Tag Archives: Samoens

Enduro World Series round 4, Samoens

Posted on 23rd July 2015
Finish line Stage 5 Sunday.It's all over bar the swimming.

Aye, so, err….World series enduro racing. Just round the valley from home. Couldn’t really not enter.

Turn up on Friday for registration, stupidly assuming it would be in the same virtually purpose built structure as last years Coupe du France registration. Obviously it’s not and spend 30 minutes randomly riding about till I find the small hall it’s now in. Nina was chatting away to Joe Barnes in the queue so I shamelessly skip in.

After tracking down some more water and joking about the mudguard in the goodie bag we chat to Isa and Enrico, then with the stage … [Read full post]

Posted in Race , tagged , ,

Last chance to see. Samoens

Posted on 13th July 2015
Ooo I do like a loose dusty berm these days.

Life is a temporary affair. As an organism you get between a few seconds and a thousand or so years on earth. As a species it seems you get about 10 million years until you’re outta here. As a rule, it’s the mass extinctions that’ll get you. There’s probably been five already (alas details are sketchy, there’s not many folk left afterwards to keep a record), which between them mean that 99.5% of the species that have been, have been and gone.

Today we’re possibly going into a sixth mass extinction with species getting the chop at a rate about … [Read full post]

Posted in Road trip , 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 … [Read full post]

Posted in Race , tagged , , ,

Proper planning prevents (long climbs). Grand Massif

Posted on 30th July 2013
Could we have a barrier please?

Half way between Chamonix and the Portes du Soleill sits the Grand Massif ski area, and it’s sort of ½ and ½ PDS & Chamonix in the riding too, with Chamonix’s queues and busyness combined with the PDS’s rolling terrain and bike friendly attitude.

After scratching the surface there last year I was keen to return and explore more, with the descent from the top of the Flaine lifts at 2480m down to Sixt at about 750m being top of the to do list. Arriving in Les Carroz a quick look in the direction of Flaine was enough to guess … [Read full post]

Posted in Road trip , tagged , ,

Aye Grand, Massif

Posted on 24th August 2012

First things first. It’s been really hot in the alps, and dry (It still comes as a surprise to a Scot that very dry = very little grip on singletrack, but that’s basically what condition the trails are in everywhere this week.) Very little grip and you have to either be first, 6 inches off the leaders tyre or way way back to see anything. The weather has finally broken however and a few days of rain should help tack everything back up, and save us from heat stroke.

It’s also really busy here in Chamonix, so Tom, Lorne & … [Read full post]

Posted in Road trip , tagged , , , , ,