Author Archives: chamonixbikeblog

Moving pictures

Posted on 19th December 2016
Shooting some moving pictures and enjoying the prime December riding conditions in Chamonix.
Posted in Trail conditions , tagged ,

Post truth biking

Posted on 12th November 2016
The Plan and a plan.
If US president elect went to Chamonix, rode one of its best trails, then talked about it.... (and a load of golden hour pictures)
Posted in Chamonix ride , tagged ,

101 things that could have gone better

Posted on 5th October 2016
Why is it always the elbow?
Injuries. The grey cloud inside mountain biking's silver lining.
Posted in Review , tagged

It’s the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine): Lift (not) closings

Posted on 12th September 2016
Brevent's most photogenic corner.
Desperately trying to avoid getting to the top of the hill under our own power.
Posted in Road trip, Trail conditions , tagged

Gone surfing: La Clusaz

Posted on 5th September 2016
Spence is pretty hand on bikes AND skis, so nowt for him to worry about in La Clusaz.
Skiing on dust with bikes. A wee trip over to La Clusaz for the last day of it's summer season.
Posted in Road trip , tagged

Enduro des Belleville

Posted on 16th August 2016
Nina on stage 3. Have I mentioned it was a really good stage?
Enduro des Belleville 2016, the best enduro race in the world? Mibbies.
Posted in Race, Road trip , tagged , ,

Yeah, but what’s the best descent in Chamonix……

Posted on 3rd August 2016
Picture this: Another one of Chamonix's top trails, it just didn't make the cut though...
What are ten of the best mountain bike descents in Chamonix? Well it might be these....
Posted in Chamonix ride , tagged , , , ,

La Thuile EWS, Veni Vidi Perdidi*

Posted on 21st July 2016
Ciao La Thuile, see you soon.

Amongst the many, many things that annoy me (unnessecary repetition, spelling necessary, etc) is the phrase “have a good time all the time”. The idea that you can have only the good and positive with none of the bad. The yin without the yang, the single market without free movement of people…. Life needs a balance to work.

Hence the crackingness of the La Thuile race weekend; the courses, the weather, the friends, the kicking about in the pits in the sun…. all had to be balanced out by a negative, which in my case was arm pump.

I thought … [Read full post]

Posted in Race, Road trip , tagged , ,

St Gervais / So that was the first big crash of the summer

Posted on 11th July 2016
How's that for a berm with a background?

“starts Thursday as usual with a canteen quiz and again no-one wins the big cash prize” Means nothing to you? No, well, your loss.

It’s been hard to keep track of events recently. The constant state of flux between what’s in and out, who’s calling the shots, behind the scenes negotiations, false promises. The dust seems to be settling now though and it seems the state of play is this:

Brevent & Flegere. No playing on bikes, or at least no uplift for bikes, until the bike ban ends at the start of September.

Megeve, Les Contamines, St Gervais & … [Read full post]

Posted in Chamonix ride, Trail conditions , tagged , ,

Crankworx Les Gets

Posted on 23rd June 2016
This is a big jump and it scared the crap out of me.

Way back in the dim and distant mists of time, when a DH bike had 6″ of travel, 150mm disk brakes, a 69 degree head angle and Steve Peat was only in his mid to late 20’s, I raced downhill.

Back then nobody trained (or at least, nobody admitted it, turns out quite a few were cheating with a road bike), if you were lucky you had a couple of spare tires, but certainly not any spare wheels and, in Scotland at least, you were racing on some of the best DH tracks ever made. Raw, loose and fast.

Then … [Read full post]

Posted in Race , tagged , ,