Chamonix Bike Blog

Tag: enduro

La Thuile, not racing.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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!

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.

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.

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…..

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.

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.

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.

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.

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)

12/07/2014
MB Enduro Megeve

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

07/07/2014
Coupe du France Enduro series round 2, Val d’Allos

12 years ago in a small ski resort (not that) far far away, a new race was born…….

The riders of Val d’Allos took DH racing, but went further, creating the “Tribe 10,000” where riders would race laps of different trails, with no practice, over a weekend clocking about 10,000m of descent (that’s 33,000ft, 18 laps of the Fort William DH course or 26 empire state buildings, depending on if you read The New York times, Dirt or The Sun). Like DH, but more endurancy.

The event went well and grew year after year. But what to call this new fangled endurancy DHy race?

Back to 2014 and the 12th edition of the Val d’Allos Tribe 10,000 is the second round of the Coupe du France enduro series, so the car was loaded with 3 bikes, 6 sets of riding gear, 3 riders, many tyres and lots of food for the drive south. The optimistic sat-nav was trying to convince us that the drive would only be 5 hr, but as we crawled up the pass to the Col d’Allos battling oncoming road bikers, motorcyclist, sportscars, broken barriers and several hundred sheep, 5 hr passed and we eventually made it to our apartment for the weekend about 6 1/2 hr after setting out.

Saturday started with an obligatory 0715 rider briefing. With 3 people who don’t do mornings it was always going to be a struggle, but somehow we managed to get ourselves to the grassy field under the main chairlift in time.

Speaking of the chairlift, the lifts used for the race are being replaced this summer (you could see why…) and aren’t running in 2014, except for this weekend where they were opened specially. I can’t see Compagnie du Mont Blanc doing that! The staff put in a huge effort not only loading hundreds of bikes onto chairs, but coaxing the lifts into life despite the mechanisms obviously not being happy about working one last time.

Back to the briefing where Fred Glo, Coupe du France heid honcho, told us that this wasn’t the EWS, so they could use whatever rules they wanted. Instead of 3 courses on Saturday with a reccy run followed by a chrono lap on each we would be getting a single reccy run of the 1st track, then the next 5 runs would be timed. The second course (laps 3 & 4) shared the same 1st 1/2 as laps 1 & 2, but the last course would be run completely blind.

Fortunately the reccy run showed that the trails in Val d’Allos are amazing. Fast, scary scary fast in places, singletrack sweeping through meadows and trees. Not much in the way of technical sections, but equally you could pretty much ride the whole trail chainless.

The second laps were the same but different. Fast swoopy traces of dirt meandering through the trees with the odd new cut section through the grass.

The final stage was something different though. A flat pedal for a 100m or so dropped you without warning down a steep chute into a 90 degree left. The trail then swapped between some of the sweeping singletrack of before, tighter rockier chutes and linked by widely taped meadow sections which felt more like skiing than cycling as you picked a line to air over small rolls and use the features to help cornering.

If all that’s a bit hard to visualise, just watch the offishiul race video here.

The weather stayed dry pretty much all day and, with temperatures just warm enough to stop you needing too many layers it was a pretty good day’s riding.

Then Sunday came.

All week the forecast had been calling rain on Sunday, and sure enough in the middle of Saturday night the sound of water on tin roof came into the apartment. It eased up at points during the day, but when it rained, it rained…..

With the less than perfect weather, some changes to the format were announced. Instead of a reccy run of today’s stage (which was completely new, never raced, and featured mostly fresh cut trail. Perfect in the wet) followed by 2 chrono runs then a final “super special” stage on a secret trail, we would get to reccy the first half of the stage, then go straight up to the top for our first timed run.

Of course, most folk were planning on using the reccy run to work out what tyres to run, but now there was no time to swap before getting on the chair up. Most folk were on all round tyres anyway, with a few having gambled on the conditions and swapped to spikes already, but there were plenty concerned looking people still on fast rolling semi-slicks.

