Link up

Posted on 28th September 2014

Col du Tricot. Autumn's alright really

Want to know what the next big thing’s going to be in mountain biking? Look at other mountain sports; skiing, snowboarding, mountaineering, fell running. Trail centres are a bike only thing? Snowboarding went crazy for snowparks in the mid 90’s. These newfangled “enduro” bikes that are fairly light up hill but a virtually DH bikes on the down? Skiing’s been doing the fat touring ski and DIN 16 touring binding for ages*. Big days out linking your favourite trails….

OK, so we’ve been doing that for a while too, but mountaineers got there first. With the concentration of hardcore climbers around Chamonix the main lines got climbed fairly quick, so how to make it more interesting? Enchain a load of them. This got particularly entertaining in the 80’s when not content with just climbing lots of hard routes, climbers would hanglide between lines, resplendent in Raybans and headscarfs.

So we thought we’d get in on the act.

Link up, like a bridge. How's that fae a visual metaphor?

Just the Bellevue lift left open now, but it’s probably the best lift any to get into more mountainy terrain. An efficient early start saw Spence and me at the top of the lift by 11am ready to link 2 of the best rides in the valley. The Nid d’Aigle and Col du Tricot.

Abandoned Bond moon base or old jet engine testing facility?

The initial climb to Col Mont Lachat went as smoothly as ever, and also as ever we couldn’t pass the abandoned jet engine test station without having a poke about. If you want to do the same get up there quick as apparently it’s to be demolished this autumn.

Last chance to....

As the tramway’s closed now until the winter it’s an easy (relatively speaking….) push up the tracks to the top station at 2372m and a selection of Mont Blanc ascentionists descending and aspirants ascending. It says something about Chamonix that everyone accepted our response of ‘the summit, Mont Blanc’ when we were asked where we were headed.

At least you canny get lost.

A relaxed lunch in the sun later, we dropped in to the first descent of the day. The trail was just as good as last year, the views just as distracting, and the section by the ladders just as unridable (unless you’re this guy). Some things never change, just like the 650m descent went so much quicker than the 570m climb.

There were a lot of spot the rider shots from today.

The trail to Bionassey we followed last year crosses the track climbing to the Col du Tricot, so here we hung a left and headed down through the techy singletrack to the swing bridge. Our handlebars have got wider still, but the bridge remains as narrow, nae riding this time.

Maybe not the best riding trail ever, but no too shabby either. Yes, that is the trail you can see at the base of the valley.

Reaching the col a little after 2 we had the hill almost to ourselves, a nice change from the last few rides from the col, benefits of not getting started early I guess. The geology is fairly mobile up here and the descent had evolved a little from last time, but still 100% ridable and 95% fun. It’s only the access route for the second section anyway.

Spence in the woods on the way to Tricot.

With a huge amount of effort, I managed to stop this time to fire off a couple of photos of the trail, but they really don’t show how good it is. From the chainring gouges on some of the rocks I think a few more folk are finding out for themselves, maybe I should start saying the trails no good?

Col du Tricot, dropping.

The road kilometres from Villette to St Gervais give a welcome respite to the arms and a chance to enthuse about how good the trail was and how well you rode it….or otherwise, before the final bit of interest on the pipeline trail from St Gervais to Le Fayet. Why’s it called pipeline? As Spence said; if you don’t know, you’ve not ridden it.

Look, actually took a photo this time!

Of course, whilst the tramway being closed made our life easier at the start of the day, it now meant we couldn’t just hop back up to Bellevue and finish off a triptych of trails with the GR5. Instead we got to miss the train to Chamonix whilst I tried to work the automated ticket machine, then go for a beer in the sun whilst we waited for the next one.

Two photos in fact. Still doesnay do the trail justice but.

Could this be the best ride in Chamonix? If you can only ride “one” trail then maybe these 2, linked in with GR5 to get you back into the valley, is where it’s at.

But then, you could always start from town and ride Aiguillet des Houches from Brevent to Les Houches first.

Or….

Spence playing "point ot where we've just been" (the tramway cutting goes just above his head) whilst on the way up to Col du Tricot.

*So smart arse, where’s mountain biking going next? Well, snowboarding’s all about the split board, so I guess we’ll be keeping the all-mountain/enduro thing going. Skiing seems to be getting into lightweight rando-racing equipment and lycra though. Maybe mountain biking does lead the way sometimes.

So would this be better in lycra with a super light bike?

Posted in Chamonix ride , tagged , ,

‘Effing excellent

Posted on 15th September 2014

Hmm, I'll pretend to swear, they won't think I'm a multi millionaire then.

You might not have noticed, but there’s a wee bit of a referendum happening in Scotland next week. It seems that Westminster hadn’t noticed either as over the last 7 days there’s been a sudden realisation that folks north of the border might just go vote for independence, and for reasons other than watching Braveheart too many times. Cue a love bombing campaign of Scotland. Promises that we won’t take you for granted, we won’t ignore you, it’ll be different this time, trust us, we’re politicians…

But this isn’t a political blog, so what’s with the intro? Well, I worry I might have been doing something similar with Chamonix. After a summer of racing across France I’ve seen amazing trails, great riding scenes, understanding lift companies and Chamonix’s been forgotten, just there for the day to day rides. Fortunately the last 2 days as we squeeze the last out of each closing lift has reminded me just how ‘effing excellent the riding is here.

Angry Spence, wee trail.

Lacking the tech of Brevent & Flegere, and the huge views of Le Tour, Les Houches doesn’t really spring to mind when most people think of the riding around Chamonix. A shame as it’s got some of the best trails. As long as it’s not raining, or you don’t mind the mud.

In Chamonix we call this lacking in views

A quick lap of most of the bike park trail with a wee variation to avoid the mud and road of the lower section warmed us up before heading to the main course of the day, Who’s way.

Spence, who’s ridden pretty much everything in Chamonix, had somehow missed this over the years so Lorne and I were keen to show it off.

This week I have mostly been messing with exposure levels. Assume if the photo is correctly exposed Lorne took it, otherwise probably my work.

It takes a bit of finding, but the clues are there for an amazing, almost 100% singletrack, 1300m descent from the Prarion gondola through Montfort and on to Le Fayet. There’s a few more tyre tracks on it than this time last year which suggests it’s being found a bit more, but so far everyone’s playing nice and not skidding it to death.

Exploring some of the alternative lines on Who's way.

After commenting most of the way down how good it was not to be riding against the clock we then discovered we were riding against the clock to get to St Gervais in time for the last tramway. Some hashtagendurotraining later we had a 10 minute wait for the tram and the decision of how to head back to town.

Spence seemed to approve of who's way

Which, as usual, turned out to be the GR5/Cedric’s favourite trail (allegedly). How had I forgotten how good this trail was? As an added bonus, some work’s been done on the techiest section since the summer deluges, bringing it that bit closer back to being ridable clean (by us, I’m sure Cedric would have nae worries).

Three thousand vertical meters or so of varied and amazing riding all in an afternoon off work. Chamonix, how did I ever doubt you?

