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.

​Singapore fans of Specialized will be happy to hear that the official online retail platform of the US cycling giant has just gone live at www.specialized.com/sg/en. While the Specialized Concept Store and Tay Junction have done a good job over the years of showcasing Specialized’s wares (and we’re sure they will continue to do so), they perhaps at times didn’t go far enough in terms of stocking the full range of Specialized products. Plus if you didn’t live near Ubi or Bukit Timah it meant a schelp!

Why not try out the new platform for yourself. Specialized Southeast Asia has given Flat Spoke Media a 15 percent discount code – ALAN15FF – to share to our readers that can be used until November 1, 2018. Happy shopping. www.specialized.com/sg/en

Read the full review of the new online platform by clicking on this link.

The Tour de Kepri, the latest creation in the Cycosports collection of cycling races, sprung into life last weekend, and at the end of three days of hot and hard action across a string of Indonesian islands, it was Paolo Caputo (Allied World Treknology) and Chelsie Tan (BikeLabz) who walked away as the tour king and queen with impressive wins in the Men’s and Women’s Open contests.

The three-day Tour de Kepri was the company's second foray into stage racing for Cycosports chief Kent McCallum and his team (they've put on three editions of the Tour of Phuket), and they pulled it off with aplomb despite the obvious logistical challenges they faced with moving 300+ cyclists around the Indonesian province of Riau Islands, or Kepri, which is an acronym derived from the Indonesian spelling, Kepulauan Riau. Click on this link to read the full race report.

It had been 18 months since Holy Crit last graced Singapore’s cycling community with its presence, but it came roaring back on Saturday night in the shape of the “Odlo Cool Sprint Challenge powered by Holy Crit” at the Karting Arena in Turf City.
 
Holy Crit has its roots in fixed gear racing but has occasionally allowed roadies and mountain bikers to gatecrash the scene at previous editions of the event … but never all three together. That changed on Saturday when an extravaganza of racing saw the fixed gear, MTB and road racers combine as one big happy cycling family.
 
The event was actually the second edition of the Odlo Cool Sprint Challenge; the inaugural edition took place at the same Karting Arena circuit in April of this year, but that was a much smaller Saturday morning affair and was only for road bikes. The decision of the various stakeholders to come together was a masterstroke as merging Odlo’s original concept of racing at the Karting Arena with Holy Crit’s “street cool” resulted in a fantastic event that will be talked about for years to come. Click on this link to read the full race report.

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.

​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.

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.