The reccy run was interesting……starting above the tree line it was hold on and hope over open hillside with slick grass and slick off camber rock. Once into the trees it was steep lines through more slick grass and very wet loam. I was one of the early runners on the reccy and the loam was amazingly tacky, but what would it be like after about 300 riders had slid through?

Back to the top and everyone huddled together like a penguin colony in the Antarctic winter trying to keep warm. Then the thunder started. The peel of thunder was followed by peels of laughter, what more could happen to the track now!

Once on the course the section below the reccied route turned out to follow old trails and paths so wasn’t as treacherous as up high. It was a long stage though with about 1000m of vertical taking us down below the finish village from Saturday.

We had thought there would then be a cycle back up the hill to Allos, but instead yet another lift was coaxed into action and we were returned to the paddock to sort bikes without having to break sweat.

After much milling about and hiding in the feed tent the next change in running order was announced. As the weather was only getting worse there would be no more runs on the new stage, instead the second and last stage of the day would be the lower part of the second course from Saturday.

How did the racing go?

I went into the weekend chanting the mantra “slow is fast, slow is fast, slow is fast” and cruised down my first few runs where I discovered that slow is still just slow. Nina was having none of the this approach and was flying when still on the bike, unfortunately some mechanicals and rider mistakes were holding her up. Read her thoughts on it all here.

The other problem holding us up was that the narrow trails were very hard to overtake on, and with more than 10 riders to pass on most laps, you had to get quite used to bouncing through the undergrowth. It was the same for everyone outside the top 20 though and just adds to the experience. I told myself.

The first run down the final trace of Saturday was my riding highlight of the weekend. I’d abandoned “slow is fast” in favour of “trying a bit harder but not too hard”. There’s not much better than riding fast into blind terrain and it always (or at least mostly always) working out like you hoped it would.

Sunday’s weather knocked a lot of the enthusiasm out of us though and the long first trace was hard to race. I took the run far too cautiously and was never anywhere close to a crash, but also didn’t overtake anyone and was passed twice. Fortunately this was down to me sneaking a start in with the fast folk and I ended up with my first top 50 stage time.

I hoped that swapping to flats would let me ride looser on the second lap and move up the standings, but the second running of the course never happened.

Instead we were back on Saturdays narrow singletrack. The flat pedals stayed on, but I was too lazy to swap to spikes instead hoping that the trail would stay firm. It didn’t, but even if it was slower without spikes, it was so much more fun! Pretty much every corner was foot out and drifting. Somehow I got away with it until virtually the last turn in the woods before the final berms when I slid out, off the trail, through the tapes, over a drop and down an embankment into the trees. It was fun while it lasted.

Nina’s first time on mud tyres went much better and despite catching the girl in front of her, crashing, then catching her again and not being able to pass, she rode in to 5th for the stage and only 12 seconds away from 3rd. Suddenly she liked riding in the wet…

Overall an improvement on my pretty rubbish performance in Blausasc with a 65th in category on the Saturday and 48th on the Sunday, but still plenty room for getting betterer.

Again, thanks to the Tribe team and all at Val d’Allos for another great event and cheers to Nina for letting me jump queues with her (the girls get to start after the top 20 guys, so get to go to the front of all the lift lines) and Spence for driving, mechanicing, chefing and taking the photos.

Next, something more local. Megeve racing.

02/07/2014
Coupe du France Enduro Series round 1, Blausasc

When I last raced DH in 2000 I remember looking at the results of the masters category and thinking that I’ll come back to racing next decade and I can get to be competitive again. It’s been 14 years, but I look through the names of the masters category and now they’re the ones top ten-ing in the overalls. No chance of being competitive there then.

So instead I looked at enduro, apparently the refuge of downhillers who were never quite quick enough, and sure enough, the start list is again filled with the heroes of my youth. Still, how fast can a bunch of ex world champ downhillers be? Worse, this is France, home of enduro. At the first round of the Enduro World Series, 13 of the top 20 guys were French. No chance of being competitive here then.

