For the 8th year in a row, a hundred racers lined up at the picturesque Mulungushi Dam startline to experience the challenge and beauty of riding through the Zambian bush. Though Zambia’s mountain bike scene has grown to include several unforgettable races, the Mulungushi MTB still stands out as a uniquely fun and family-oriented weekend. […]

For years, anyone who rode a mountain or road bike in Zambia had the same problem: the spares we all needed could only be bought in South Africa. Today, though, we have some very good news! Prozam MTB Supply has set up two outlets in Lusaka, stocking a growing range of essential cycling supplies, including […]Read More »

I started reading “Learned Optimism,” by Martin E.P. Seligman a couple weeks ago, and wanted to share some of the insights I’ve had since. After taking one of the optimism tests in the book, I discovered that, statistically, I’m a total pessimist. I honestly never would have guessed– yes, I have pessimistic thoughts fairly often, but I make an effort to “self-talk” them out my head as they arise. I started out in mountain bike racing as a pretty optimistic teenager. I believed that I was greatRead More »

Right, hopefully we’ve established a bit of a routine over the past two weeks. Now that your body and mind have had a chance to adapt to the frequency of riding, we’re going to try and lift the intensity and duration of the rides. From now until the end of March we’ll be in Base […]Read More »

Good News! After years of hard work by dedicated race organisers around the country, Zambia finally has its own National MTB Series. The 2018 Zambian National MTB Series will consist of 6 rounds, spread evenly across the country. Championship categories will run from Under 14 (for 13 and 14 year olds) all the way up […]Read More »

In terms of training, week 2 is almost going to be a repeat of week 1. I know you’re itching to get out and do some 100km rides in the mountains, but those rides will be much more effective if they’re done after a good adaptation period. We will get there, though. In week 2 we’re […]Read More »

Sodium Bicarbonate is a substance that we naturally produce and store in our bodies. It’s a buffer: helping to offset the acidifying effects of intense physical activity. Here’s how it works, and how drinking a small amount of it before training might make your cycling experience more pleasurable.In TheoryWhen you jump on your bike and go charging up a mountain, your body burns sugars to generate that energy. I won’t put you through the same pain I experienced in trying to understand all the cheRead More »

Right. You’ve just made that decision to ride the 1Zambia (or the Sani2C or any other big race, really), and you’re all excited to get out there and do it. There’s only one problem. For the past three months, you’ve completely forgotten how to ride your bike, and you’ve been working really hard on growing a respectably large belly. Where do you start?Fear not. This series of articles is designed to help you build yourself up in a slow, controlled manner, so you can get the absolute best out ofRead More »

During the 2016 DH world cup season, Rob Warner referred to Josh Bryceland as “Perhaps the last derelict to win a World Cup.” It felt like the era of rock star downhillers was coming to an end, and clean-cut professionalism would be the only way to win a race from then on. With Steve Peat having retired, and then Josh Bryceland’s announcement that he wouldn’t race the 2017 season, it seemed like that era was dead and buried. That’s why we needed Wheel Love.The long intro full of wobbly shots ofRead More »

Something that I’ve learned on my journey to becoming a pro athlete is that I, personally, do not train well without a coach. If I have coach that I trust, I follow my training program exactly as its given to me, no questions asked. However, this mentally can become a unhealthy compulsion that leads to overtraining.After training with my coach obsessively for nine months, I fell sick and was forced to take two weeks off. Afterwards, I suddenly had a TON of energy, more strength than I remembereRead More »

During the summer of 1957, the United States government decided to do a little experiment with their air conditioners. Having tracked the productivity of their typists (people who spent all day, every day, hammering away at typewriters), they began to fiddle with their air conditioners as the outside temperatures began to rise. Continuing to track the typists’ productivity, they pushed the temperature up, down, and everywhere in between. By the end of the summer, a simple pattern had emerged. TRead More »