France - Arrival and Early Days

Arrival….

Bonjour de France !

Subplot – Episode 1 - Gaz and his Wheel
Gaz had a set of Mavic Crossrides
Gaz noticed the rear wheel was loose (caused by the axle coming unbolted)
Gaz had a bent skewer in his rear wheel
When the skewer and axle where not on the wheel, the freewheel body came off with the cassette, and 2 ratchet mechanisms went missing.
2 ratchet plates and 1 spring where found, leaving a spring missing.
Mavic spares are hard to get hold of in the UK.
Gaz left the parts in the UK and brought the wheel to France
Das remembered that the mavic service tent comes to Megavalanche
Gaz asked Craig to bring the parts to France when he comes in ~ 2 weeks.
Gaz asked Craig to order a bling wheel from Roger Musson (king of wheels?)
Gaz planned to use the other rear wheel he brought, but had to change the tyre over to a High Roller. The wheel has a tubeless conversion kit on it. Gaz failed……..

Gaz and I arrived in 2Alpes at around 11pm on Saturday night, we set off at 4:45am from Gazs’ (that makes a 17hr journey….). It was a fairly uneventful trip down, just long long LONG. We unpacked a little, then headed to the Boardroom for BEER. The owner was completely sozzled, we had 4 and called it a night around 1am.

Day 1…..(Sunday 15/6/2008)

Slept in due to hangover, then wandered around 2 Alpes. Quite a few riders around, making me jealous as I am still off the bike. We scoped out the bike park, complete with locals doing 360s all over the place. Tried to get some supplies, but all the supermarkets were closed for lunch. They reopened at 3:30pm, and clearly must have seen us coming as the prices are ridiculous. 8 euros for a small jar of coffee. We have no coffee, and that’s how it will stay. Beers cheapish though, 13 euros for a 24 pack of kronenburg stubbies.

Subplot – Episode 2 - Gaz and his Wheel
Gaz tried to get the High Roller (wirebead, dual ply, 2.35) mounted onto the other wheel. For about 2 hours. Then he stuck an inner tube in…..

Whilst Gaz was doing that I put the lyriks and newly PUSH’d rear shock on the Nomad, then rode down some steps. Like you do.
We went off to the bike park for a little look. I had a small ride, can’t pull up on the bars without pain so decided to keep it in the ground….
Heres Gaz on the big drop, wondering how long before his coconuts get to the right size before he attempts this….

Here is me looking all freeride in jeans and a hoody (the bridge in the background isn’t complete, I think it was too dangerous for mortals so they took half of it down and made it unrideable)

I intended to go to Smokey Joes for tea (English run Mexican restaurant), but everywhere was shut. We ended up with a burger from Charley Burger. We survived….

Day 2….(Monday 16/6/2008)

Early start (7:40am) – breakfast then…

Subplot – Episode 3 - Gaz and his Wheel
So the idea was to go tubeless with the High Roller. A day with a tube in, hopefully will now mount. Jog on. No chance. Just for kicks I said try this handy UST high roller here. Straight on, straight up. I could have inflated it but merely blowing down the valve. Or perhaps a butterflies wing flapping somewhere near it. Gaz is convinced he wants his tyre on. No way hosea. So we go back to the UST and get some air and sealant in, but its leaking like mad from the valve holes (in my experience this means the rim strip isn’t sealed properly). Plan Z, I have a spare EX823 rim. Bung the UST tyre on that. Inflate to desired pressure. Ride. Another 2 hours of my life I am not going to get back...

I ride to the Jandri lift to meet Elsa and Steveo. They go off riding with Gaz. Lucky buggers. Its raining anyway.
I come back, do my physio, and bang 40 minutes out on the turbo trainer. I didn’t get rained on. …. only 10 weeks and 5 days left of the trip now. Hopefully I'll be able to ride soon....

Long time no see.....

Well hello stranger...

lots happened since last time:

1) I got a Santa Cruz Nomad because the stoned guys at Cove couldn't deliver me a huster in time
2) I did lots of riding, more recently Glentress 3 or 4 times, uplifts at Cwmcarn 3 times, an uplift at inners, lots of good stuff
3) I broke my left collar bone on 10th may at Glentress. boo. Still its 5 weeks ago now and feeling much stronger. The good 'ol NHS didn't spot the break, so I was off having physio for 2 weeks until I noticed a huge lump not to mention broken bone like pain. Anyway an x-ray proved a previously broken collar bone. Cheers NHS! Actually, twas probably the best outcome, as they would have prescribed immobilsation for 4 weeks. Now, 5 weeks later, I have minimal muscle wastage (nowt to waste anyway) and hoping to be on the bike in 2 weeks or so.