In BC you rack the bikes on the back of a pick up, In Europe, we're a bit more sophisticated.

Another day and another lunch break, time enough to sample the fun at Flegere on it’s last day. A busy choice with plenty of other folks out on bikes and enjoying the sunshine. One lap down to Les Joux and another to Floria buvette doesn’t sound like much but again, these trails are just so good I was embarrassed to have been neglecting them.

Sick track bro.

The trail elves have even been out doing some work on the old Flegere DH trail to make it 100% rideable from the Index lift down to the Flegere/Brevent liaison lift and so make the first bit of the descent a bit more interesting than fireroad.

Up above the streets and houses, thanks to the work of the unknown

Should it be “Aye Chamonix” or “Chamonix, better together”? Dunno. But I’m looking forward to getting reacquainted

Fear or excitement? Trying to remember if there's a landing.....

Posted in Chamonix ride, Trail conditions , tagged , ,

Coupe du France Enduro series round 5, Valberg

Posted on 10th September 2014

Coupe du France Enduro round 5, Valberg

There’s been a lot of race writeups on here recently, and I will get back to proper riding for the next post, but there was one last race in the Coupe du France so for one last time the Kangoo was laden with bikes and tyres. One last time we headed out through the Gorge du Arly. One last time we drove south with no air-con and one working window. One last time you get the idea.

This last one was Valberg/Guillaumes, star of online hits like Fabien Barel’s this, Yo Barelli’s that and Nico Quere’s other. All of these videos feature sections of the race track, and none of them do it justice.

Like a greenhouse without ventilation....

In the first break from tradition, a clue that this wasn’t going to be a normal race, 2 of the 8 stages went online on the Monday before the race with the instructions that they were now taped and open for practice. At first this seemed very anti the “spirit of enduro” as it would give an advantage to the locals, but it turned out that as the stages had been used for 10 years, it was to try and even the field for anyone that hadn’t raced them before. And could turn up on a school day to practice. Not sure if it worked or not, locals always have an advantage whether they know the exact trails or not, but I think I’d prefer if we just had to ride blind(ish)

Practice. It's just graft, graft, graft at these races.

Saying that, shuttling the tracks on the Friday was pure dead brilliant. Though the flip side was that shuttling up the side of a mountain gets through a small petrol tank quickly. At 1.70 euros a litre in the village garage, the entertaining roads had an obvious cost.

Making friends whilst shuttling.

After a lap of stage 2 & 3 for me & Nina, and an extra lap of 3 for Nina with Spence, we drank more petrol for the 25 minute drive up the road to the sign in and the next surprise. Instead of the fastest starting first, they’d be starting last. So rather than the usual 0600 alarm for an 8am start, I wasn’t rolling into the liaison until 1030. Which was the next thing. The 1st liaison started about 650m above the finish line, so you pretty much had to have a car to get there. Unless you were one of the 2 Italian lads who misunderstood and rode up to the start….

Which neatly brings us to describing the stages.

Saturday. 1850m of height gain, 2400m of descending and 45km of riding over and between 5 stages. If somehow you’re saying “aye great, but I NEED more video links” then the event video here will give a better idea.

Stage 1. After a pretty easy 30 minute liaison the opening stage was a short sprint into the trees and then lots and lots of dry, dusty, loamy singletrack. Sometimes freshly cut, sometimes fairly well established and mostly downhill, for a long long time until suddenly there was a flat pedally bit with a few short sharp climbs that I needed to push. After the timing gate you were along the road to the food tent and a 1hr window for….

Race day on stage 1, 100m in.

Stage 2 which began after a 310m climb in the saddle. This stage is now 10 years old, but ain’t showing it at all. Mostly on the signature grey shale rock of the region with sculpted features blended into natural terrain. The only way I could describe it is like the Rampage course for punters. So much fun to ride, and only slightly terrifying to race.

Stage 2 practice. It was pretty much this awesome all the way down.

Stage 3 was the same but bigger, with the liaison going past Stage 2 and up a total of 390m. Beginning with a 10m tarmac sprint, a 90 degree right into a steep bank and another 90 degree right, then wooded singletrack, a few pedals, lots of the grey dirt spines, then some super loose and dusty singletrack in the trees to finish. Again, just amazing to ride. The racing? More later (oooh, suspense eh?)

Stage 3 start, looks fine for 1 rider.....

Stage 4 was preceded by its liaison. The previous 3 pedals up had lulled us into a false sense of security. Leaving the feedstation the 2hr 10mins allocated for the 655m height gain looked ok, until 10 minutes in when you pulled off the tarmac and started pushing up a trail. And kept pushing. All the way. Still, the stage was another blinder. Longest of the weekend at over 760m of drop and featuring all that is good about woodland singletrack.

Back to stage 2 practice. Looks fun eh?

Finally Stage 5 only needed you to drag your body and bike up 50metres to the start above the town of Guillaumes. 100m of yet more steep dusty singletrack spat you out at the top of the town where you raced through narrow alleyways, stairs, wall drops, tunnels and car ramp stepups to the town centre. Like pretending to be in the Italian Job, but on bikes. In France. With no gold.

Home, eat, drink, sleep, reset.

Everyone loves a street stage

Sunday stage 1. Only 280m of up for the honour of the worst stage of the weekend. Open alpages with slightly damp grass and rocks poised ready to destroy a rim or tyre or disk or dérailleur and your chances.

Stage 2. Had a chairlift! And then a surprisingly tight 120m climbing liaison which saw plenty folk arriving breathless and/or late for their start. Just as well they were warmed up as after a series of flowless freshcut corners through the trees you had 1/2 a km of flat or uphill fireroad. Better singletrack was followed by another hard pedal and then the final steep section to the finish next to the chairlift.

Fresh outta pics of Sunday, so here's more stage 2 practice for you.

Handy that, as you were back up it for stage 3. Fortunately the liaison was then 100% downhill to stage 3’s halfway height where you were telt you had an obligatory reccy descent of the lower part of the stage, before getting the pleasure of an obligatory push all the way back up to the start. This stage was a bit different (again, building suspense with a tease and promise of a big reveal, just to keep you reading) wide lines at the top, a short pedal, some unavoidable (tiny) gap jumps then multiple taped lines where you had to pick a route and stick to it for a while, then old school grass dual slalom stylee to the finish arch.

Whit a series of tracks, yet what of the alluded to surprises?

Surprise 3. Arriving at the start line of stage 1 I discover that rather than the usual 10 second gaps, we get 1 minute. But start is groups of 3. Yes, down super narrow consequence laden trails we were going to be racing 3 up, elbow to elbow, mano a mano (err, a mano).

The girls got to race 1 at a time, the guys were on these trails 3 up.

I got lucky. 1 of my fellow gladiators didn’t show and the other, Phillipe Widmer, had been an overtaking target of mine for the last few Saturdays, so we were already on familiar terms. Out the gate I had the legs for the holeshot and gained a lead through the initial techy corners. The terrain just kept getting more and more fun to ride and I was having a ball when I started to hear heavy breathing. That wasn’t mine.

