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Haute Route Alps, an epic adventure: part 2

9/6/2018

Ben Arnott and four of his buddies from the Singapore-based Specialized Roval Mavericks racing team recently completed the gruelling but epic Haute Route Alps 2018, a seven-stage event travelling down the spine of the French Alps from Megève to Nice.

We published the first part of Ben's account yesterday, now click here to read the conclusion, which covers stages 4 to 7.

Haute Route Alps 2018, an epic adventure

9/6/2018

Ben Arnott, a well-known figure in the Singapore and Southeast Asian road racing scene, recently completed the Haute Route Alps, a seven-day stage race that travelled down the spine of the French Alps. Ben, who was accompanied by four fellow members of the Specialized Roval Mavericks racing team, has been gracious enough to allow Flat Spoke Media to publish his account of what was a painfully glorious experience for the five Mavs.

Click on this link to read Part 1 of the story, which covers the first three stages of this year’s Haute Route Alps event, while we’ll publish the concluding part tomorrow.

Riyadh enjoys more Jungle Cross success, Koreneff wins CX race

8/27/2018

Blue skies and perfect trail conditions greeted a bumper crop of competitors for the third leg in the 2018 Cycosports Jungle Cross Series at Turf City yesterday and the riders responded by delivered a string of exciting races and some superlative individual performances. The standout performances came from the man who can’t stop winning, Riyadh Hakim (Team Awano Treknology3), in the Men’s MTB Cross Country Open and Michael Koreneff (Allied World Treknology3) in the Men’s Cyclocross Open.
Click here to read the full race report.

Test ride: the all-new Specialized Venge Pro Disc UDi2

8/24/2018

When Specialized revealed the Venge #3 last month it only released details about the top-of-the-line S-Works version. It was a dream bike along with what was for most cyclists a fantasy price tag of S$16,600. But just a few weeks later the Big S unveiled the Venge Pro Disc and made a lot of dreams a step closer to reality. It’s still not exactly a cheap bike at a recommended retail price of S$10,800, but the substantial cost savings over the S-Works Venge for what is still an amazingly attractive package will bring it into the price range of a few more riders. Click on this link to read our review of this super bike.

X Rally brings new dimension to Singapore cycling scene

8/21/2018

Something completely different hit the local cycling scene last Sunday in the form of the X Rally 2018, a multi-terrain adventure which took its participants on a 90km trip around eastern, central and southern Singapore.

What made yesterday’s inaugural X Rally unique was that it was an event that catered to both road and off-road cyclists. It was predominantly ridden on tarmac, but participants were also tasked with negotiating sections of beach, gravel, single-track trail, railway sleepers and leg-punishing steps.

Click here to read the full X Rally story.

Riyadh’s hot streak rolls on, Tan takes women’s title at Turf Club

8/6/2018

The local road racing scene broke new ground yesterday with a morning of “speedway” action at the Singapore Turf Club, but it was familiar names in the winner’s circle as Riyadh Hakim (Team Awano Treknology) continued his run of recent success by triumphing in the Men’s Open contest and Chelsie Tan (BikeLabz Racing) followed up her success at last week’s URA-CFS Crit with victory in the Women’s Open race.

The latest occasion for local roadies to scratch their competitive itch was the Get Active Singapore Cycling Challenge and the response from those in attendance at the Turf Club in Kranji was overwhelmingly positive. Click here to read the full race report.

Malaysia boleh! Cyfora delivers superb race in Putrajaya

8/3/2018

There’s no doubt the Singapore road racing scene is much healthier than it was just a few short years ago, but it still lacks proper road races. A steady diet of crits, time trails and novelty contests is great, but staging 100km+ races on Singapore’s roads is still but a dream. Even the three big “local” events (Tour de Bintan, Tour de Kepri, SG National Champs) are staged on the Indonesian islands of Bintan and Batam.

There is, though, a plethora of road races over the border in Malaysia, including last Sunday's Cyfora Cyberjaya which attracted some 20 teams and nearly 200 riders for what was a first-rate example of how to stage an amateur cycling race. Click here to read the full race report.

Sprinters reign supreme as URA crits return to Singapore CBD

7/30/2018

As might be expected in crit races, sprint finishes were the order of the day at the July edition of the URA-Car Free Sunday Criterium in downtown Singapore yesterday, with all six contests on the race card being decided by a final dash for the line. Race organisers Cycosports only started running the URA Crits in January last year, but the concept has been a huge success, with the road racing community eagerly awaiting the races, which occur roughly every second month. A big part of that success is the fact that Cycosports spreads the racing love, so to speak, by making sure that the crits aren’t just the domain of the elite cyclists.

Access is only granted to the Cecil Street/Robinson Road circuit for 90 minutes for each edition of the URA crits, yet Cycosports manages to squeeze six separate races into that tight window, and yesterday it was the turn of the juniors, the ladies and the “old men” to hog the limelight. Click here to read the full race report.

Brown triumphs at 2018 SG MTB nationals, Riyadh clinches triple

7/23/2018

An intensive three-week period of championship racing came to a close yesterday when the nation’s best cross country mountain bikers and cyclocross exponents hit the Centaurs Trail at Turf City for the 2018 OCBC Cycle Singapore MTB National Championships. Nearly eight hours of thrilling action culminated with Anthony Brown (Cannasia Absolute Black Racing) winning the elite Men’s Open race and Tsalina Phang (Treknology3) claiming the Women’s Open crown.

Contests to decide who would clinch the Juniors A and B, Masters, Super Masters, All Mountain and Cyclocross national title jerseys preceded the main event of the day, and there was still a big crowd present when the Open and Under 23s racers finally got their chance to strut their stuff around the sweltering Centaurs circuit about 1pm.

Click on this link to read the full race report.

Goh doubles as TT champ, Choo takes first national crown

7/2/2018

Seasoned pro Goh Choon Huat (Terengganu Cycling Team) and newcomer of sorts Ling Er Choo (TWC Racing) were crowned the king and queen of local time trialing after triumphing in the 2018 OCBC Cycle Singapore ITT National Championships at the Tanah Merah Coastal Road on Sunday.

Goh’s win represented a hat-trick of national champ jerseys as it added to the ITT title he won in 2016 and his road race triumph last year, but for Choo, much better known for her exploits as one of Singapore’s leading Ironman triathlon athletes, Sunday’s victory was her first national title at her first attempt.

Click on this link to read the full race report.

What we do

Welcome to Flat Spoke Media, which was inspired by its editor-at-large Alan Grant, a man who eats, sleeps and breathes cycling. As such our main aim is to explore and write about all things related to the pedal-powered world.

We also write social commentaries about life in Singapore through the eyes of an expat, as well as covering travel and the wider sports world.

Editing services are also part of our remit. Our years of experience in the editorial production departments of various regional newspapers and magazines puts us well positioned to polish copy from any walk of life.

We hope you enjoy Flat Spoke Media and look forward to your comments and suggestions on our content.

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