Despite all this, I entered the full Coupe du France Enduro series.

This isn’t as daft an idea as you’d think though. For a little over 250euros you get 5 races from Blausasc just outside Nice to Samoens next to Chamonix. Not only that, someone marks out a load of the best trails, gives you a lift pass (or at least some food and water to help you up the hill) and stops anyone from walking up the trail the other way. Plus you get 26euro brake pads and a jar of olives in the goodie bag. Result!

Besides, last time I was racing I would drive 8hr south to get to a muddy forest in Shropshire to race, now the same drive gets me to the south of France, if that’s not progress, nothing is….

After said 8hr drive Spencer and I arrived in L’Escarene, a few km up the road from Blausasc to meet Nina and several of her relatives who were putting us up for the weekend. Chamonix connections working out once again!

The last hour of the drive had been spent staring at the perfect looking terrain around us, so we headed over to Blausasc itself to walk stages 3 & 4 and see if it was as good up close.

Compared to the alpine trails we’re used to in Chamonix, Blausasc was a huge change. Dry, dusty, limestone rocks everywhere. Very similar to Finale not far up the coast, but slightly less clay in the dirt and with the added touch of a strong local trials (motor) bike scene to help cut the tracks.

Stage 3 started above the trees with some fast corners and MX whoops, then into a bobsleigh track section with several big compressions. After a sprint up some fire road it then got into super narrow singletrack winding through the trees following the contours of the hill before abruptly diving off the edge into some loose fresh cut trails, before another km or so of foot wide singletrack to the finish.

In contrast stage 4 was rocky and open, with a couple of short but very technical sections, but mostly on established trails and finishing in the village itself. As for the first 2 stages, no idea, we’d find out in the morning….

Racing started at 0900, with the top 20 guys setting off in pairs at their allotted times, then the girls, then the rest of us. Nina got her interview at the start line and rolled off on the first liaison whilst Spence and I wandered back to the car with a relaxed 45 minutes for me to get ready. 25 minutes to go I start looking for my gear. No knee pads. I’d left them in the flat in L’Escarene.

Almost everyone we’d met in the village would tell us about how their cousin was an ex world champ downhiller (there’s a few of them kicking about these hills) or a rally driver. Spence did a pretty good impression of a rally driver getting my pads back to me in time for my start!

In the “rallye” format French enduro races you are given allotted times to start each stage, so you can get there as quick or as slow as you like, but if you don’t cross the start line at the given time you get the time you’re late added to the stage time. With 38km of distance and 1400 of climbing to cover each day I was mildly concerned at how the timings would work out.

Fortunately the liaison stage timings seemed to be sufficient for the weekend though, with delays on both days due to timing issues and riders needing stretchered off the course, you could feel a bit pushed if you forgot you were getting extra time to complete.

The event video’s already online and will give you a better idea of the stages, but I’ve written a description anyway because that’s what a blog’s for, pointless writing.

How was stage 1? The red mist came down and remembering details is tricky, but it was a mix of fast straights with rocks up high and roots lower down with steeper and twistier new cut sections.

A long road climb up to the start of stage 2 showed just how much work and organisation goes into these races with several road closures to let racers cross over or race down streets. It’s an indication of how much biking is worth to the economy here, with Nice and the coast taking most of the tourism euros, and hence how much bikers are valued. It’s nice to feel wanted.

Stage 2? Pretty pedally, really pedally actually. I crossed the line a broken man having given it all and as a result knackered my legs for the rest of the weekend.

Stage 3 rode much like it walked (except for me blowing out the rear tyre at the top and having to put in a tube and Nina forgetting to let some of the 35psi out of her tires) a whole lot of flowy fun, but you really didn’t want to be going over the edge on the narrow sections.

Stage 4 was great fun to ride, how often do you get to blast through town streets, round blind crests and corners, without worrying about other people. My Sunday run down the hill was some of the most fun I’ve had on a bike in ages….despite some comedy crashes and having to stop for the paramedics carrying a stretcher.