Off to france for 11 weeks next saturday, 14th june. Bring it on, I say, Bring it on :)

Cove Hustler Report and Mountain of Hell Video

Took a trip to the Lakes on Saturday afternoon, to catch up with Tom and Jenny, and on Sunday take the Cove Hustler on a blast round Grizedale.
Ended up doing 21 miles, bits of the North Face trail and the Lawson Park descent. The Hustler was excellent, only weighing 26.5lbs meant it was so easy to ride up the hills, but also very chuckable over trail obstacles. The build was very cross-country, I reckon my build will be 4lbs or so heavier (heavier forks and wheels primarily making up for the difference), which should make it around 30lbs. The frame is very well made, and the headtube area is pretty burly, the tubes being square section here, changing to circular section down by the bottom bracket. Feels good on the downs, but some decent forks (Rockshox Coil Lyriks arrived from the states last week - got busted for £100 import duty though) with 20mm through axle along with a 70mm stem will make the steering precise and direct, the 90mm stem fitted felt like a large scaffolding pole, and the Marzocchi XC700 forks were flexy and clunky - no buttery smoothness here - can't wait to get my frame now, although still not got a confirmed date for this boo :( pretty much got all the parts to build it now apart from the frame!

Mountain of Hell Video
Marcus has done a top job of editing the Mountain of Hell footage, check it out here:
http://www.608z.com/Video/MOH.mov
I won't get fooled again! Cheers to Marcus for a job well done,

Wales: Penmachno and the Marin Trail

Took a trip to Wales on Sunday, to try the trails in the Betws-y-Coed area, Penmachno (not tried this before) and the Marin trail in Gwydyr forest (did this some time ago on my Nicolai

Penmachno was good, cleared it in 1hr 35mins. Lots of puddles on the track so got quite wet, but the singletrack sections were quite long, and the fireroad climbs seemed bearable.

The Marin trail starts with a little singletrack climb, then into a seemingly unending fireroad climb. Then I crashed fairly badly on the first proper descent, slipped on some wet flinty stuff, front wheel hit a log and over I went grrrrr damn hardtail. Clearly I blame the hardtail, as the vp-free would have soaked up the log and railed the wet flint in super tacky tyres. Over I went, landed smack on my helmet (not broken) and shoulder. Anyway, the rest of the ride seemed like short singletrack sections interspersed with LONG fireroad climbs. I think I was pretty drained towards the end, along with shoulder pain - however managed to enjoy the final descent with the little jumps woo! Total for the day : 24miles

Taking this (Cove Hustler) out at the weekend from Bike Shed in Scisset (www.bike-shed.com):

Looking for a lightweight travel full sus - this weighs 26.5lbs apparently, however my build would include Rockshox Lyriks (20mm through axle security) and a possible coil shock upgrade later (this could be a good megavalanche bike) so will be a bit heavier.

We'll see how it rides, possibly meeting up with Tom for a jaunt in the Dales, other option being a Dalby forest recce....

Back in England - wrecked kit lists

Back in England now - mmm great

Actually Wrecked Kit list:
2 x Maxxis High Roller 60a Rear Tyres
2 x Maxxis Minion Super Tacky Front Tyres
1 x Crank Brothers 5050 pedal (crank side needle bearing in many pieces)
3 x Mech Hangers
1 x Specialized Saddle (bent rails)

Probably Wrecked Kit List:
1 x Rear Mech (currently on a bent mech hanger so hard to tell, but I reckon its twisted)
1 x Rear Wheel (in need of some serious truing - possibly beyond repair)

errrr - thats it. Not too bad for 4 weeks in the alps...

MEGA Pictures and Videos...

Heres a pic from the qualifying, complete with free jersey (you had to wear it or you got a 3minute penalty):

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!

Megavalanche Route

here: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/player/3487805
you can see the glacier and snow if you select the satellite view....