“Allez, ALLEZ!”. I’d kinda forgotten it was a race and Phillipe was back on me. Best start pedalling again. The rest of stage passed in a blur of good line choices and that amazing feeling of being in the bubble where everything seems easy and fun. Until I hit the pedally section low down at least, but I’d built up more than enough lead by then.

Now that's what I call a liaison stages 2 & 3.

Stage 2 was similar. Got the holeshot, almost got overtaken on the 1st pedally bit, pulled away in the technical sections. But I just couldn’t shake Phillipe who pushed all the way to the line.

Stage 3 start, scene of plenty of carnage.

Stage 3 I was starting on the outside. The opening 100m which would have been easy as a individual were going to be interesting as 2. For 3 the starts were turning out in turns comical and painful. Phillipe got the holeshot, I got to the base of the slope first, we collided, laughed, and he was in the lead. Then the physical section saw him ramp up the gap. To cap it off I then made a daft mistake and crashed. Normally I’d have cruised down the rest of the stage, but having a distant speck churning up dust fired something inside me. I think it was competitiveness. Either way, I started pedalling, pushing on in the corners, the speck was getting bigger. The speck was getting closer. Dropping into the final tight and steep trees I was back on his tail and this time I was shouting “allez, ALLEZ”. Phillip overcooked a 180 degree hairpin and went down, 3 out of 3 stages.

By Stage 4 we had our mutual good luck start routines down. I didn’t have Phillipes power endurance, but at least I could outsprint him for the 40m it needed to get into the first rock garden in the lead and I pulled away from there. The first 1/2 of the stage felt like stage 1 had. In the zone and riding easily. The air was getting dustier and I was starting to catch the group 1 minute infront but then the days riding started to catch me. Everything was getting tired and I couldn’t hit the lines I wanted anymore. My legs would seize with cramp if I stood up to pedal and I felt like the bike weighed as much as I did. Still, 4 out of 4.

Stage 5 start, Nina cunningly avoiding the tree I didn't.

Finally stage 5 and we were getting to start 1 at a time. I celebrated by riding straight into a tree about 5 seconds out of the start gate. After untangling myself from the bike I fired on down with squint bars, which at least gave me slight x-up style points on every air. This stage was just what an urban DH should be like, I just wish I could have ridden it without squiff bars!

Enduro racing is a lot of different things to a lot of different people, but for me, this day was what I was looking for in all the races I entered. A long hard day on the bike with some of the best trails you’ll ride, a huge variety of terrain and happy people to share it with. I just wish we could have raced it all 1 at a time.

The end of a long, long day.

With the racing done and dusty, we headed off to eat, get ready for day 2, and find out what was happening in the morning. This proved harder than anticipated, but instead we got to watch the kids get their prizes from Fabien Barel & Nico Vouilloz. If you’re wondering why the French dominate enduro, then this is why. For the last 10 years in the Mercantour, kids as young as 8 have been racing on the same stages, with the same liaisons, as the adults, they just do less of the stages over the day. Then getting guidance from the worlds best. Same recipe as British DH I guess…..

Drive by bike washing for the lazy.

Surprise 4. With no information to go on, we’d guessed that the start times would be the same order as Saturday. Yes and no, I went off as expected, but the girls were now in the general classification, so Nina’s start was with the mid pack riders and about 15 minutes before we even turned up! She managed to sprint up the liaison and just made her start.

The pace notes for Stage 6 mentioned that you could puncture easily. Before my start I got a text to say Nina had managed to puncture. Twice. Fortunately we were back to individual starts so I took it easy passing many others at the side of the trail who hadn’t.

You canny beat a good dust tan.

Stage 7 didn’t have rocks at least, just lots of pedalling and loose branches, one of which decided to get stuck in my cassette and dérailleur. More time lost.

Stage 8 start line. Bit of a surprise that one.

Stage 8, surprise 5. The startline was taped out like the mega-avalanche. Riders were going to start as per their current classification for the weekend. If you want to move up the ranking, you have to overtake! Francois Bailly-Maitre went out the gates, then at the appropriate gap for your time so far, so did the next rider, and the next. Suddenly the wider taping at the top of the course and multiple line choices lower down made sense! I managed to get the rider infront of me, but that was it, I’m not sure I’m cut out for the Mega.

Nina focussed on the finish.

And with that, the Coupe du France was over for the season.

Surprise number 6. I finished the weekend 8th. In category…. After a season of being in the same category as all the top guys (and in fact every guy from 19 to 39) they ran a Masters 1 category for almost-but-not-quite over the hill club of 30 to 39.

Nina might not have done so well here between the hard liaisons and double puncture, but she did well enough and got the 3rd step on the podium for the season title. An incredible result for her first season racing, and she only started biking 3 years ago!

France's number 2 & 3 ranked lasses, Nina and Anais.

Perhaps the best part of the prize giving though was seeing the 1st placed junior Sebastien Claquin hand his prize of a years factory deal with Giant to 2nd placed Valentin Escriou. Though as Claquin also finished 5th overall in mens, I guess he had his factory deal signed already.

One last time we packed up the car, got ready for the drive, complained about our aches and pains and headed back north.

When enduro comes to town....

One time more I’ll thank everyone who organised the series, the 130 volunteers involved in this round, the team that chose Saturdays stages (why is the EWS is going to Samoens when it could come here?), all the racers who made me feel so welcome over the season despite the occasional language difficulties, Nina for being a great race buddy, and Spencer for the driving, cooking, organising, mechanicing, taking photos and lending me numerous parts of his bike, all when he could have been getting riding in for himself.

Next season?

One last time back up the road

Posted in Race , tagged , ,

Coupe du France Enduro series round 4, Samoens

Posted on 3rd September 2014

Coupe du France enduro series 4: Samoens

There are 3 certainties in life; death, taxes and the Samoens round of the Coupe du France being muddy.

But to be honest, on Friday afternoon as the car was getting packed for the short drive over to register and deal with scrutineering, I wasn’t so sure. And a quick track walk to see what the trail conditions were didn’t have me convinced I was going to need my newly purchased second hand wetscreams.

Then it started raining, then pissing it down, then the warm up act ended and the real storm arrived. The certainty memes were safe, it was going to be a wet race.

Another bunch of 3rd rate phone pictures. The view was better in real life.

Samoens is part of the Grand Massif lift network and gives an interesting change from Chamonix’s mostly steep and rocky trails without the crowds of Morzine. Of course, steep and rocky trails generally drain and dry quickly after rain. Mellower angled loam under trees doesn’t and with there being something in the order of 250% of average rainfall this summer there’s not been much in the way of dust recently.

Possibly helped by the announcement Samoens will host a round of the EWS next year there were more French pros and international riders than usual, including the Irish/Scottish combo of Greg Callaghan and Katy Winton, which was great as my French sucks so I could have slightly more in depth conversations between stages than;
“It’s muddy”,
“Yes, it’s muddy, but I’m Scottish, I like muddy”,
“I’m from the south of France, I hate muddy”,
“Ah.”

