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 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.

After three days of hot, hard and exciting racing in southern Thailand, Thomas Thrall (Matador Racing) and Chelsea Tan (BikeLabz Racing) are the new king and queen of the Singha Tour of Phuket.

The fourth edition of the Tour of Phuket was without a doubt the biggest and best yet, with bumper fields across the different racing groups, plus the race organisation was taken up a level; assisting Cycosports this year were media partner Unfound, local ground logistics partner Nich Cycling, Champion System supplied the race leaders’ jerseys, and of course, Thailand’s premier beer Singha came on board as title sponsor.
​Click here to read the full race report.

The sport of cyclocross in Singapore took a giant leap forward yesterday as a bumper field of participants and a big crowd of spectators enjoyed a thrilling afternoon of action as just the second-ever CX national champs took place at Kallang Riverside Park. 

The big winner of the day at the 2019 OCBC Singapore National CX Championships was Bastian Dohling (Specialized Roval Mavericks) as the German outduelled the Aussie Mike Koreneff (Allied World Treknology3) to claim the men’s elite title after five laps of a fast but punishing course laid out along the banks of the Kallang River. With neither man being Singaporean, the title of national champion went to local cycling legend Junaidi Hashim (Team Awano Treknology), who finished fifth on the day.  Click here to read the full race report.

Singapore’s competitive cycling scene drew to a close for the year on Tuesday with the concluding leg of the Cycosports Jungle Cross Series at the Centaurs Sports Park in Turf City. The record books will show Riyadh Hakim (Team Awano Treknology3) and Bastian Dohling (Specialized Roval Mavericks) as the big winners for triumphing in the Men’s Open MTB and Cyclocross events respectively, but the day was a true celebration of local cycling, combining a string of races with the opening of the Singapore Cycling Federation Academy, the SCF’s new youth training centre.

The event unusually took place on a Tuesday, thanks to the public holiday for Deepavali (Diwali), the Hindu festival of lights. With the absence of all the usual weekend sporting activities that often clash with cycling events, a bumper crowd of racers and supporters turned up and they came to have fun as they turned the covered transition area into a party zone complete with at least three BBQ stations and plenty of liquid refreshments. Click on this link to read the full race report.

That the recently concluded 2018 Masters Tour of Chiang Mai (MTCM) solidified the four-day stage race’s reputation as one of the best cycling events in Southeast Asia shouldn’t be a surprise to previous participants, but its success wasn’t seen as a sure thing in the run-up to the October 13-16 event. 

There were a few fears going into what was the eighth edition of the MTCM that it might struggle to maintain the momentum that it has steadily built each year since its inception in 2011 due to potentially lower participatory numbers. However, those worries proved to be unfounded as nearly 200 bike racers and the northern Thai capital put on another entertaining and memorable show. The concerns arose due to a late change of dates forced on the race organisers by the Thai cycling federation which put the MTCM into direct competition with the Hong Kong Cyclethon and brought it to within two weeks of the Tour de Kepri. But in a twist of fate, the forced date change may have turned out to be a blessing in disguise as a big cadre of Thai riders, who wouldn’t have been able to compete on the original October 20-23 dates, gave the race a distinct home flavour. Click here to read the full story.