MEGAVALANCHE!

I qualified in position 88 out of 164 riders in my wave, in 41min 12.88secs. That put me in the second wave of the Megavalanche (also know as the MEGAPROMO) on row Y (rows went upto Z4) against 400 other riders.... Super pleased with that....

So Megavalanche day dawned and we made our way to the lifts for 7:30am. It took a while to reach the top, and we were ready for action at 3300m at around 9:30am. The ladies went before us and 20minutes later off we went!
It was carnage from the start, my lack of snow riding skills meaning I was being overtaken, although I didn't crash and there were people going down all around me. The second snow slope I picked my bike up and slid down on my arse, as did lots of other people (great helmet cam footage of this)
So onto the rocks, and lots of traffic, most riders seemingly unable to ride the dop offs and causing queues (I was shouting "ride it, ride it!"), in my helmet cam footage you can hear my brakes squeal all the time as I am keeping my speed in check because of slower riders in front. The helmet cam footage comes to a sudden stop as I somehow manage to crash with a front wheel washout....
The next singletrack section was better, with the helicopter coming down real close and taking lots of shots (maybe I'll make it into Dirt magazine) - then onto a fast grassy section into ADH. Lots of people cheering, and we went through the bike park where I jumped onto the fun box and back off much to the crowds satisfaction!
The bottom half of the track I had not practiced (bad idea) - but there were lots of climbs, lots of singletrack, muddy river crossings, super fast forest descents, the tinyiest bridge over a ravine where I missed the bridge and had to bunny hop the ravine. At 1hr 18mins I had to stop on a push up some singketrack in the woods. I was feeling spent at this point.
I arrived in Allemont in around 1hr 35mins. The winning time was 48mins, and Mat got 14th place in the MEGAPROMO with 1hr 10mins (awesome riding Mat!)
Not sure of my position yet, but I guess somewhere around 230 out of 400.
Absolutley amazing trail to ride. It has every kind of surface you can imagine, climbs and huges descents, switchbacks, muddy sections, flat out forest sections, the trail has it all. It takes all your concentration and fitness to keep the bike going for over an hour over extremely hostile terrain.
You should try it :D
I'll be back next year....
Having a bath now I am goosed......

UPDATE: Results are now in, and the MEGAPROMO (megavalanche 2nd wave) and MEGAFFINITY (megavalanche 3rd wave) look to have been counted together, so I managed 346th position out of 611 in 1hr 37mins 24.920seconds

qualification results here http://www.internet-diffusion-2.com/photos/pdf/77.pdf
MEGAPROMO results here http://www.internet-diffusion-2.com/photos/pdf/87.pdf

Megavalanche Qualifying, more busted bike parts

Yesterday arrived in ADH (Alpe d'Huez) at around 4pm to try the blue and dial the helmet cam in. After a couple of runs, my lefthand pedal started to sieze. So I took it down to the trade area and a nice man on the Magura stall used a deep 10mm socket to remove the axle (I didn't bring any deep sockets - oh the shame!) - Anyway the needle bearings next to the crank had completely failed on my Crank Brothers 50\50s. So time to bring out the old faithful DMR V12s (had them since my Kona Bear)