Riders ready, pedals ready..... Nina on countdown.

Anyways, the stages were a little complicated to follow from the map, with 11 stages between the 2 days, but only 6 traces. As ever the event video helps, but they worked out something like….

Saturday
Stage 1 & 3. Starting outside the main Samoens lift, fast but a little peddaly grass into the trees for lots of fresh cut loamy trail and the odd bit of built up bermed track, a wee blast down some fire road then back into loamy earthy natural banked stuff in the trees before you were spat out at the finish, thankfully short of some northshore and a couple of minute spin along the tarmac to….

Stage 2 & 4. The pedalliest of the weekend, but still not too bad, a mix of quite tricky to nail tight tech and faster more open trails.

After a lunch break and another trip up the gondola you had the first proper pedal/push liaison up to Stage 5
A good 500m of fire road down to some open trails in new growth forest, then a mix of very rocky 4×4 with regular taped of excursions into the undergrowth.

Another flattish pedal along some road finally got you to Stage 6 & 7 under the Morrilion gondola. A sprint across grass and tarmac (for instant cure to constipation, try cornering at race speed on tarmac with full spikes), through a tunnel where you had to use the walls as a berm (again, try committing to that on full spikes), then some reet fast rooty loams trails, the odd short climb, and more fast rooty loamy trails.

Stage 1 on Saturday, someone fast pedalling off into the distance

Sunday featured just the 2 traces, each repeated twice. The main Samoens lift gave you most of the height gain, then it was a 30 minute ride push to stage 1/3 and another 30 minutes or so push to stage 2/4

Stage 1 & 3. A short uphill sprint along some fireroad lead to a punchy 10m high climb then about 150m of gently rising boggy singletrack ensured you were knackered as the ground dropped away beneath you and you were into a roller coaster of natural berms and ruts down the hill where often the best bet was just to hold on and hope you bounced out of the end of each section still in the right direction.

Katy nailing the gap/drop at the start of stage 2 Sunday, earning a mixed cheer from the guys. Happy cheers for her hitting it, depressed cheers because after 4 of the top 20 guys taking the chicken line, they'd lost their excuse to do the same.....

Stage 2 & 4. About as good as it gets in my book! A bit of everything, but mostly fast flowing singletrack in the trees. The only thing that didn’t feature was a real climb, all the pedalling was to go faster, not to just go.

So all in, a grand selection of trails with very little serious pedalling, but racing doesn’t always work out like racing and it definitely didn’t this time.

Sunshine AND mud. What could be better?

Milling around at the start of stage 1 during the obligatory delayed start the feel was more of a (massive) group ride than a race, a distinct lack of aggression and competitiveness in the air. The track was pretty slick, but fun. The only problem was if you fell, you were stuck on the ground like a beetle on it’s back with a serious fight on your hands (and knees) to get up. And as the course was narrow, if the rider in front of you went down, you were probably going into them and down. As would the rider behind you….

Stage 2 was much the same and, with only a short pause before heading back up, there was a quick clean of the bike, a swap to flats and a bite to eat before getting on the gondola for Stage 3.

Enduro racing is all about surprises, and the surprise waiting for us was the news that stage 4 was to be cancelled because it was too claggy. The reason this was a surprise was that on the first run down, stage 2 was way, way less claggy that stage 1. Still how bad could it be?

Worse than this years Megavalanche was the answer. According to Melanine Pugin at least and, as she won the Mega, she should probably know. The mud was so thick you had no warning between the bike feeling a bit slow and so much mud getting behind the fork brace you were flipped over the bars. If you had the strength to lift your 100kg bike, running was generally the quickest option. Until you fell over. The results from this stage were all over the place, but that’s racing.

Scraping the barrel when a shot like this makes the cut. General pre stage milling.

Down to the pits, clean the bike and time for the secret weapon. Off with the wetscream/High roller combo, on with my 15 year old 1.9″ Michelin DH muds, from when spikes meant SPIKES.

Of course, this meant the next 3 trails were no where near as bad and had a fair bit of firm ground, but I think my sacrifice was worth it for the good of the group.

With the weather staying sunny through the day and into Sunday the trails were drying fast, but hopefully not going to unrideable clag again.

My lack of power to sprint up hills was made brutally apparent on stage 1 Sunday when my 10 second man, series ranked 17th Julien Roissard, passed me within 150m of the start before the trail headed downhill. I blamed still being on flats.

Sunday stage 1 start. Nicely uphill.

Stage 2 was going just brilliantly, with Julien taking until about 1/2 way to pedal past me and generally having so much fun I almost forgot that this is meant to be serious when I went over a blind rise into a sea of orange spraypainted rocks. Riding  blind, fast, is one of the reasons I enjoy these races, unfortunately it wasn’t until 1/2 way through this rock garden I remembered I had a 1.9″ rear tyre with a tube in it. As the tube deflated I briefly considered doing an Aaron Gwin, but then realised that that would just be stupid, so shouldered the bike and started running. Only about a 1/3rd of the course to go. Still, if you feel you don’t get enough cheers at a race, wrap your tyre round your frame and get running, the crowd loves you!

No way Nina could let Katy be the only girl to hit the Sunday stage 2 drop.

Anyway, after a good feed (as ever, it’s almost worth doing the races for the free food and brake pads), a change to a big Minion DHF for the back and spuds on the bike, the day was reset with no aims of improving on my placings and instead just having fun. As the 2 stages were amongst the best I’ve raced all year, in fact stage 2/4 is one of the best trails I’ve ridden all year, this was pretty easy.

Neither Nina or I were particularly happy with our results over the weekend, but points mean prizes, or at least they hopefully do for Nina sitting in 3rd for the series going into the last round, I’m less hopeful that the prize fund makes it back to my end of the score sheet.

One more race to go then it’s autumn and the best time of year for some real riding.

Waiting for the start of the final stage, the top 20 guys decided to, err, dunno what really. This is enduro something.

Posted in Race , tagged , , ,

Coupe du France enduro series round 3, Val d’Isere

Posted on 18th August 2014

Coupe du France enduro series #3 Val d'Isere

I heard on Thursday morning that the latest edition of the Oxford English dictionary was going to feature the word “amazeballs“. Generally I’m of the opinion that anyone using said phrase should have bungee cord tied to their amazeballs and be kicked off a bridge, but looking at the maps for the race when they went online Thursday evening, only one word came to mind.

Sweet.

8 stages over 2 days taking you from Val d’Isere over the cols to Tignes and back. Bits in the bike park, bits on walking trails, bits in the middle of nowhere marked “here there be dragons” on the map. Of course, no idea what it’d pan out like on the ground…..

Not sure of the terrain? Take more tyres. Lots more tyres.

Last year the race was part of the Enduro World Series, this year it was mearly the 3rd round of the Coupe du France and, coming 1 week after the Whistler round of the EWS, wasn’t as well attended by the big names. Still a sell out though.

