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Preparing for Your First Multi-Day MTB Stage Race: What the Training Block Actually Looks Like
Multi-day MTB stage racing is a fundamentally different test from a single long ride or a short-format XCO race. The training that builds you for it is specific, and most athletes underestimate the volume of back-to-back riding required. Here is a realistic preparation framework.
By ZealZag TeamFrom Raid Gauloises to the World Series: How Adventure Racing Built Itself From Nothing
Adventure racing arrived in 1989 with no rule book, no governing body, and no audience. Three and a half decades later it has a world series, a championship, and a culture unlike anything else in endurance sport. Here is how that happened.
By ZealZag TeamFlying to Your Ultra: Kit Compliance, Drop Bags, and What Overseas Race Registration Actually Looks Like
The running in an ultra is the part you're most prepared for. The administrative layer — mandatory kit compliance, medical documentation, drop bag logistics, overseas registration, and jet lag before a 5am start — is where first-timers lose hours and sleep. Here is what it actually looks like.
By ZealZag TeamThe Fastnet Race: Six Hundred Miles, a 1979 Storm, and the Safety Rules That Reshaped Offshore Racing
A lighthouse on a bare Atlantic rock 11 kilometres off the southwest tip of Ireland has been the waypoint of offshore sailing's most consequential race since 1925. The 1979 Fastnet disaster changed not just this race but the safety standards governing offshore competition globally.
By ZealZag TeamFrom the Gym to the Crag: What Indoor Climbers Need Before Their First Outdoor Sport Climbing Trip
Indoor climbing and outdoor sport climbing share movement vocabulary but almost nothing else. Skin, footwork, gear systems, and fall psychology all need rebuilding from scratch. Here is what the gap actually looks like — and how to close it before your first crag trip.
By ZealZag TeamWingfoil Equipment Explained: What the Wing, Board, and Foil Actually Do
Wingfoiling combines a handheld inflatable wing, a hydrofoil mast and fuselage, and a board designed to get the foil into the water. Each component makes specific compromises. Understanding what the numbers on a wing canopy, a foil's aspect ratio, and a board's volume rating mean in practice helps you avoid buying the wrong equipment for where you are in your progression.
By ZealZag TeamDover and the Strait: Open Water Swimming's Most Famous 21 Miles
The English Channel between Dover and Cap Gris-Nez is the world's busiest shipping lane and the most-attempted long-distance open water crossing. Shakespeare Beach in Dover is where Channel swimmers prepare, and the town's open water community has been coaching and piloting crossings since Matthew Webb first swam it in August 1875.
By ZealZag TeamThe Hour Record: Cycling's Loneliest Benchmark
The Hour Record asks a single question: how far can one rider go on a bicycle in sixty minutes? No drafting, no team, no tactical riding. Since Henri Desgrange set the first recognised mark in 1893, the record has attracted every era's finest cyclists and produced some of the sport's most psychologically revealing moments.
By ZealZag TeamKitesurfing: What the Beginner-to-Independent Progression Actually Looks Like
Most people arrive at their first kite destination unable to get on the water safely because they shortcut the learning progression at home. The IKO certification system exists for a reason. What the phases actually involve, how many hours each realistically takes, and what travel-ready genuinely means before you book Tarifa.
By ZealZag TeamRacing Tokyo Marathon: What International Runners Actually Need to Know
Tokyo Marathon is held on the first Sunday of March, starts in Shinjuku, finishes near Tokyo Station, and has been a World Marathon Major since 2013. Entry is by lottery with notoriously low acceptance rates. The race itself is logistically dense and specifically Japanese in its organisation — which rewards preparation and punishes improvisation.
By ZealZag TeamSupertubos and Peniche: Portugal's Championship Tour Wave, for Everyone Else
Peniche is 85 kilometres north of Lisbon on a peninsula surrounded by Atlantic on three sides. Supertubos — the beach on its south flank — has hosted the WSL Rip Curl Pro since 2009 and produces one of Europe's most powerful beach break barrels in autumn swells. What the town actually offers beyond the competition window.
By ZealZag TeamYour First Ironman Race Week: What Check-In, Bike Racking, and Race Morning Actually Look Like
An Ironman race week has a specific administrative structure that no amount of training prepares you for. Check-in timelines, bike racking protocols, transition bag systems, and race morning logistics are learnable in advance — and knowing them in advance means you spend your final pre-race hours managing energy rather than managing confusion.
