And heres a shot from the main event:
Also, heres links to some helmet cam footage I took of the start: http://www.retroengineering.co.uk/mega-start-exp.mov (17MB) and of the mass slide down the second steep snow slope: http://www.retroengineering.co.uk/mega-slide-exp.mov (10MB) - probably best to right click and save as.....
bye for now!
Don't be fooled by the fact that I have my thumb up in this picture. I think the altitude must have affected my brain. The start of Megavalanche is the most horrible thing you can do on a bike. Approx. 1.5 miles of slush, with loads of riders tracks in front of you. I must have fallen off 10-15times, at various speeds (mostly slow). I think Matts reaction in this photo is more appropriate (respect to Matt for coming 149th in the Mountain of Hell on a hire bike, and for riding the Mega on his hardtail - ave it!). 
So after an age of ploughing through the snow (most people fared little better this is the super steep start slope - no one is riding their bike correctly) 
- Then its onto gnarly rocks, lots of drop offs, super narrow singletrack traversing even steeper rocky slopes. I was riding like a girl, smacking my pedals everywhere, just not feeling in control of the bike at all. When we eventually got to Alpe d'Huez, I was ready for chucking it all in. After some lunch (kindly provided by Rob) I remembered that I had messed around with my rear shock, in fact I'd lessened the preload (I have always thought the spring was too heavy for me and I wasn't getting full travel) - explaining why the bike felt alien and I was hitting the pedals all the time. So, a few turns of preload, and a few more for luck saw us heading up the lift to try Mats' recommended black route (8) down to Oz Station. Ah! this was more like it, still a little stiff and nervous but certainly improved. A great run this, a bit of everything, fireroad, steep switchbacks, rocky slab sections with drop offs, a rooty descent through trees, I can see why Mat likes this one so much. We stopped at one point to check a (I think Dutch) riders condition after a crash, he was OK, and then came a film crew to film Mick Hannah descend the route we just took. Mixing it with the stars!
Anyhow, confidence returning, we ascended from Oz upto the start of the Mega qualifying route. I have done this a few times now, so its starting to become do-able at speed, still not got a line sorted through the 2 snow fields early on, but ripped the rocky section, passing at least 10 riders with punctures (my tubeless rear holding out, probably put a new one on for qualifying). Finished with a blast down the blue and the ladder jump again (love that now)
Everyone came through unscathed, and Jason, Nick and Guy have VERY kindly offered me a bunk in their apartment for the nights before qualifying and before the race itself, to save me the 40-50minute drive from 2Alpes. Fantastic offer guys, which I will most certainly take you up on. Not be long now.....
Also bought a new rear rotor from the Hope guys (I had bent the other) - they let me have it for 100Euros (£67) they are £80 on chain reaction (they are the V2 vented ones - and you can tell by the way I haven't mentioned my brakes that they have been working flawlessly - most other folks have had a moan or two about brake fade...)
Lots of dancing to keep warm, and a little AC\DC and we were off. The announcer said in French that there was some melted sections towards the bottom of the glacier and to brake before then because there was no grip after. I obviously took no notice of that. From the airhorn start, I pedalled like mad, and gained several places, actually clashed handle bars with someone at one point but we both stayed on. The sight of 400 bikers flying down a clean stretch of glacier was pretty amazing - I was going pretty quick, then people started to go down directly in front of me so I started to brake, which didn't do much. As I got closer to the melted section I realised I was going wayyyy to fast, so I think(!) I decided to lay the bike down rather than plough into the section with water and fallen riders in. So I crashed into the ice, and started to spin round, checked there was no-one going to hit me, and held onto the bike until it stopped. I got back on, only to realise my left hand (rear brake) was numb from the cold (I must have dragged it through the ice) and my levers where moved up into the wrong position. Anyway, across the snow again passed the funicular, and a little uphill where I stopped to correct my levers. I also checked my maximum speed at this point (probably 3 minutes after the start) and it was 46.8mph! So I crashed at nearly 47mph :D To cut a long story short, my left hand was numb and I thought I had frostbite for half the race, so rear brake action was intermittant. The pain when my hand started warming up again was immense. Other people had this issue I think I saw at least 5 people at the side of the track clutching their hands. I continued on without stopping :D The climbs were painful, but I felt held up on most of the loose singletrack sections. Who knows without the crash?