During the summer the Val d’Isere and Tignes lifts are free to pedestrians and cyclists and there’s a big network of bike trails. The liaisons were mostly on blue and red graded runs and were some of the best riding of the weekend. I’m quick to whinge about the dumbing down and over grading of biking terrain, but sometimes it’s good just to ride a flow trail, knowing that once up to speed you will hit the downslope on every jump and can rail every head-height berm.

The race stages were mostly not on the park trails though. Mostly they followed lines picked out through the treeless alpine geography of the hill. Sometimes this meant you were flowing through grassy bobsleigh runs, other times you were hopping about desperately trying to save your rear mech, or disc, or both, from the sharp pointy rocks that littered the hill.

Blue sky. Not something we've seen much of recently.

Saturdays stage 1 began at the top of the Olympique gondola 1000m straight up from town and started as the latter type, then had a bit of bike park, then some pedalling, then a bit of climbing, then some nice singletrack through the trees back to Val d’Isere and the paddock with food tent. As an added bonus, the previous days storm had left an inch or so of snow on the ground at the start.

Stage 2 was back up the Olympique lift, through the bike park to the Borsat chair. Up that for more bike park to the Tufs chair, up it and finally you were at the start. It then mostly followed the official “enduro” trail Wild 10 Nez with some added diversions into the wilds. This was even more pedally than Stage 1, with over 100m climbing in the total 695m descent down to Tignes and yet another feed tent.

Checking the lines as the top seeds start stage 3. The best line seemed to be 'pedal'.

Stage 3 started a short pedal through Tignes town and went from the town above the reservoir and back round towards Val d’Isere. Unfortunately there was a hold up to the start whilst 15 year old lass got rescued from a nasty crash, getting the biggest cheer of the day when she was walked back to the ambulance. The stage was fun singletrack through the forest, but again was very physical.

When you hear enduroists say a stage is physical it means it was more pedally than they would like.

Stage 3. Started in the gap image right, ended above the water image left.

Following a particularly exposed liaison we were back in Tignes and once more at the food tent. You can’t fault the feeding stations.

Stage 4 was back up the Olympique then heading off in the opposite direction to stage 1. This was my favourite stage of the day by far. A really well chosen line through the open terrain with lots of flow, some hard pedalling sections, but never so long you feel you’re in an xc race, and finishing off on a large section of the 2012 world cup DH course.

Nina dropping into the start of Stage 4

No idea how far or high we raced, but that’s just shy of 4000m of uplift, so a pretty full day.

My Saturday race went fairly well, this weekend was “rallye” format which means you start in your seeding order from your Coupe du France overall standings. As a result there wasn’t as much overtaking needed, but as the riders are going faster they are less keen to move when you want to overtake. As ever, the fastest folk manage it so stop whining and get better at passing. My luck finally caught up with my skill towards the end of stage 4 when I stuffed myself into a pile of big pointy rocks head first. Surprised that I didn’t seem to have broken anything on me or the bike I limped down to finish 38th in mens for the day.

The liaison back to Tignes after stage 3. They wouldnay let us ride this bit.

Nina had a change in fortunes from her La Thuile race and with no mechanicals or crashes bagged 2nd or 3rd on every stage and, despite a 30 second penalty for accidentally leaving the course, finished the day in 3rd place.

Saturdays women's podium

The podium ceremony for Saturday was in the centre of town and after everyone had stood on their wobbly tree trunk and recieved their bag of Radio Fun Val d’Isere merchandising it was time for yet more food. The race entry includes Saturday night feeding and here even free beer. You never got that at the SCU series.

Foooooooood

Sunday was another day and another set of stages. Although there wasn’t a cloud in the sky it was still bitterly cold at the top for the 1st stage and Friday’s snow was still hanging about in the shade.

Stage 5 followed the first (and worst) section of stage 1 on Saturday. Amazingly the passing of 300 riders had made this a better track as several lines had got worn in and some ruts had formed to help keep the speed. The overnight freeze helped too I imagine.

101 riders wait for their start time.

A short uphill pedal from the finish got riders to the Borsat chair and up 380m vertical to the start of stage 6. This was, for me, the stand out stage of the weekend. Like stage 4 the day before, which it joined about 1/2 way down, it was a well chosen line taped through the open hillside, linked with some bike park berms and flat or downhill fire road before joining yesterdays track on flat singletrack and on to the world cup DH and the finishline.

Here you had the chance to visit the food tent (where they even had petite fours, since when did you get petite fours at a feed tent?) before heading back up to do exactly the same again for stages 7 and 8.

Stage 6/8. Starts here, goes onto the berms screen right, heads left on fireroad and hidden gullies, then goes to the col image centre mostly downhill. That's about 1/5th of the stage.

My Sunday didn’t go quite as planned. Feeling pretty beaten up from my crash on Saturday I noticed 10 minutes before getting on the lift that my rear brake wasn’t working. How I’d missed this on Saturday I’m not sure, but with no time to fix the lever reservoir that was cracked open and dripping oil I headed up the lift anyway. To conclude, racing with only a front brake is not much fun and not very fast.

Getting back to town 2 stages later Spencer was ready with his own back brake and we quickly swapped over. The next time round was more fun, but I wasn’t really into the groove and was lucky to scrape a top 100 finish by the end of the day. Nina managed another full mechanical free day, but was also pretty beaten up from the previous day and was coughing up assorted green lumps which wasn’t helping her on the pedalling sections. Despite this she held onto enough time to get a 3rd overall for the weekend which moved her up to joint 2nd overall in the series.

Men's Sunday podium. Florian Nicolai doesn't drink, so shares the fizz, Melanie Pugin presumably does as she kept the bottle.

Not the best weekend of trails for racing, but interesting to visit another place. There’s definitely a weekends worth of riding between the 2 resorts, though I’d base myself in Tignes where there’s more options, and with free lifts it seems a good option for a short trip away. Go visit.

Once again a big thanks to all involved in yet another excellently organised race, all the lifties for remaining cheerful in the face of 300 riders and especially to Spence for making up for forgetting the track pump by sacrificing his own days riding and lending me his brake!

Spence may have forgotten the track pump, but lending me his brakes more than makes up for it!

Posted in Race , tagged , ,

The end is nigh. Repent.

Posted on 9th August 2014

You want a challenge, try getting a shot like this using self timer......

The weather has, at times, been a bit biblical recently. Given Mount Ararat is 5137m high even Mont Blanc at 4810 ain’t going to save us. All we can do is head out in the rain and enjoy the biking whilst we still can.

The Chamonix trails, being generally steep and rocky, deal with the rain fairly well and drain pretty quick. Only Les Houches turns into a true quagmire and even there it’s possible to avoid the worst of it (which is generally the last 1/3 of the DH trail and all of the old DH trails from the Bellevue). Certainly it’s not as bad as the Portes du Soleil or Grand Massif which reportedly resemble Glastonbury on a bad year at the moment. That’s the mud, not the huge numbers of people, bands, inappropriate clothing for the weather etc.

Heavy weather (Jarvis Cocker obviously)

Keeping to trails above the tree line and exposed to the wind also help you stay dry(ish) and less muddy, though not perhaps as warm.

