River Local Trails If you have time before the event, hitting the trails around the Dunsborough Country Club is great for getting a feel of just how slippery WA’s infamous pea-gravel trails can be. There is about 10km of trail, a lot of it you will ride at the end of day 4 […]
Is Australian racing dying? Entrants numbers at some of our country’s best events are on the decline, while the sport overall is going from strength to strength. To an outsider it doesn’t stack up, so we asked an insider for their perspective instead. Huw Kingston of Wild Horizons is a well known, long standing event promoter, […]
Earlier this week, Flow published a bloody excellent article by Rodney Farrell. For the last year or more I’ve been surprised the MTB media hadn’t picked up on this, so good on Flow and on Rodney for doing so. I returned home to Australia a couple of months ago from a long ‘road trip’ lasting […]
Loose, dusty and rough. How will Claudio Caluori fare on the new World Cup track he helped create? For the very first time the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup pays a visit to Lenzerheide, Switzerland. Boasting a newly built track, that’s been specifically designed with racing in mind, and surrounded by snow-capped mountains and an emerald lake, it’s […]
One of the benefits of living in Australia, besides riding to school in the pouch of a kangaroo, is that each year we get to see the new range from Scott and Avanti bikes a little ahead of the rest of the world. On a sunny Melbourne winter’s day (an anomaly) we took a look […]
Freshly cut in the glorious dirt by savvy locals, sculpted by hand only with a strong nod to the enduro race crowd, Kung Fu Walrus is a 1.4km wild descent with already a big reputation for challenging all levels of riders! It’s a tricky grade 4 track that requires very little pedalling, but a whole lot […]
Freshly cut in the glorious dirt by savvy locals, sculpted by hand only with a strong nod to the enduro race crowd, Kung Fu Walrus is a 1.4km wild descent with already a big reputation for challenging all levels of riders! It’s a tricky grade 4 track that requires very little pedalling, but a whole lot […]
“You bastards,” laughed Peter Selkrig as he slid on his arse in the mud, “get that camera out of my face!” He needn’t have been so self-conscious – there were plenty of other riders making less-than-graceful descents on their chamois on their way out of Wallarah National Park. The final leg of the Port […]
In the scheme of mountain biking’s comparatively short existence, 25 years is a long time. At a pinch we can think of a handful of familiar names that can boast such a long history – Shimano’s XT and the Specialized Stumpjumer for example – but certainly no other events spring to mind. Born in 1990, […]
Newlyweds Andy Blair and Jenny Fay take the final stage and the general classification at the Snowy Mountain Bike Festival. SNOWY MOUNTAINS, NSW—This time last week national mountain bike champions Andy Blair (AUS) and Jenny Fay (IRL) were exchanging vows. On Sunday, they were exchanging hugs on the finish line after both rode to solo […]
Jon Cancellier has managed the BlackBox Program for the past 7 seasons. This includes choosing the athletes, working with them on custom projects, as well as being at the races to make sure that they have everything they need. An athlete on the SRAM BlackBox Program has access to all the engineering horsepower that we […]
Introducing the Spider 275, the newest addition to the Intense line. This is a do-it all trail bike. Engineered with modern trail geometry, it features a slack head angle, a long front-center, super short chain stays and adjustable rear travel (115mm – 130mm). If there is just one bike in your quiver this is it. […]
This place is almost too easy to fall in love with; the setting is breathtaking, the town has a buzzing, outdoorsy vibe, it’s big enough to have all the facilities, small enough to get around without a car… And it has an absolute tonne of world class mountain biking right on its doorstep. We spent […]
We are bloody excited to have taken delivery of the S-Works Enduro 650B, their appropriately named big mountain gravity enduro bike. The Enduro is available in both 29″ and 650B wheel sizes (29″ with slightly less travel) and of course a few models at lower price points, plus there is also an EVO variant (a coil shock […]