The Double Black was fun, lots of sliding, and pile ups and avoiding fallen riders. The footpath to Venosc was insane, just lots of steps, wet slidey rocks and wet slidey drainage pipes.
Finished in the time of 1hr 10mins 23secs, in 214th position, out of 314 starters. I'll settle for that :D
(Mick Hannah http://sikmik.com/, World Cup downhiller finished 19th in 47mins and the winning time was 39minutes 13seconds!!!!! shit thats fast - and this is cool, in 17th place, Bernard Millet, born 1958 i.e. 49yrs old, in 46mins 10seconds, he kicked the 24yr old professional rider Mick Hannahs arse!!!)
However, after the adrenalin wore off, I appear to have busted a finger, probably on the ice crash, I think I bent it backwards a fair way.
Rest day tomorrow, the lots of pain killers and onto Megavalanche Practice......and not to crash on the snow at 47mph :D
It includes all the black rated routes in 2Alpes :D but much of it isn't on marked trails at all. The top section is basically a random route across massive rocks, then onto shale and sheer faces covered in golf ball sized rocks. Theres also a couple of uphill sections, around 100m of climbing for the whole route. I will be pushing I expect, we'll see. Then of course the Double Black section, 3rd go at this and feeling better each time. Completed the route through the 4x track, and straight to Davids for a Croque Monsieur and a small can of Heineken.
Took a trip to Alpe d’huez today, with a plan to try the Mega qualifying track. Fortunately hooked up with a couple of guys from Southampton – Graham and Matt, Graham has done the mega before, so I figured I’d tag along, try and get some tips about the big race.
Ha! a picture says a thousand words, and all one thousand of those words are "retard"!!!!
as shown here by this rather natty black arrow. Where the course goes from there is hard to tell.
Guess I'll find out on Tuesday when I go over there for a day, this time with my bike.
Off to Alpe D'Huez now, try and get to the top of the glacier, take a look at the start for Megavalanche, will bring pictures back....
Did my bit for european relations as well, a French rider had a puncture in front of me, and he had spare tubes but no pump (!), fortunatley for him I had a pump on me, and I pumped his wheel up, which was a good workout at 2200m. On that note, I think I am becoming acclimatised to the elevation now, pushing the bike around seems a little easier, doesn't feel like an imminent asthma attack (not that I have asthma but I guess thats what it feels like) - In fact due to the fact the french are lazy, I missed the lift that closed at 12 by 5 minutes, and I had a 200m climb over 2km to push the bike up. What fun!!!! All good training I guess....
Also stripped the forks down as per previous post, and they were pretty mucky under the seals, so gave them a good clean and re-oiled and had a run down the green. Still a little oil around, but hopefully that is just float fluid from the seals. We'll see I guess, still got plenty of fork oil left, worst case I'll ask Tim Flooks to send some spare seals over. The job was pretty easy, only a 5mm allen key needed....
It just came apart in my hands guv:
Think I'll do the run from the glacier at 3200m tomorrow.....
One final thing before I head off to get my 6 day lift pass - I noticed oil coming from the seal at the top of the left leg of my Totem forks yesterday after the runs down the blue. Arrrggghhh I cried, thoughts of having to get a new pair sent over passed through my mind, I really don't want to use the Enduro now the VP-Free just rides so well and the forks are awesome. Anyway, a quick phone call to Tim Flooks - master of all things Mountain bike suspension put my mind at rest - apparently the seals on the Totem aren't too great, they get bunged up with mud (Morzine mud in my case) and dust, causing them to bulge and then leak. Tim said don't worry about it short term, but you may want to remove the fork lower legs and clean the seals up, then replace the oil.
The only problem, says I, is that I don't have the correct weight oil (15wt), only some Fox Float, and some Fox Suspension fluid. No problem says Tim, mix them 50\50 and put 20ml in each leg, job done! So a job for later is to do that (removing the lowers is easy, just remove the allen bolts from the bottom of each leg (ones also the rebound adjuster) and drain the oil. Then tap gently and slide them off, holding them upside down so that any muck near the seals falls out rather than back into the leg) - Big thanks to Tim for the info - check him out for your shock servicing needs at http://www.tftunedshox.com/
DIY fork servicing here we come....