Onto qualifying, as mentioned I now had a helmet cam and camcorder setup hurray! for now anyway. So we got upto the start at around 8:40 (10am race start), no queues for the lift, in fact we were in the first telepherique to go up.
The atmosphere was good, the day was bright and clear. Nico lined up on the first row, I was directly behind him on the 3rd. And they were off! I had a crap start as usual, and probably 30 or 40 people passed me, through the big switchbacks then onto the rocks and the 2 snowfields. Unfortunatley, the camcorder must have got knocked as I kind of fell over in the first snow field, and it stopped recording boo! Anyway to the second snow field, and I noticed a few people taking a different line not touching the snow (always a good idea) The line was down a massive rock, very steep, so I did it. Then operated my hydraulic seatpost and started pedalling down thw first bit or fireroad, where I passed Nico. Yes its true. He had a puncture.
He passed me again probably 10 minutes later at an amazing speed.
Anyway to cut a long story short, I pedalled the climb and passed around 10 people, and even overtook a couple on the steep switchbacks (ah if only the camera had worked :(), nearly went over my bars in the woods (very very nearly and it would have been a steep landing) and finished the race in approx 41 minutes. I had previously only done around 80% of the course in that time, so I was fair motoring over my other practice runs. Nick finished a couple of places behind me, after 3 crashes, and Jason finished ahead in something around 39minutes. Well done all, it was a tough race.
Don't know if that is good enough to qualify for the 2nd wave for the main race, we find that out tonight at 6:30pm. It could be close, or I could be miles away. We'll see
Was a great race though - if I can improve my starts then that would certainly gain me a lot of positions.
We then had a spot of buffet lunch after a short trip up the hill in a big bus (Jason, Nicks and my bikes in the underbus storage lockers, everyone elses in a trailer) and then went back up the hill in a lift to catch Guys qualifying run. We had a most amusing time next to a large off camber rock "encouraging" riders, with shouts of "allez allez allez", "pedal pedal", "concentrate", "not down there! uphere!"
There was a French woman with a dog, to whom I cried "get that dog of the track, this isn't the Tour De France you know" - Jason had a lot of funnies, at one point a bloke in a cow costume (!) rode past to shouts of "Go Cow, Go Cow" and to the following riders, "The cows in front"
Guy came through and seemed to be having issues with his gears.
So I'll attempt to get some helmet cam footage of the race tomorrow, and I'll tape the knob that moved and spoiled todays filming up with gaffer tape.
A thoroughly enjoyable day :D
The google map thing of qualifying is here : http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/player/3468130

Injuries Update....

Matt (pictured below) had a crash yesterday which I failed to mention (well he had 2, the first time he flew into me and headbutted my elbow!) and he looks like hes busted his shoulder, so will be missing out on the Megavalanche (lucky bugger!)
Take it easy Matt, hope your able to ride again soon.....

Megavalanche Practice

Gave Matt and Rob a lift to Alpe d'Huez today to practice the Mega. Also met up with Mat, Matt, Jason, Nick and Guy. Top fun!

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...)

More practice, more friends, injuries and knackered tyres....

Went up to Alpe d'Huez again today, arrived at around 11am. Got a text from Graham saying he had a bad crash and I quote "handlebar into goolies" ouch! I think this was during the Sprint Avalanche.... Hes not sure about making the Mega qualifs now :( Get fit soon Graham.
Did most of the qualifying route again, and on the climb (yes CLIMB) into Oz en Oisans, I spotted a familiar face, couldn't place him however. Saw him again having lunch in Oz witha coulpe of friends, and they kindly invited me over. It so happens it was Jason, and I recognised him from a picture he posted to the "Megavalanche update" thread on singletrackworld.co.uk. The 2 friends were Guy and Nick (I hope I got that right!)
Anyway we had a great lunch, Jason had lots of tales of a broken hand and seperated shoulder last year, and Guy got worried (he was on a XC style Intense 5.5 - I reckon a top bike for the Mega if you can muscle it through the rough stuff, you'll get back in spades on the climbs) We then headed off to the top of the qualifying route. Here we have 2 snowfields to negotiate, I did the first OK, but snaked big time on the second. This is around 2600m, so the snow is slushy and has lots of tyre tracks in, very difficult to ride, for me anyway!
Onwards, I heard a crack from the direction of Guy, thought it was a flat. Anyhow it turned out to be the crank arm with the bolt in moving round on the splines - hopefully a mallet sorted this out on return to base. So 3 of us finished the top part of the qualifier. My rear tyres wrecked again, won't be surprised if I puncture again tomorrow (boo) - new tyre for qualifying methinks - bringing all these tyres is really paying off - this section is super rocky and they are sharp as anything, really difficult to ride smoothly. Finished off with the fast blue with the ladder bridge jump, no problem at all at speed now and arranged to meet tomorrow morning at 9am.

Tomorrow is sign on day for the Mega itself, I'll get my race number (71) and I'll be qualifying in the first wave at 10am on Saturday (numbers 1-200), with Nico Vouilloz himself having the number 1 plate. Watch out Nico! Nico is used to going fast, he was also the French Rally champion in 2006, and previously won the World Cup downhill series 10times. The man is literally a legend. He rides for Lapierre Bikes, and last year he won both Mountain of Hell and Megavalanche: http://www.cycles-lapierre.fr/lapierre/en/actualites/Nico-Vouilloz-wins-the-Megavalanche
Should be interesting to see how many seconds pass before he disappears into the distance :D

When Telecabines go bad....