By ZealZag TeamTrail Bike Geometry: What Reach, Head Angle, and Chainstay Length Actually Mean on the Trail
Modern trail bike geometry data sheets list reach to the millimetre and head angles to the decimal. These numbers are not marketing. They directly describe how a bike will behave on steep descents, tight switchbacks, and sustained climbs — and understanding them before you buy or size a frame saves a significant amount of money and frustration.
By ZealZag TeamZermatt for Trail Runners: Cable Cars to 3,883m and the Trails That Use Them
Zermatt sits at 1,620m in the Mattertal with the Matterhorn at 4,478m above it and cable cars climbing to 3,883m. The village is car-free, the trail network covers 400-plus kilometres, and the Matterhorn Ultraks skyrunning race fills the high terrain every July. What that actually means for a trail runner planning a trip.
By ZealZag TeamTraining for Your First 24-Hour Adventure Race: What the Disciplines Actually Demand
A 24-hour adventure race combines trail running, mountain biking, paddling, and rope work into a single overnight team event navigated by map and compass. The fitness requirement is real but rarely the limiting factor. Navigation errors, sleep management, and team communication usually determine the result — and all three are trainable.
By ZealZag TeamThe Vendée Globe: Solo, Non-Stop, Unassisted — and Still the Most Demanding Race in the World
The Vendée Globe starts and finishes in Les Sables-d'Olonne, France. Solo, non-stop, no assistance permitted. Approximately 24,000 nautical miles around three great capes. Since 1989 it has been the defining event in ocean sailing — not because of its prize money, but because of what it asks the person inside the boat.
By ZealZag TeamKalymnos: The Greek Island That Became Sport Climbing's Most Coveted Limestone Destination
Kalymnos is a small Dodecanese island 12 nautical miles from Kos with more than 3,500 bolted routes across 70-plus sectors of compact grey limestone. The pocket-and-tufa climbing style is unlike anything produced by granite or sandstone, and the October festival has become one of the climbing world's most reliable annual gatherings.
By ZealZag Team
Where Strength and Technique Converge.
Passion got him hooked. Technique changed everything. Consistency did the rest.
By ZealZag TeamHow Wing Foiling Reinvented Wind-Powered Sport in Five Years
Wing foiling appeared as a commercial product in 2019. By 2022 it had arguably the highest growth rate of any water sport in the world. The reasons why it spread so fast — and where it sits now in the broader ecology of foil sports — illuminate something about how equipment-dependent disciplines evolve and who drives adoption.
By ZealZag TeamGirona, Catalonia: Why Professional Cycling's Favourite Training Hub Works for Every Visiting Athlete
Girona is a medieval Catalan city 100 kilometres from Barcelona where dozens of professional WorldTour cyclists have based themselves for over two decades. The infrastructure built around that community — roads, climbs, service, cafés — is now available to any visiting athlete. Here is how it actually works.
By ZealZag TeamBuilding Heat Tolerance for Long-Course Triathlon: What the Adaptation Actually Involves
Hot-weather long-course triathlon — Ironman Kona, T100 Singapore, Ironman Frankfurt in June — demands preparation beyond generic fitness. Heat acclimatisation is a specific physiological process with a known timeline and trainable methods. Here is what it actually does and how to build it.
By ZealZag TeamBuilding Your First Trad Rack: What Every Piece of Gear Actually Does
Trad climbing gear is expensive and the vocabulary around it is technical enough to obscure a simple underlying logic: you are placing removable protection in cracks and using it to arrest a fall. Understanding what each category of gear does — mechanically, and in practice on real rock — before you spend anything is worth more than any single product recommendation.
By ZealZag TeamHow the Vendée Globe Became Solo Sailing's Most Important Race
The Vendée Globe is a solo, non-stop, unassisted circumnavigation of the Earth: approximately 45,000 kilometres through the North Atlantic, the Southern Ocean, and back. No crew, no pit stops, no outside help. It has run every four years since 1989 and has reshaped what competitive sailing looks like — in boat design, in public attention, and in what the sport asks of its athletes.
By ZealZag TeamFinale Ligure: Italy's Mountain Bike Enduro Capital
Finale Ligure sits where the Apennines meet the Ligurian coast, 70 kilometres west of Genoa. Behind the medieval hilltop village, 800 kilometres of signed trails cross the limestone karst plateau above the sea — the terrain that has made Finale one of the world's most respected enduro destinations and a repeated stop on the UCI Enduro MTB World Cup calendar.
By ZealZag Team