The phenomenally successful global cycling series known as Haute Route is venturing into East Asia later this month with the inaugural Haute Route Qingcheng, a three-day event set in the mountains of Sichuan province in China. As well as breaking new ground in terms of geography, the October 25-27 event will be the first Haute Route event to take place on completely closed roads.

The Haute Route Qingcheng delivers over 5,000 metres of climb ing over its three stages and promises to be a fascinating event offering something completely different in terms of culture and terrain from previous Haute Route challenges. Click here to read the full preview.
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​Conditions for the third round of the 2019 Jungle Cross series at the Centaurs Sports Park in Turf City yesterday were perfect, and Singapore’s off-road cycling community produced a string of exciting contests on a race-card packed with something for everybody. Leading the way were the familiar names of Anthony Brown (Cannasia) and Bastian Dohling (Specialized Roval Mavericks), as they turned on the style to clinch the elite Men’s Cross Country MTB and Cyclocross titles respectively, while among the female racers, Tsalina Phang (Treknology3) took top honours by winning the Women's Open XCO contest in a sprint finish.
​Click here to read the full race report. 

Nuts. Crazy. Madness. Insanity. Just some of the words thrown at me after I posted a ride on Strava in the wee hours of yesterday. And I agree completely, but sometimes it just seems right to do some things, no matter how strange they might seem. The session in question was an “Everesting” on Singapore’s Mt Faber. For the uninformed, “to Everest” on a bicycle is to climb the equivalent height of the world’s highest mountain (8,848 metres) on a single hill, in one ride. No sleep is allowed, but thankfully breaks are permitted, indeed encouraged, by the keepers of the rules of Everesting, an Australian mob known as the Hell’s 500.

It took me 16 hours and 51 minutes of riding to hit the target, plus about three hours of downtime to eat, charge lights and Garmins (yes, plural, it’s best to have a back up for an Everesting), apply chamois cream and contemplate the existential meaning of life. I covered 333km. Click here to read the full report.

Such has been the growth of the Southeast Asian road cycling scene over the past decade, that the region now supports a long list of fantastic amateur races throughout the year. Riders flock to the likes of the Tour of Phuket, the Tour de Bintan, the Tour of Friendship, the Masters Tour of Chiang Mai, the Taiwan KOM Challenge and the Etape Thailand from all over Asia and beyond, with most competing as part of groups from cycling clubs and racing teams. But a large number of entrants to these events travel as individuals and it’s perhaps surprising in such a vibrant market that more hasn’t been done by some of the region’s cycling tours operators to attract these solo racers with enhanced packages.

​SpiceRoads Cycling, one of Southeast Asia’s leading cycling tours company for over 20 years, has actually dabbled with this concept before, but they’ve recently decided to go big and have launched what look like fantastic deals for three of the biggest events on the calendar: the Masters Tour of Chiang Mai, the Taiwan KOM Challenge and the Etape Thailand. All three races take place in October and the official websites each offer fairly straightforward online registration processes, but the people at SpiceRoads Cycling are betting that there are a lot of cyclists out there who are willing to pay a bit extra for the luxury experience they are offering. Click here to read the full article.

The Haute Route brand of competitive cycling adventures took a first step outside of its comfort zones of Europe and the United States in March of this year with a foray into the Middle East for the Haute Route Oman. For the 200+ riders who travelled from all the world to the three-day event, it delivered a unique cycling adventure set in a culture and on terrain most had never experienced before.
 
From a cultural point of view, the gracious hospitality of the Omani people, their elegant clothing and the fantastic local food will be the abiding memories, while from the cycling side of things, it’s the sand, mountains and wind that stand out. The sand was expected and what’s a Haute Route without mountains? But an unseasonably strong wind brought an unforeseen extra element of challenge, as it whipped the sand into eyes, ears, noses and throats, and messed with drivetrains, bearings and bottom brackets. High up in the mountains the wind was an even bigger factor. On occasion it provided a helping hand and pushed the riders up the steep slopes, but when blowing head on, it had the effect of adding what felt like an extra degree or two to the already severe gradients. Click on this link to read the full feature story.

The unique and exciting OCBC Cycle Speedway Championships returned to the Singapore  Sports Hub last Saturday and after six hours of thrilling action the national team of the Philippines were crowned Southeast Asia champions, while the Specialized Roval Mavericks retained their title as top local club. 

What makes the OCBC Cycle Speedway Championships unique is that it combines criterium racing with a team relay. Each of the rounds of racing took place over 10 laps of a hotdog circuit skirting the northern edge of the Singapore National Stadium. Significant this year was the presence for the first time of not just one all-female squad, but two; the Anza Women’s Cycling Team and the Fahrenheit Performance Development Team were the pioneers. 

​Click on this link to read the full race report.

The Tour de Bintan started its ninth edition last Friday with a few big changes but one thing that remained the same was a weekend of exciting racing that threw up a plethora of memorable storylines. Many of those tales will no doubt be centred on the weather, with two days of nasty tropical storms doing their best to ruin one of Asia’s premier three-day festivals of amateur cycling, but the epic exploits of the Tour de Bintan’s class of 2019, such as the comeback triumphs of Nol van Loon (Specialized Roval Mavericks) and Yann Kai Oh (Project 852), will also live large in the tour’s history books.

After eight years (plus the test event in 2009) headquartered at the Nirwana Garden Resort, the Tour de Bintan moved its HQ to the Bintan Lagoon Resort this year. The switch brought benefits such as a direct ferry service to the resort from Singapore, a bigger accommodation capacity that allowed more racers to stay on site, nine food & beverage outlets to keep them sated, and a course revamp for the concluding Stage 3 on the Sunday morning that, tough as it was, was a resounding success with the competitors. Another big change for this year was the introduction of bonus seconds of 10, 6 and 4 at two sprint points in each of the two open road races. This had a considerable impact on the tactics and some of the general classification standings. Click on this link to read the full race report.

​The big crowd who gathered at The Karting Arena for the third edition of the Odlo Cool Sprint Challenge powered by HolyCrit last Saturday witnessed a fitting end to an exciting night of racing as Muhammad Shafiq Muslim (Mayhem) out-manoeuvred local hero Elyas Yusoff (Cycleworx) late on the last lap to emerge as champion of the Road Bike Men’s Open after a real ding-dong battle.
 
It was Shafiq’s second successive time in the HolyCrit winner’s circle having won the fixed-gear race at the last Odlo Cool Sprint Challenge in September 2018. But the Kuala Lumpur-based rider’s decision to go roadie and not defend his title didn’t take any sheen off the fixed-gear division on Saturday night as the latter had its own dose of international star power in the shape of Jonas Fischer (Canyon Rad Pack), a member of the famous fixed-gear outfit Rad Race. Click here to read the full race report.