Marcus got stuck in the top Jandri lift in 2Alpes on Monday for 6hours in a massive wind. Heres a video of the horror:

http://www.tackyworld.com/snowboard/videos/vis_video.asp?id=60590

(can't embed it coz this sites pants :))

Kicking back, Mega lift pass, and Sprint Avalanche

Not been doing much for the last 2 days, taking it easy and trying to get my aching muscles and joints into better condition.
Went to Alpe d'Huez today, to pick up my weeks lift pass (part of the Megavalanche entry) and ride a couple of the trails. Did more or less all of the Mega qualiying route. Nice and muddy after the rain of the last few days.... ended up at Oz en Oisans, where the lift area was busy with hundreds of downhillers practicing for the Sprint Avalanche race tomorrow (Sprint Avalanches are normal 4-6minute downhill races, one racer at a time against the clock) - I entered this race, but the course is pretty gnarly (rode it last week) and I don't fancy breaking myself for Mega so I am giving it a miss. Picked up my race number as a memento tho :)
Also, whilst lying in this morning, my Speedball seatpost arrived and was rapidly fitted. Used it today - first thoughts? Crap clamp holding the seat. Lots of "play" in the saddle. However, come to an uphill, hit the lever on the bars and up she pops. So I rode all the uphills in the qualifying route, at one point passed lots of guys pushing - if I can do this in the race I think its my best bet for qualifying in the first or second waves (realistically, the second!)
Back to practice at Alpe d'Huez tomorrow
see ya! :D

Mountain of Hell Finale

Firstly, I qualified 219th in the end (was 170th after the 3rd wave)

It poured down with rain all last evening, so thoughts of the Double Black in the wet kept me awake.

I got up at 5am this morning (orders were to be at the lift for 6am) - It was till dark, and very misty. Not a great prospect for a race from 3400m.

Got ready (wearing a water\windproof jacket to keep the cold at bay, was due to be -7 with wind chill at 3400m) and was down at the Tourism Office for 6ish. What a dreary sight, still dark, a few people milling about in the mist.

As the light came, so did the people, so I found out I was in line 11, and had to be at the lift at 6:30. Up we went, and what a sight as we rose above the mist - bright sunshine and lovely cold mountains...

At 3200m there is a restaurant where I took shelter from the terrible cold - and met up with Rohan an English guy I had spoken to at qualifiying yesterday. We asked each other what the f#*k we where doing up a massive mountain at 7am.

And so for the first bit of snow riding down to the funicular (underground train) that takes you upto the glacier at 3400m. The snow was surprisingly grippy, not slippy at all.

Even colder up there and we laid our bikes on the start line (11 in my case)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

Mountain of Hell Qualifier

Today was the day! Dawned very misty in 2Alpes, but bright. The sun was out as soon as you got above the village in the lift. I headed up early, my start time was 12:30pm, I was up there for 11ish.

Watched a couple of the other waves start, various degrees of carnage ensued....:D

Mick Hannah (Australian downhiller) was there, he led his wave out by some distance. Here he is storming:

So time for me to walk the 500m or so to the start line, where we where called by number and lined up. I was apprehensive at this point because I had not practiced the top section of the course. The start was a short straight, followed by a tight right hander, followed by a straight with a small snow field, then a tight left hander, then descending rapidly. The second corner had been pile up central in previous waves. So AC\DC came on the PA and an air horn blew and we where off. I tried to take a line cutting the first corner down a steep slope, so did everyone else it seems.

Lesson 1: Next time to avoid the pile up, take the full corner the long way.

I overtook a couple of people on the straight, then got caught in the pile up at the second corner. As you may be able to see on the pic above, the surface up here is lots of loose rocks, and the second corner was steepish covered with these rocks, so foot down and elbows out got me through. The next section was across huge rocks, with even huger drop offs in some places, risk taking was high so I dropped a couple times, others I saw people in front take the wrong line and overtook them hitting the correct line. After lots of switchbacks, we eventually hit the road. The field was pretty spread out already, and I pedalled like mad to catch the guy in front, which I did as he drifted wide on a corner (this section is fast, 35-40mph fast), pedalling to keep momentum for a short uphill, then into a descent across the side of the hill and into some woods (rated red) - I was right on someones tail, but no way to pass - probably lost a good few seconds here, and then mistake number 2, followed this guy off a drop off, where I went over my bars (and my GPS stopped at this point too) - got back on after sliding down the hill for a few seconds, no one around so no one passed me, and then lots of horrible braking bump infested berms - passed a few fallers, one bike on its back with a completely bent wheel....

