2014 Absa Cape Epic - The Journey Begins

With the 2013 MTB XCM race season finishing with the Highland Fling, November left us to take a little R&R, to regenerate our bodies both mentally and physically, in order to start our preparation in earnest for the 2014 Absa Cape Epic.

Specialized Sworks Epic World Cup – First Ride Impressions

After picking up my new 2014 Sworks Epic World Cup just before Christmas, I’ve had the opportunity over the holiday break to give it a good work out, and thought this an opportune time to share some of my first ride impressions.

In a word, this bike is truly ‘Epic’. For me it ‘is’ the do anything bike.

Over the last week I’ve ridden around 500km, with a mix of technical and fast single track, fast fire roads, steep climbs, long rocky descents and the bike has performed impeccably.

SXC Racing – The Season Finale

The last race in the Single Track Mind series at the great and exciting trails of Kinross near Orange, proved to be a great way to close out the race calendar for the SXC Racing Team for 2013.

Leaving a wet and cold Sydney, to sunshine and dusty trails of the Central West was an easy sell, and we had our Masters team primed to close out the series with another win, and our Mixed team going for bragging rights as they had already secured the series win from their consistency in the previous 4 races.

2013 Highland Fling (Wayne)

The Highland Fling is the highlight race of the season, everyone who is a marathon racer is there and everybody wants to do well. I was no exception, and with the added incentive of having the SXC Team at the event in numbers we all wanted to perform well.

2013 Highland Fling (Brian)

Back in June after having a break from all the races in the first part of the year I approached Anthony and Kyle for some ‘official’ help with training. After working out what races I was planning to do, come July, Kyle was set to coach me.

2013 Highland Fling (Gazza)

After feeling crap due to a virus at last years Fling i was determined to beat my place and time of 11th in Masters and 5hrs 10mins.
I knew i had a sub 5 in me somewhere. I just had to dig deep and find it.
Although I'd consider myself the fittest I've ever been ( having done 34 races to date this year) I knew i didn't have the distance in my legs as most of my training and racing have been sub 2hrs. Which in turn has brought my top end through the roof but has done very little for my endurance.

2013 Highland Fling (Dave)

Well I have been counting down to the Fling for what seems an eternity and was very pleased with preparation. Inspiration was not only coming from the impressive riding from the other SXC lads, but also wanted to erase the memory of not finishing well last year.

A cool day for the race was good in my book, taking dehydration out of the picture. But standing in the cold drizzle at the start chute, we cringed a little thinking ahead of the 100 milers heading out for their second loop of Wingello and wished for ourselves that rain would hold off till after the finish.

2013 Highland Fling (Michael)

I came into this event feeling relatively positive, whilst I don't follow a training plan I felt stronger than last year, and riding with the Sxc Racing boys in the lead up to the race I seemed to be going ok. A week in Brisbane for work before the event meant I was at least rested.

I wasn't too worried about the rain and tried to stay positive as the forecasts turned from biblical, to torrential, to rain periods, then a chance of it holding off in the morning.

2013 Highland Fling (Gary)

In the lead up to this event I had seriously stepped up my training in the last couple of months and in the month prior I was on the MTB every weekend. The aim was to finish in 5hr30 which would have been a 20min improvement on last year.

The end result was finishing 10mins slower but with a higher overall and category placing, it was indeed a tough day.

Single Track Mind Round 4 – Welby

After postponement due to the current fire’s we were looking forward to the next round of the STM series. After taking out round 3 at Awaba in both the Mens Masters and Mixed categories the SXC team were keen to perform well again.

SXC Racing