Anyway, riding mud is like riding powder whilst it’s dumping. You have to head out when the weather’s worst, you WILL get cold and wet, and it’s not easy. The flip side is that it’s so much more rewarding. Why ski down a well groomed piste when you can leave your own trace through the forest? If it’s too hard, you’re just not good enough.

The brown, brown mud of home. (any cover'll do)

Summer, or what’s passing for it, might still have another month or so to run but that doesn’t mean the lifts do. Shut down in Chamonix starts at the end of the month and it’s the same for most of the other hills.

Here’s the list you don’t want to see:

Vallorcine 31st August

Grand Montets 7th September

Brevent 14th September (re-opens 25th October to 2nd November)

Flegere 14th September

Prarion 14th September

Tramway du Mont Blanc 14th September

Le Tour 21st September

Bellevue 28th September

And futher afield

Grand Massif 31st Aug: http://ete.grand-massif.com/ouverture

La Thuile 31st Aug : http://www.lathuile.it/datapage.asp?id=211&l=1&s=E

Portes du Mont Blanc 7th Sept http://www.combloux.com/en/activities/summer/pass.html

Tignes / Val d’Isere 31st Aug (still FREE up till then) http://www.tignes.net/en/summer-sports/free-and-a-la-carte-activities-252.html 

Pila 8th Sept: http://www.pila.it/en/holidays/tariffe/tessere-a-punti/

Portes du Soleil starts closing the weekend of 31st August and is mostly closed by the 9th, except Champery which keeps going to 26th Oct: http://en.portesdusoleil.com/summer-lifts.html

Verbier 22nd September then weekends only until 26th Oct (if weather’s ok): http://www.verbierbikepark.ch/horaires_fr.php

Fingers crossed the sun comes out to play for a few weeks and we can start to complain that it’s too hot and the trails too dusty for a bit instead.

No way I was setting up a timer shot on this, just appreciate the landscape for a change without a focal subject.

Posted in Chamonix ride, Trail conditions , tagged

Champex Lac: Seasonal discrepancies

Posted on 2nd August 2014

Champex Lac, better in winter.

Deja vu? After 2 weeks of near constant rain it seemed the Scottish summer was over in Chamonix. One day of sun meant the trails were dry (mostly) and spirits were high (mostly). It also meant everyone had headed out to enjoy the trails.

Eager to ride some fast downhill trails, preferably with well build berms, a trip out of the valley was called for, and where better than Pila?

Turned out plenty of other folk had a similar idea and the queue for the Mont Blanc tunnel was backed up at least 60 minutes, so we headed to Champex Lac instead…..

When it's good, it's good.

……I’m starting to think Pila is not for me this summer, and with Meteo France apparently declaring July the dreichest in over 50 years I’m also wondering if summer is not for us this summer.

Anyway, as going somewhere new and little known generally works out, we headed off to Champex Lac in Switzerland. The lift is best known in summer as an access point to the Trient plateau which is used by many guides as acclimatization for parties hoping to climb Mont Blanc. In winter it’s either a tiny family ski area or one of the best tree skiing powder areas going (though shh, it’s a secret) depending on your outlook. We were hoping the mountain biking was going to be a similar epiphany to the skiing.

Letting the cat out the bag. Lorne & Ally ski, and Ally & Lorne bike.

It wasn’t.

After paying our 25chf for the lift pass and worrying about the unpadded chairlift battering the bikes we headed up the 700m to the top at 2194m.

Spot the difference.

There are 4 promising looking trails on the map, we started out with the dashed line running under the second, smaller, chairlift line. It started out tech and didn’t let up. Once you start pushing down sections the fight goes out of you and it’s easier to just keep pushing, so we pushed a lot of the line.

Towards the bottom of the hill the riding got better, which was the most frustrating thing about the day, when the riding was good, it was really, really good. It’s just the bits inbetween were really, really not.

Ally getting loose in the trees

In winter on of the best ways to ride Champex is to head along the long traversing green piste then drop into the trees when it looks about right. We tried this for the next 2 laps.

Ally rides the Champex Lac trees, summer & winter.

The ratio of riding to swearing was improved, but inbetween the excellent sections it was still either super tech or fireroad. Fortunately the best section of trail was from the refuge low down on the hill and common to all the ways down meaning we always got good trails to finish on.

More like it, Ally starting the last and best trail.

Feeling fairly disparaged we went up for a final lap on the south eastern aspect of the hill. This trail saved the day for me, but apparently my tastes in technical trails and exposure are not normal, so whilst we all agreed it was the best trail, there was some disagreement on just how good it was.

Lorne on the high switchbacks of the trail of the day. I think he preferred it in winter though.

Either way, starting up high above the trees with some nice narrow straights leading into a long switchback section down a couloir (which saw both Ally & I take accidental shortcuts, Ally’s resulting in him headbutting a fairly pointy rock) it then wound it’s way down through the trees getting gradually more open and flowing as it went. Finally we reached some fast and (relatively) flat tracks with a beautiful layer of loam that brought us down to join the Tour du Mont Blanc and the pedal back into Champex Lac.

Lower on the last trail of the day.

There was still plenty of time for some more laps, but we were over it. If we’d known that there were some easy flowy trails to hit then we’d have headed up for more, but there’s only so much riding you can do at the edge of your ability before it starts to get a bit tiring mentally and physically.

Not just a good trail, good backdrop too.

In summary, Champex Lac; not worth the effort, but feel free to go and prove me wrong as every penny spent there helps keep the lift turning in winter.

Skiing/biking, what's the difference really?

Cheers to Lorne Cameron for many photos, summer and winter.

Posted in Road trip , tagged

Les Contamines, no bad.

Posted on 20th July 2014

Les Contamines. Watch out for the cows.

After 2 weeks of near constant rain it seemed the Scottish summer was over in Chamonix. Four days of sun meant the trails were dry (mostly) and spirits were high (mostly). It also meant everyone had headed out to enjoy the trails.

Eager to ride some empty downhill trails, preferably with well built berms, a trip out of the valley was called for, and where better than Pila? Spence would even get to take his DH bike, and the rest of us could sit and eat ice cream or drink coffee.

I guess plenty of other folk had had a similar idea and the queue for the Mont Blanc tunnel was backed up at least 45 minutes, so we headed to Les Contamines aiming to meet friends instead.

This is Les Contamines

In an area filled with off the radar bike friendly lifts, Les Contamines is pretty much an unknown. Before the trip I found some info on the sole bike trail down from the top lift at 1850m to the base at 1180m, some second hand information that the riding is”pretty good” and, that’s about it.

Turned out the riding was indeed “pretty good”.

Just some of the no bad riding, Spence ahead of Nina, but who's going quicker?

The lift pass for the day is a cheap 12.60euro, though you need to pay 2euro for a magnetic card if you don’t have a spare one already. This gets you 2 lifts, the first a short 300m hop open all day and the longer second stage runs from 1500m to the top but closes 1230-1315.

todays weird bike-lift attachment method, "hook through the frame" or if you don't load your own bike, "hook through the fork stanchion!"