Wanaka makes an incredible first impression. The road into town presents you with an uninterrupted shoreline, offering you a view across the glass-topped surface of the lake to snow-capped peaks in the distance. It’s breathtaking, and this outlook sets the tone for much of the riding in Wanaka; your eyes are on the views, as much […]
The 2014 Cannonball MTB Festival at Thredbo again attracted its fair share of weather. Last year, it was snow, this time around rain and lightning came into the mix and shut down Saturday’s racing. Despite the compressed timeframe this gave racing, the event was again a huge success. Thredbo just makes for great racing! Make […]
Day two of the Thredbo Cannonball festival was greeted with the threat of bad weather. It’s all part of racing in the Australian alpine region but with a day jam packed with action – with the Flow Nation Cup, downhill seeding – and Whip Off Wars all planned, we all had our fingers crossed. However […]
This weekend is the 2nd annual Thredbo Cannonball MTB Festival – three days of action, with five gravity-fed events down the steep hills of one of Australia’s most iconic mountain bike destinations – all for $45,000 in cash and prizes. Today saw the return of no-pedalling skill of the RockShox Pump Challenge and the introduction […]
The lush, loamy green of the Squamish Valley is in its prime right now – come for a rip with two of Intense’s Cycles North American shredders, Bryden Rigets and Dexter Robson. From the video’s creator: “Dense understory environments blanket the mountainsides of the Squamish valley. These environments harbor a multitude of life and […]
With the new Rise Against record soothing my inner ear and a light snack on the passenger seat for sustenance, the 3-hour cruise from Adelaide to Melrose is full of epic postcard scenery; rolling hills, a pink lake (didn’t expect that one) and old crumbling stone homesteads littering knee high crop-filled paddocks. All very, very […]
Registrations have now opened for the 2015 Port to Port MTB, returning to the Newcastle region across the newly announced dates of Thursday 28 – Sunday 31 May, 2015. Following on from the success of the inaugural event held earlier this year, which saw 300 recreational and professional riders participate, Port to Port MTB is […]
The Pacific Ocean has a lot going for it. It’s very beautiful, full of fish and it keeps our east coast beaches nice and wet. It doesn’t, however, make great chain lube! Still, it wouldn’t be right to race in this part of the world without a bit of beach riding. And just like in […]
No matter how much you think you’re used to it, getting woken up by an alarm clock is always a bit horrible. The sudden shock as it bursts rudely into your slumber is never pleasant, reminding you that you’ve got somewhere to be, something to do. As much as we’d all love to sleep until […]
With a passionate club, super active trail builders, all-year riding weather, regular race meets, properly equipped bike shops and a healthy cycling vibe throughout town, it’s got all the foundations to grow into one of the leading regional mountain bike destinations in Australia. Over the years we’ve made many a trip west to spend some […]
Atherton has been receiving a lot of attention lately, after the tireless work of local mountain bikers secured a near unprecedented level of funding for trail construction as part of a regional development grant. Over the last twelve months this funding has been put to work, dug into the rocky hillside of Mt Baldy. Almost […]
Up where the cassowaries play and the kangaroos swing from trees (for real), there’s a little town called Atherton. A little town, with a big plan for mountain biking. Over the past twelve months, we’ve heard ever increasing amounts of talk about Atherton, and finally we decided to pack our bags, head way north and […]
Built in 2004, Gunna Gotta, like B Rude Not 2 from last week, is another iconic Redwoods trail that recently received a facelift courtesy of the bulldozer’s blade. In this instance, the logging not only gave builder Dave Hutchings and the Rotorua Mountain Bike Club a clean slate to reshape the trail, but it also […]
The team had two busy days, everyone is relieved actually to be on the road now and today we camp on the shores of Lake Tinaroo. So far our boys are faring well – Peter Selkrig was right in the lead group up towards Copperlode Dam today and finished on top of the M3 podium […]