Lesson 2: Don't follow, ride your own lines

Dropped into the time trail track, so we're at village level now - and a pedal along the path to the descent to Mont De Lans - over the hump back bridge which goes over the summer luge track. Around here I noticed the bike not handling correctly, I thought I had a puncture, but a quick look down and it looked ok. Pedalling up another small hill, I pushed my gear selector too far and the chain went between the cassette and spokes - Nightmare. Tried freeing the chain off with the bike up right, no joy, had to turn the bike over and yank the chain out. A couple of people passed me here boo! Pretty tired at this point, I am convinced that the earlier delay stuck behind a rider on the brakes the whole time fatigued my arms a lot. So down the Mont de Lans descent (red rated) and into the village for a finish. Nectarines and Apricots were handed out, as well as biscuits and orange and water.

Spoke to a few English guys I spotted (and some Irish).

So what time? My official time was 29minutes 11seconds (1421m descending). After 3 waves, I was 170th (i.e. 170 out of 300) which I was pretty pleased with for my first race. Not sure of the final placement after the 4th and final wave, but worst case would be 270th out of 400. I suspect more like 220-230th, just over half way :D

Without the crash and chain issue and flatish tyre, I reckon 27minutes was on the cards. To put that in perspective, the top guys (including Mick Hannah) finished in just over 20minutes.

My front tyre had lost a lot of air, hence the dodgy handling, so for the final tomorrow I'll stick another wheel on. Picked up another spare front tyre from a shop in 2Alpes (56 Euros!!!!)

So, tomorrow, 6am(!), on the lift to the glacier, then onto the funicular (underground train) to 3400m and some snow fun! Race starts at 9am (the snow will be icy still, so hopefully rideable)

Mountain of Hell Registration and Practice

Picked Matt and Graham from the bottom of the road to Alpe d'Huez - we had arranged they come over to check out 2Alpes, and give me a push on Mountain of Hell practice.

Registration was simple, a nice French lady kindly spoke to me in English, and I received my race number (260) and long sleeve t-shirt and a sticker and badge :D

So off to practice - the main idea was to master the black rated run called "Double Black" which I slid down sideways when I tried it on Wednesday.

First run was down good, only came off twice, managed to keep off the brakes a little.

We then went right upto the glacier, and followed the Mountain of Hell route down to the bike park. Here I am locked and loaded ready for the start: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.

Comedy moment of the trip so far:

Fat Downhiller : Do you speak English?

Me: We are English.

Fat Downhiller : Where do you go for good downhilling round here?

Me: up that big mountain there

Fat Downhiller : We went up there it was all fireroad

Me : Try the doublle black, thats good

Fat Downhiller : I don't like lose stuff, it moves under you. I like smooth berms and tabletops like you get in Morzine

Me : F#$£ off to Morzine then!! (I didn't say that actually, we sent then off to Alpe d'Huez)

Anyhow, dropped Matt and Graham off, and checked on my qualifying timeslot for tomorrow. I am in Vague 4 (wave 4) that sets off at 12:30pm, need to be up there at 11am. There are 100 riders per wave. No turning back now! Wish me luck :D

The Mountain of Hell begins.....tomorrow

Been a rest day today - for tomorrow brings the start of the Mountain of Hell weekend, with registration and practice all day.
Matt and Graham (met them in Alpe d'Huez) are coming over tomorrow morning to help out with practice. I need it!
Just watched the helmet cam footage of last years race, lots of people came off on the double black section, so that made me feel better, however the fact that the descent to Venosc isn't via the red track but by a footpath (you can see this path from the lift and it looks very steep - there are lots of steps in it, and with it being a footpath none of the corners are bermed) made me feel worse.
Anyhow the time is nigh - unfortunately sans helmet cam because the hard drive unit keeps making corrupt files, we guess because of the vibration.
I have a possible solution for the Megavalanche, however that relies on French eBay, so I am not holding my breath. Just means coming back next year to get the footage!!!
Bon Voyage!