Those were the race stages, but a big reason for doing the series was to be forced to go to new places to ride. Chatting to folk on the hill all were saying that these traces were ok but really the race should be getting held on the trails over there, pointing to the next hill over, as they were much, much better. Whilst Nina and I were racing, Spence was out checking some of the other trails and confirmed, everything here seems to be pretty amazing to ride. Plans were being hatched for a return visit without the race plates, so I guess the event did it’s job for the local economy.

How did the racing go? Nina pulled a pretty good ninth over the weekend, especially given this was a very physical race with over 2800m of climbing and Nina strength is definitely in her downhilling and she had a less than perfect lead up to the race. You can see what she thought of it all here. I tried too hard on Saturday, multiple crashes on every run, usually whilst overtaking (All the riders were excellent at getting to the side of the track as you caught them and shouted rider, alas I wasn’t so good at guessing the best side of the track to try passing on….) combined with the blow out left me way off the pace, so on Sunday I played about with various techniques and discovered doing jumps and wheelies and riding how I do normally got me my best stage placings, which is convenient.

A massive thank you to Nina’s relatives for being so welcoming to us all for the weekend and giving us the run of their amazing house. Also cheers to the team and volunteers who organised the race. Finally cheers Spencer for fixing up my bike as well in his official role as Nina’s mechanic (and doing most of the driving, photo taking, food prep……) and Concept Pro Shop for the pre-race bike tune in their incredibly well equipped workshop.

Next stop, Val d’Allos.

22/05/2014
Public transport: Dorenaz.

Generally when you think of using public transport to ride your bike, it’s looking sheepish as you trail mud through a Scotrail carriage to hook your bike up by the toilet then sit getting cold on the way back home.

Switzerland is a bit different. In Switzerland the topography lends itself more to cable cars than trains so access to many smaller villages is by publicly run telepheriques. Dorenaz is one such place where the local bus driver also sells tickets and presses buttons on a 670m height gain gondola.

As Dorenaz is at only 450m and the hill faces SW, the trails are generally clear of snow most of the year round, but it can still be pretty chilly in winter. No such problems for Spence and I when we headed out of Chamonix for some t-shirt and shorts riding in low 20’s temperatures and clear blue skies.

After hooking our bikes onto the underside of the gondola by their wheels and panicking most of the way up that they were going to clip the hillside and get knocked off, we arrived at the Champex plateau where it’s a short pedal up the tarmac to the start of the marked DH trails.

It being the first proper days riding (or should I say #pre-season training as this year I’ve gone ENDURO so no more riding, only #training or #set up testing for me now…) of the year I’d hoped for some flowing singletrack to get back into the flow of things.

No such luck. From the get-go the trails are steep, fast and rocky. To add to the fun the lack of rain recently has left the track bone dry. Chatting to some locals later in the day we were told that the track runs better in the damp, giving much more friction. This did make us feel a bit better about our riding, but not much.

After a lap of the DH trail and a few minutes at the lift to recover, collect our thoughts and steel ourselves for another lap, one of the other locals (at least, we’re assuming they were locals as they were flipping quick, turned up in a van with “Crossroad Cycles CH” written on the side, and that shop seems to sponsor the trails, I think Mrs Marple would come to the same conclusion….) took pity on us and said he’d show us some of the “easier” trails…

They were “easier” than the official trail, but certainly weren’t easy!

Back up and back on the official track we explored some of the variations marked on the trail map. Apparently these are graded from blue to black, but I’ve no idea how you tell the difference as they all felt just as interesting. Try them all and repeat the bits you like the most would be the recommendation.

It’s not too easy to find information online for Dorenaz, but if you want to head over and give it a go (and you should if you like the Vallorcine DH track, or techier tracks in general) then check out the Dorenaz facebook page and the telepherique website for more info. To get there from Chamonix, head to Martigny, follow the signs through town for Vernayaz, then the signs for Dorenaz once outside Martigny. Or look at a map.

07/04/2014