Arriving in Cairns on Tuesday, Pete Selkrig and I were soon to meet up with Martin Wisata, the third member of the Il Pastaio / Rocky Trail Team. The next four days would be devoted to preparing as fully as possible for the 900 km of gruelling torture which would unfold over nine consecutive days […]
The infamous Croc Trophy kicks off in just two days, departing Cairns and trucking north through some of the hottest, toughest country in Australia to Cooktown. With 900km of racing over nine stages in brutal conditions, the Croc is widely regarded as one of the most gruelling mountain bike events on the planet. Despite the […]
Giant’s overhaul of the Trance range this year went the whole nine yards. This was no quick botox and collagen, oh no, Giant booked the Trance in for the works: nip and tuck, implants, hair extensions and more. Diana Ross would be in awe. Design: The question isn’t so much what have Giant changed on […]
The 2013 Simpson Desert Bike Challenge – a sadistic slog through the hellishly hot sand dunes of the mighty Simpson – is just around the corner. Last year, Nic Learmonth was there to support her partner Chris through the ordeal. Into the wilderness A car horn blared through the silence. Beside me, Chris inhaled sharply and sat […]
It’s hard to say which one is more famous – Ditte van der Meulen or her orange bike. Ditte’s pedalled that effervescent icon through some of New Zealand’s roughest backcountry and straight into the pages of photographer partner Dave Mitchell’s Mountain Biking South and Mountain Biking North guidebooks and calendars, and Ground Effect catalogues. […]
Monday Typical travel day. We flew out from Denver and arrived in Whistler just before dark and with just enough time to go for a mellow cruise with my favorite WAMP (Weird Ass Mountain Person) Joey Schusler on the Lost Lake trails. I really love the trails there, if you’re after some fun turns and […]
Flow recently returned from the launch of the new range of GT bikes in Deer Valley, Utah. What happens on press camp normally stays on press camp however we wanted to share the journey and show a few things from behind the scenes you may not normally see. The presentations, the bikes, the locations, and […]
I’m scratching my way up a trail, about 3000 metres above sea level. Down on the beach the air is richly stuffed with oxygen. Up here the molecules have a lot of room to rattle around in. The climb has rockgardens and roots, and steep pitches of varying length and intensity. The steady uphill […]
When was the last time you went to a trailcentre, or popular MTB destination? Why, because everyone else goes there? It’s easy? Whilst mainstream and popular ride locations often guarantee at least some quality of riding, sometimes the best riding is the stuff you don’t read about, and often it’s really just there are requiring […]
We caught up with the insanely fast American, Adam Craig last year at the launch of Giant’s Trance X29. The 120mm 29er arrived down under after a long prototype period that Adam was heavily involved in. Since then he has taken this particular bike all over the world, including the Mega Avalanche in France. Adam […]
We caught up with the insanely fast American, Adam Craig last year at the launch of Giant’s Trance X29. The 120mm 29er arrived down under after a long prototype period that Adam was heavily involved in. Since then he has taken this particular bike all over the world, including the Mega Avalanche in France. Adam […]
In the lead up to the 2012 World MTB Championships Flow managed to get a weekend in the backcountry with soon-to-be World Junior XC Champion Anton Cooper. This story and film captures the events of one of the coolest trail journeys we have been on yet with one of the coolest cats in MTB. [SV_VIMEO […]
SRAM popup store, Whistler Village, Canada, we sit in a classroom featuring many elements reminiscent of my old primary school. Sticker covered aluminium lockers, graffiti tagged desks and big whiteboards scribbled with suspension and SRAM gear doodles. [private] Two lengths of rope hang from the ceiling for grommets and big kids to try reach the […]
The Australian Junior Downhill Team has a solid legacy. For the last 15 years, the team has consistently been at the top when it comes to country rankings for the Junior Downhill World Championships, and almost every Aussie pro downhill racer has been part of the team before hitting ‘the big time’.[private] I was a […]