Spence had swapped bikes back to his normal all mountain bike and it’s as well he did. The single official DH trail is plenty of fun and, with no climbs, easily ridden on a DH bike but you’d be scuppered for all the other trails.

The official Les Contamines trail being attacked by Nina

The first lap was on said DH trail. Lots of nice berms, especially through the woods, no real braking bumps and good flow. It could do with some bigger features as we all landed flat from every jump, drop or hip, but I guess they’re catering for a more family market.

After the warm up lap we headed up the hill from the lift towards the Chalets de Roselette, before joining a narrow trace of singletrack through the alpine and down towards the valley floor. The trail was particularly good up high, mixing fast sweeping sections with some tighter rock gardens and gnarled old roots. As we got lower in the direction of Notre Damn de la Gorge the trail got steeper and more technical. Never unridable, but certainly demanding, before easing off for the final blast down to the back of the church and the short coast down the road to the telepherique and lunch.

High up in Les Contamines on the trail from the Chalets de Roselette

Some sandwiches in the sun later we headed back up the 1st of the lifts. As the 2nd stage was still closed for lunch we tried a trail running south from the lift through the Bois des Granges.

Spence in the early tech of trail 2 of the day.

It began with a lot of promise, very similar to the previous trail. Alas about 1/3 of the way down it flattened off and got rockier and rockier to the point where it was easier just to carry. We were starting to think it was going to be another average trail to chalk up to experience when the rocks finished and we were left with an amazing technical descent down through the woods and back to the road ready for another lap.

And again in the better lower section.

A few more goes of the DH trail later (we don’t get to ride well built stuff much in Chamonix ok), where Nina had had a massive superman over the bars and I’d ridden into the wrong end of a see-saw jump, we were ready to try exploring more.

Heading east from the top of the lift we dropped into the grassy expanse of the main ski area. A word of advice, don’t.

Another lap of the DH trail.

Nina on the 1st trail of the day.

With a storm on the way in and warnings from the very friendly lifties that the telepherique may have to close we went for one last long lap. Following our tracks we headed back to the Chalets de Roselette but this time turned right instead of left after entering the woods.

A chat with some locals earlier had confirmed we’d found several of the best trails, and told us that the trail we were aiming for was quite wet and had some tricky root sections. I’d gone selectively deaf when they said it was wet and only heard the bit about roots. I like root sections. In the dry.

Rocks n roots.

Fortunately the muddy sections weren’t too bad and on easy sections of the trail, whilst the roots were great. The track eventually spits you out just above (as in through the garden of) the Nant Borrant refuge, which just happens to serve ice cream, coffee and beer. It wasn’t perhaps the same quality as you’d get in Italy, but we weren’t in Italy and it tasted good enough for us.

Ice cream & beer. No more caption needed.

All that was left was the cruise down the Roman road back to the car, though calling it a cruise would be a disservice to the track. Rock slabs, drops onto, off and over the trail, wee jumps abound, and you have to stop by the bridge over the stream to check out the rock formations.

Maybe we’re not going to rush back, but I think we’d all go back pretty happily. Certainly worth a stop by on a trip for a day for some chilled out quiet riding. No bad at all.

Spence & Nina somewhere above Notre Damn de la Gorge.

Posted in Road trip , tagged

La Thuile, not racing.

Posted on 12th July 2014

La Thuile Enduro World Series round 4

The world series of who’s best at ‘going out and riding their bike about a hill and calling it ENDURO’ has come to La Thuile, which I reckoned was probably the best place I’d been for ‘going out and riding a bike about a hill and calling it ENDURO’ when I first rode there a few years back, so that seems pretty fitting.

As the E.W.S. races are open to everyone I thought it would be good to head through the tunnel and ride against the world’s best. Alas work was less interested in this idea and thought it would be better if I stayed in Chamonix and turned up on the shop floor.

La Thuile trail awesomeness.

The La Thuile round falls under the organisation of the Italian Superenduro series whose rules allow for 2 days of practice before the race, so instead I went over with Nina (who has no job) to “help” with practice. Which is pretty cool really, its not like you can rock up in Monaco on the GP weekend and take a spin round the track.

Photos of riders with a visible Mont Blanc in the background are as rare as rocking horse poo at the moment!

The pit set up for the race was huge, not DH world cup level quite yet but the amount of money being poured into enduro racing is considerable. Our pit set up wasn’t quite as impressive.

Pantechnicon v Kangoo

After a worrying moment at the lift office where they asked for my name to check off on the race list (appointing myself team mechanic surmounted this problem) we headed up to check out the stages.

Stages 3, 5 & 6 all have the same start section, so it made sense to check that out first. The shared section is the trail that I least liked when I rode here before, which is a bit disappointing, but it was more fun than I remember. Fast, rock, some new tech sections at the start. We arrived at the first junction for Nina to get her first flat in 2 years, a rock had sliced the tyre carcass.

Just out the start on stages 3, 5 & 6.

Optimistically we thought the sealant had filled the hole, but a bit further down stage 3/5 accepted it hadn’t and put a tube in whilst watching assorted pros barrel past.

For the rest of stage 5 we followed the bike park trail Muret in what turned out to be my favourite stage of the day, mostly as it didn’t involve any pedalling.

What most trails looked like in the woods

Back to the car to stock up on more tubes and we headed down the common trail to the first junction, where Nina had her second flat in 2 years. The rocks up high just seem designed to shred tyres and as we were stopped a steady stream of flat tyres arrived either to be repaired, or ridden on the rim to the mechanic (the bikes hadn’t been marked yet, so you could replace all the broken parts you wanted, or could afford).

Questionable mini-pump technique in action behind me.

Stage 6 this time, which turned out to be pretty physical in the upper sections, not climbing but very flat so very pedally. Lower down it got steeper and techier through the trees and somehow, despite the biblical rain and snow storms this week, we then rode some bone dry loam!

Loam, dry loam at that.

Another trip to the car, this time to put on a spare DH tyre and tube, and back up for the last of the 3 common front face stages. This time, thanks to an extra 1/2 kilo of rotating mass and 35psi, there were no punctures.

Nico Lau, the effort he put into beating me last weekend seemingly hasn't tired him too much.

Stage 3 links the trails Muret & Garin which are all brilliant bits of riding in their own right, but in linking them there was a nasty sharp climb for a few hundred meters about 3/4’s of the way down the course that was not being appreciated by the racers. Fine if you’ve just turned up to ride though.

Some lad called Jared, could do well if he trained more I reckon.

Karma almost got me at the end of the trail where I came up short trying to double then triple the 5 pack of jumps on the dual slalom course into the finish paddock and lift line. The fear of going down infront of such a huge crowd was greater than the fear of getting hurt and I managed to suck up the impact and ride out as if I’d meant it like that all along…..

