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Your First Multi-Day MTB Stage Race: What the Training Actually Looks Like
Stage racing on a mountain bike is a different discipline from a single hard event. The training is different, the equipment choices are different, and the in-race decisions that determine whether you finish comfortably or blow up on day three are different. Here is the framework that experienced stage racers actually use.
By ZealZag TeamLa Thuile and the Aosta Valley: Riding Italy's Alpine Crossroads
The Aosta Valley is Italy's smallest region and one of its least-visited — hemmed in by Mont Blanc, the Matterhorn, and Gran Paradiso, with a UCI World Cup venue at its western end and a Roman city at its base. A practical guide for mountain bikers coming for the race or planning the trip.
By ZealZag TeamBlunk and Boichis Take Short-Track Glory in the Alps at La Thuile XCC
Savilia Blunk and Adrien Boichis emerged from bar-to-bar chaos to win the Elite XCC Short Track at Round 7 of the WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series — the only event on the calendar that gathers all four disciplines in one Alpine hub.
By ZealZag TeamGear Up and Ship Out: The Logistics of Getting Your Kit to an International Adventure Race
Adventure racing asks you to navigate across terrain you have never seen, by foot, bike, and paddle, for anything from 24 hours to ten days. Getting your equipment from your home to the race start in another country involves a logistics challenge that experienced teams treat as seriously as the physical preparation. Here is what that actually involves.
By ZealZag TeamPreparing for Your First Multi-Day MTB Stage Race: What Back-to-Back Days Actually Demand
Stage racing on a mountain bike exposes gaps in fitness that a single hard day never will. Cumulative fatigue changes what you can do on day four, and pacing instincts built for one-day efforts misfire when the finish line resets every morning for a week.
By ZealZag TeamTrail, Enduro, or XC: What the Three Mountain Bike Categories Actually Mean for Real Riders
Mountain bike categories have blurred as every segment adopted the geometry trends of the one below it. A 2025 trail bike has the numbers that a 2018 enduro bike had. Here is what the categories actually mean, where the lines sit, and — more usefully — which one you probably need.
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 TeamRiding Graubünden: Switzerland's Mountain Bike Alps From Lenzerheide to Davos
Graubünden isn't just the Lenzerheide World Cup. Switzerland's largest canton holds the Bike Kingdom network, Davos's alpine singletrack, the Flims-Laax bikepark, and the Albula Pass gravel crossing. A practical guide for destination-athletes who want more than one ride.
By ZealZag TeamKoretzky and Rissveds Own Lenzerheide's Short Track: XCC World Cup Wrapped Up in Bike Kingdom
UCI XCC World Champion Victor Koretzky wins the men's short track at Lenzerheide. Jenny Rissveds beats overall series leader Evie Richards for her second consecutive XCC World Cup victory and fifth of her career. XCO and DHI follow across the weekend.
By ZealZag TeamPreparing 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 TeamCink's Fairytale, Pieterse's Perfect Week: Leogang XCO Ends in the Mud
Ondřej Cink won his first career XCO World Cup at 34 years old, pulling away from a field that included every major cross-country name in a muddy seven-lap battle at Saalfelden-Leogang. Puck Pieterse completed the weekend double — XCC short track Friday, XCO Sunday — with 50 seconds to spare.
By ZealZag TeamMelamed and Conolly Take the Enduro at Leogang Round 4: World Cup Day 3 Field Report
Jesse Melamed (Canyon CLLCTV Factory Team) and Ella Conolly closed out the enduro races at Leogang Round 4 — Conolly defending the venue she won at last year and the overall UCI title she carries into 2026. Downhill Q1 ran clean with Marine Cabirou and Dylan Maples on top in the women's and men's qualifying respectively.
By ZealZag TeamGoldstone by 59 Hundredths, Hemstreet Beats Höll at Home: Leogang DHI in the Rain
Jackson Goldstone won the Leogang DHI World Cup by 59 hundredths of a second over Loïc Bruni in conditions that turned the track into a sliding puzzle. Gracey Hemstreet took back-to-back wins, holding off Valentina Höll on Höll's home circuit in the final ride of the afternoon.
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 TeamRiding the Leogang XC Circuit: Cross-Country Trails in Austria's Best Bike Region
Leogang's reputation is built on its downhill bikepark, but the cross-country trail network running through the Leogangtal and Saalach valley is the reason XCO World Series athletes arrive days early. A guide to the trails, the lifts, and the training infrastructure that backs today's WHOOP UCI MTB World Series XCC race.
By ZealZag TeamLeogang XCC: Blevins Makes History, Pieterse Splits a Front Group in Seconds
Christopher Blevins took his fourth consecutive UCI Cross-Country Short Track World Cup win at Leogang on Friday, powering away from teammate Vidaurre Kossmann on the final climb. Puck Pieterse split a five-rider front group mid-race to win the women's race by 16 seconds — the kind of dominant move that makes the rest of the field look like they are racing a different event.
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 TeamLeogang: The Bikepark That Hosts the World Cup and Welcomes Everyone Else
Austria's EPIC Bikepark Leogang — 120-plus kilometres of trails across seven mountains, nine cable cars, and the same Speedster World Cup DH track that Vali Höll trains on, now open to any visitor who buys a lift pass.
By ZealZag TeamThe EPIC Opens: Training Day at Leogang as the MTB World Cup's Most Stacked Weekend Begins
The WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series Round 4 opened in Saalfelden-Leogang today with practice sessions across downhill and cross-country — four disciplines, four days, one mountain, and a historic first: for the first time, the Elite Women's DH final is the headline event that closes Saturday's programme.
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 TeamMountain Biking for Footballers: The Off-Season Sport That Trains the Right Energy System
Mountain biking and gravel cycling deliver the variable-intensity energy demand that competitive soccer requires — without the injury risk of running. The case for adding a mountain bike to a footballer's off-season schedule, and where to ride.
By ZealZag TeamFinale Ligure: Italy's Purpose-Built Enduro Capital on the Ligurian Coast
Finale Ligure is a small Ligurian coastal town where the limestone hills directly behind the beach hold several hundred kilometres of purpose-developed enduro trail. The Enduro World Series has raced here multiple times. The town has rebuilt its service economy around mountain biking. By most measures, it is the most complete enduro destination in Europe.
By ZealZag TeamKorea's Summer Trails: Riding and Training Around YongPyong and PyeongChang
The resort that hosted Alpine skiing at the 2018 Winter Olympics has built itself into South Korea's leading MTB destination — a UCI World Cup trail network, a fast rail connection from Seoul, and a Gangwon Province backdrop that most international athletes have never seen.
By ZealZag TeamGlory in the Mud: Lillo and Frei Win History's First Asian XCO World Cup at YongPyong
Dario Lillo led from first corner to last and Sina Frei doubled her XCC win to claim the first UCI XCO World Cup victories on Asian soil — on a course so destroyed by overnight rain that riders spent more time running than pedalling.
By ZealZag Team