So off I went in search of a free lift pass, and a trip upto the Pre La Joux (or Chatel) bike park. Soon discovered that all the rain they have had here this last week plus the number or riders around has turned most of the trails into a thick brown soup (I was here last Sunday for the Passportes and there was only a couple of muddy sections then) - Still time to get the mudslide down vertical downhill trails head on..... First run was a nightmare - it was very slippery. However on the second run, got the hang of it a little, more tails slides than I know what to do with - but most of all FUN stuff. Heres the bike after a couple of runs: 
....and it got progressively worse - twigs and stones were put to good use trying to remove some of the cack, but it stuck like sh*t to a blanket, becoming harder than the welds that hold the bike together once dried....Still, ended up nailing some of the runs, the slidey mud and no mud tyres did make for some interesting moments :D and managed 3000m of downhill, half of the Passportes....
Heres a few shots from the top lift of the bike park mmmm nice alpine sunshine :)
Finished the ride with a blast down the road from Avoriaz to Morzine - couldn't face more mud!!! Managed 38mph according to the GPS.
Things learned today : you don't really need a back brake, it just messes things up on mud. Finally learned to brake with front brake only, lots of weight over the back obviously, but this is a very effective braking method. On steep downhills, the last thing you need is your back wheel locking up, because things start going sideways from then. Front brake all the way! In fact I rode from Avoriaz to Morzine round many switchbacks using the front brake only.... Maybe these dirt jump types are right (or is it only a back brake they use? Can't remember drinking mutzig now)
Mutzig - 7% and the only blonde I am getting tonight :D
anyhow - took me 2 hours to clean the bike, had to remove the crank, there was no way the front mech would shift into the small ring, in fact you couldn't see the small ring anymore... that mud dries like steel - at least it was sunny and warm for the event.
Forecast - more rain. Hey its just like England - only no work, good beer on tap and great riding only a lift away.....
The good news is that 2Alpes and Alpe d'Huez are much more rocky and higher than here, so that rain will probably fall as snow - bring on the Megavalanche!!!!!!!
oh christ
and this field of sunflowers on the way back:
One for the trading standards methinks.....
Here is Ian and Glen making fire - sorry thats trying to remove the broken hanger from the mech. This never happened, so 30minutes later Glen became Chainless boy No.1. (more of chainless boy later...). This small hiatus allowed us to get our breath back, and get some pics:
and so it continued, to Les Crosets and then Champery, from there onto a belting fast descent for lunch in Les Linderets jumping or manualing drainage ditches all the way down, avoiding riders became as much of a sport as riding the trail. A sneaky beer with lunch for some too.....and Glen gets the Mavic guys to help recover his mech... Some mention of the weather by persons who shall remain nameless (!) as there was a possibility of a storm sometime in the afternoon. Regardless, we continued onto Morzine and then Les Gets, where a tannoy announced a dirt jump competition, and a puncture for Glen. Fairly tired at this point, just over half way around (!) Up the Chavannes lift then down to Morzine, including a horrible climb, or in my case push. Plain sailing now up the Super Morzine lift and Zore telesiege for a good descent back to Les Linderets - pushing on now as the clouds had started to gather.....I somehow (because of riding slowly) lost the guys on the way into Les Linderets, and in a state of confusion got the next lift upto the Chatel Bike park - while they had a beer in Les Linderets. However, this was good, I got chance for protein bar and a few moments of reflection on the ride so far.
Only one more lift to make from here, then a big descent to Chatel. In steps Chainless Boy no. 2, as Gary rips his rear mech of on the Chatel loop called "Panaoramic". Still Gary rode like a demon with no chain, only being held back on the uphills.
So final descent into Chatel, I was running on empty - I was a passenger I admit, and whose that on a storming run? Its Ian, ripping not at all like a man on the last run of a 3 day session in the alps. I managed to keep it all together, to meet Ian by an electricty sub-station(!) absolutley buzzing with his best run of the weekend - gowan lad!
As we arrived in Chatel, the heavens opened, and a well needed beer was consumed.
Big respect goes to Ant for riding the whole thing on his Inbred - and to everyone for giving me their free lift pass vouchers - cheers guys - a great day.
So, it took us 9hrs 20mins (moving time of 6hrs 14mins - 3hrs stood or sat around!) - and we managed 6154m of descending (just double checked my data and it says 20191ft or 6154m), and covered 61miles (this including the lift journeys)
My maximum speed was 37.2mph (best ever)
Take a look via motionbased and google maps at the whole thing here as recorded by my GPS: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/player/3174233
