Explore
Destinations, athlete stories, and field reports from every corner of the globe.
Browse by Sport
The Bec des Rosses and the Thirty-Year Competition That Changed Freeride Skiing
In 1996, a small group of skiers dropped off the Bec des Rosses — a 55-degree face above Verbier — in what became the first edition of the Verbier Xtreme. Three decades later, that same face is the closing venue of a global competitive series. The route from sidecountry dare to world championship is not a straight line.
By ZealZag TeamNazaré: How a Portuguese Fishing Town Became the Capital of Big-Wave Surfing
Nazaré existed before 2011 as a beach town with a funicular and a seafood economy. Then Garrett McNamara rode a wave measured at 78 feet, a photograph went viral, and a submarine canyon became the most consequential piece of seabed in big-wave surfing.
By ZealZag TeamHow Portugal Became Big-Wave Surfing's Most Important Address
In 2011, an American surfer and a Portuguese canyon nobody had surfed changed everything. A decade later, Nazaré hosts the world's most-watched big-wave contest and Portugal claims the heaviest beach break on the CT calendar. Here is the story of how it happened.
By ZealZag TeamFrom One Finish Line to Two: The Story Behind Ironman's Kona and Nice World Championships
For forty-four years, every Ironman World Championship ended on Ali'i Drive in Kailua-Kona. Then in 2023, Nice hosted the men's professional race for the first time. How the sport's most iconic event ended up with two World Championship venues — and what that means for the athletes trying to get to either one.
By ZealZag TeamThe Mountains That Made the Giro: Italy's Greatest Race and Its Altitude Obsession
The Giro d'Italia was founded in 1909 and has spent much of the 115 years since testing riders against Italy's most hostile high-altitude terrain. The Stelvio, the Mortirolo, the Zoncolan — these are not just climbs on a race route. They are the reason the Giro is what it is, and why it occupies a different place in cycling's imagination than any other race.
By ZealZag TeamThe First 9a: Wolfgang Güllich, Action Directe, and the Move That Changed Climbing
In 1991, Wolfgang Güllich made the first ascent of Action Directe in Bavaria's Frankenjura — completing a route now recognised as the world's first 9a. The route is nine metres long, and it required Güllich to invent a new training tool specifically to build the finger and pulling power that a single explosive movement demanded. He died in a car accident less than a year later. The campus board is in every climbing gym in the world.
By ZealZag TeamThe Race Format That Rewrote the Trail Bike: How the Enduro World Series Changed Mountain Biking
The Enduro World Series launched in 2013 with a format that demanded something no existing bike category was built to deliver: a machine that could descend technical terrain fast enough to compete at an elite level while being pedalled for several hours between stages. The industry responded with a decade of geometry evolution that created a distinct enduro bike category and, in the process, permanently reset the baseline for what a trail bike is expected to do.
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 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 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 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 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 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 TeamThe Vendée Globe: Why Sailing's Solo Circumnavigation Became the Sport's Definitive Test
Every four years, around 30 sailors leave Les Sables-d'Olonne alone on 60-foot monohulls and attempt to sail around the world without stopping or receiving outside assistance. The Vendée Globe is sailing's most demanding race. Understanding why it occupies that position requires understanding what solo non-stop circumnavigation actually involves.
By ZealZag TeamPatrouille des Glaciers: The Military Ski Race That Became Skimo's Oldest Living Tradition
In 1943 the Swiss Armed Forces organized a ski race across high-Alpine glaciers to assess soldier readiness for mountain warfare. More than 80 years later the Patrouille des Glaciers runs biennially over the same terrain, still organized by the military, still requiring a team of three on a rope. It has become one of the largest ski mountaineering events in the world by participant count — and one of the few that exists entirely outside the competitive racing circuit.
By ZealZag Team