I bought the 7megapixel files from the photo guy in 2Alpes, heres one:

Megavalanche Race Number - Mountain of Hell update

My Mega race number is 71. Nico Vouillez is number 1 (he was the winner last year) - Not sure how the qualifying is run, but I could be up against Nico. Watch out Nico. Haha :D

The courses for the Mountain of Hell qualifying and race are now marked on the ground. The main race uses a black rated route called "Double Black" (see what they did there - on the 2Alpes VTT map - this route is listed as number 30 out of 31 in difficulty!). Never tried it before, did today. Came off four times. Super steep (steeper than the Sprint Avalanche track from yesterday) - brakes are pretty useless, you just end up sliding both wheels and losing control. Random large dropoffs litter the track. Saw a couple of guys who could actually ride do it, they made it look easy. I made it look shite!!! Anyway, I intend to practice this section - I figure if I can ride this then the rest will be easy. Or thats the plan.
I am sporting a nice yellow and red knee from where my knee pads slipped round as I went down for the last time. The good thing was I ended up taking a red route to get down to the bikepark - and found this easy, the other day i could hardly ride that. Steep learning curve here we come. What these trails are going to be like in a race situation with some crazy foreigner on your back wheel god knows!!!!

VTT is the French version of MTB it means "Vélo Tout Terrain" literally translated it means "Bicycle any ground"

Megavalanche Qualifying Route, drops offs and Nico Vouilloz

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.
So I met the guys half way down the second half of the mega qualifying route. This consisted of a horrible fireroad climb (heres hoping my Speedball seatpost turns up), followed by the narrowest of single track cut into the side of a large hill, followed by lots of rooty switchbacks and then another climb then descent to the lift station.
We took the lift back up, and was convinced to try a black rated downhill – the route used for the Sprint Avalanche (a pure downhill race run in the middle of mega week).
Now that was interesting – Graham said it was steep, yes sure was, the track crossed huge rock faces, then into steep bermed very rocky corners. Altogether hard work, but great to get down in one piece. I think with another couple of goes I could ride 99% of it without a foot down. You really have to be committed and fast in your riding here, there is no real room for error.
So onto the Mega qualifying track top part. After a couple of large switchback corners, we were straight across a mixture of huge rocks and snow. I hit a snow field and the front wheel sunk, to throw me off and re-break my visor where I repaired it after a crash in Les Gets. Then the track picks up the red rated route down, and here we got our first look at Nico Vouillez riding with a couple of his lapierre teammates or mechanics or whatever. I am sure he appreciated the broken peak style I was rocking. The red route is a mass of rocks and drop offs, very sharp rocks too.
So much for tubeless, I had noticed over the last few days what I initially thought were oil spots on my rear tyre. They were in fact small holes that the sealant had seeped through and sealed. I should have seem this as a warning sign, as today the casing of the tyre ripped and the sealant wouldn’t seal it, did I mention how rocky this part was? After 10 minutes of trying to remove the tubeless valve and then fitting an innertube I was good to go again. If this happens again in the qualifier, or even worse the main race I am knackered from a time perspective. New tyres for each day methinks……
Finished off with a beer, and full of dutch courage went to blast down the short blue rated downhill track underneath the Troncon lift. The course is around a mile long, not technical at all, but lots of jumps and tabletops to launch off, as well as a couple of bridge style drops offs. I have had a problem with drop offs ever since I broke my collar bone in Morzine, but I knew if I could follow someone off I would be ok because I would know I was going fast enough (too slow and its nose dive and SHATTACK! time) - So we stopped at the bridge first time down, and scoped it, then I followed Matt down - woo hoo! did it no problem. So back upto the top, this time a full run including the bridge and no stops, I was smoking and did it in 2m30s, proper drifiting in some of the corners (mostly flat or very slight berms). Next run we stopped and took some photos (above and below). Once again Nico came down with a couple of others, unfortunatley he didn't jump the bridge, because Matt was just set up to get a photo of me and we would have had a top photo of him. Got his mate tho :D. Anyhow thanks to Matt and Graham, who I shall hopefully be riding again with next week doing more Mega practice.