Joe Barnes destroying the dual slalom section

Stage 2 was the only stage of the day not accessed from the lifts. Instead a 600m climb on the opposite side of the valley was needed. With limited time and energy, we skipped it. Instead Nina collared Thomas Lapeyrie as he wandered past our pits and asked him what it was like.

Heading up (and up and up) to Stage 1 & 4

Finally stage 1 & 4, the opening stage for both days, was up. Fred Glo was involved in sorting out the trails for the race, and it wouldn’t be one of his races without some trackless alpine pasture and wide spaced gates. As there isn’t much of that from the top of the lifts, you have to pedal and push for “a cool 40 minutes” (Thomas Lapeyrie), “a hard 1hr 20” (German bloke on a Orange alpine) or a “relaxed 50 minutes” (us) to get to the start on the border between France and Italy.

Random mine below (literally) the start of stage 1 & 4

This stage really showed the difference between something that’s fun to ride, and fun to race. After the open pasture and rock gardens the stage joins “Super Kappa” or “K”, the trail of choice from the last visit. The difference is that the short flat sections you coast along sitting down and chatting are now stood up sprints, and the brief climbs you sat down and span up feel like you’re going to vomit your lungs when racing.

The opening stage for each day.

Still, I was here to ride not race so could just enjoy the trail and not worry about it.

I hope the race showcases how incredible the riding is in La Thuile and gets more folk along to pay for lift passes and encourage more trails and more investment. The bike park is so hard to beat for anyone that just wants to have fun thrashing a bike about in the mountains.

Stage 2 on race day, looked pretty good!

As for the race, I predict it will be won by someone with huge levels of fitness, bike handling skills and a solid bike with 2 wheels (that have to be the same size)

Nina rolling out on race day. Bonne chance eh.

Posted in Race, Road trip , tagged , ,

MB Enduro Megeve

Posted on 7th July 2014

Scraping the barrel this week for photos.....

Another weekend, another race.

For the last 5 years Megeve has been publicising the opening of it’s lifts for the summer with “the most difficult race in the world”, a 140km, 7000m +/- marathon race that in the 2010 running only 1 of the 600 starters finished.

That sounds a bit much like hard work, so fortunately they also have a 1 day enduro using the Portes du Mont Blanc network of lifts.

Being close to Chamonix there were a few familiar faces dotting about the paddock. The entry forms implied you could choose the riders you wish to race with so we had hoped that Nina, Ally, Spence (here for his first ever race) & I would all get to start at similar times. Instead Nina started 1st with the girls, I was mid pack and Ally & Spence were in the last 10.

The sum total of the information we had to the trails. Not only did the actual traces not resemble this, they weren't even in this order!

Most of us had ridden in Megeve before, me only in the dry (more here) and Nina and Ally only in the wet. In the dry the trails looked well drained, but Nina and Ally said otherwise. An overnight storm meant the trails were pretty slick, but the forecast was for sunshine and light winds so the trail would probably dry out. Mud tyres or normal tyres? Looking about the paddock there was a mix from brand new Swamp Things to virtually bald High Rollers. In the end inertia chose for us and we all went with whatever was on our bikes already.

After some hectic running about Megeve trying to find where to register, we headed up on the Jaillet lift for the 1st of 6 stages. The stages were being ridden properly blind. Not only was there no practice runs, the only clue we had to what was coming was a (highly inaccurate it turned out) profile trace on the back of our race numbers. I’d done some reconnaissance (i.e., looking at previous years headcam footage on vimeo) the week before so figured there would be a mix of bike park, fire road and fresh cut loam.

I was completely correct for 5 of the 6 stages. Each one was some fun but generic bike park berms n rolls, great fresh cut trails through the forest which reminded Ally and me of our days racing the Scottish series in the borders, and brutal, brutal climbs. If it hadn’t been for the climbs then any of the stage could have been all time great trails, but instead some parts felt more like an XC race than an enduro. I think I’m fairly fit and I couldn’t even run up some of the climbs let alone ride. It showed the gulf between normal riders and the pros when we heard that the same climbs were getting ridden up by the fast boys.

Fast lad Nico Lau on his way to second behind Francois Bailly-Maitre

Normally I’d have a mix of Spence’s photos and the official event video to save you from relying on my description of the riding, but Spence was racing and the official video will be mostly about a 140km death loop, so instead you’ll just have to use a mix of my description and some crappy i-phone pictures.

Stage 5 was the highlight for me (ignoring the killer climbs) which pretty much went straight down the hill in a loam trench. Sometimes twisting through natural bobsleigh runs, sometimes just hanging off the back of the bike hoping you don’t catch a root. Running in the middle of the pack meant you could feel the roost of loam over your legs as if skiing powder, even Spence & Ally at the back of the field had the same which shows how deep the brown pow was.

This isn't me trying to be arty, I just as close as I got to a photo of Nina on stage 6.

Another reminder of the SCU races was the amount of grip. Stages 1 & 2 were almost tractionless most of the time, and completely tractionless in the roots. It was amazing! It did also mean the bikes gained several kg of mud each stage, fortunately the organisers provided enduro specific sticks and puddles at each chairlift to help us clean the bikes. Less fortunately timing issues meant that stage 2 was not included in the overall results, Ally & I were particularly gutted as we both were definitely the fastest riders of the day and easily made up 5 minutes on the lead. Or something.

Spence's first finish

Stage 6 was not wet or loamy. Dry tarmac and cobbles instead for an urban stage through the posh centre of Megeve. Lots of fun, and always amazing to see how many random people line the barriers for these things to cheer you on, but despite finishing at a lower height than it started it felt like a 2 minute hill climb and was pretty brutal on the legs.

Ally, having found the last stage brutal on the legs.

Not being a national level race we were all hoping for better results than usual, or at least, Nina and I were. Ally hadn’t raced since he was on the Scottish development team about a decade ago, and Spence had never raced at all, so was at least guaranteed a pb by finishing.

Nina rode consistently well, no crashes and overtaking several riders each stage, but was denied a podium place in 4th and 123rd of the 170 finishers. Spencer tried, but failed, to take Nina’s crown of stupidest rider induced mechanical in a race by knocking his forks to lock-out during a crash on stage 1, and not noticing until stage 3. His times improved dramatically from there and he got his pb as 70th man. Ally had a solid ride for his first race in about 10 years, staying pretty much upright for all 6 stages and cruising into 30th in men.

Do you ever find it weird that the finishline, where you're at your most gubbed, is where you're expected to chat and smile for the camera?

My race was going well, riding well within myself and happy to be not too far off the times of Nico Lau given how physical the stages were, until the 4th (or 3rd timed) stage. About half way down my derailleur caught into my wheel, mangling it and snapping my chain. I picked up the remains before running and freewheeling the rest of the stage, then ran the mile or so back to the car to put on a new mech hanger, fix the chain and bodge the derailleur as best I could. I was able to continue with the middle 5 gears of the block more or less working, but worried any impact or hard pedalling would be the end of the mech. Given all this, I was pretty happy with 18th overall.

That’s the racing over for a while now, time to get back to just going out riding.

Yay for free beer.

Posted in Race , tagged , ,