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First time for me and it's everything you could imagine and more in interms of full on riding/racing. Definately crapping myself doing the first pre-quali run but after a few goes started to love it and flow. Quali course was ace, mental run from the top with crazy Euro music blarring out to get you going and bang out the gate ! Got an ace start in about 15th but with crippling arm pump after half way and a slide on the last berm on the mid section managed 35th and qualification to the main Mega event. This is the madest dash of any race from the top of Pic Blanc, Above Alpe D'Huez town.Running, riding,sliding, crashing and flying all in the space of ten minutes. Started off back row, L, and picked my way through 102 guys. From the 350 who started, getting through to 248th and made it without a scratch.Rode all but one section having been rear ended on a rocky move just in the wrong critical moment, by and English guy too ! It was a day of survival at best. This footage of the quali sums it up.
This is good too of the main event:
Remy Absalon won in about 42 minutes I got down in 1:06. If there was a tip for anyone thinking about doing it, train your forearms for 12 months beforehand !
Yep...entered, qualified, raced in the Affinity 1, loved it. Its surreal.
The guy in front of me in the qualifier realised one of his tyres (highroller) was on back to front as the 2 minute warning went up....stripped and reversed it and was ready to go as the techno music started - sub 2 minute tyre change...lol
My qualifier was won by Joe Barnes in 21 mins.....21 MINUTES!!! Couldn't believe the time - and the quali course is hard..
The race was unreal..although a very heavy rock strike on the downtube rupturing the rear brake line, caused (ahem) 'problems'.
No rear brake from just above Alpe d'Huez town. 1500m descent and 14k distance still to go on the front brake only...but finished it.
Hardest. Thing. EVER.... see you next year ?
love hearing the stories from there.
it was my 4th time and i came 724th! 1hr15mins -was in the mega amateurs race was a bit upset as nearly missed my qualifying heat and had to start on the back row
meant lots of traffic for quali and the main race but it encouraged me to go for some leary overtaking moves on the switchbacks!
loved it as much as ever, definately more dh this year than previous- hardly any climbing
great riding, great crack with my mates and i love le camping grand calm in allemont - bumped into some great guys from a few years ago and a family of french roadies we first met 6years ago
just glad i could go - a fractured heel and ankle in may had me doubting id be healed/fit enough to manage it
did loose my camera somewhere after the snow, if anyone found an olympus Mu sw......
fids, you aint skate/bmx fids by any chance?
ace footage.. I'm almost inspired to have a crack one year.. but not quite..
My friend is just got back from there and waiting to hear the run down.
oh forgot to say repect??!?!? to the guy on the big hit (old one 24inch back wheel) who struck up a large joint on the starting grid with about 10 mins to go
This was my first year, despite trying to get out there for the past 6, for whatever reason we haven't been able to make it.
My goal was to qualify for the main event. I started on the 4th row of my qualifier, and thanks to scoping out a crazy line into the second snow section up top, by the time I hit the fire road above DMC 2 I was in about 10th place. I picked off another 5 guys by the time we hit Alpe d'huez, but had a disaster right at the bottom of the town, I hit a rock and somehow wrecked my rear mech. Chain got jammed so I had to stop and free everything off. I ended up in 14th place.
Race went even worse, I was right in the middle at the start, and it was a complete clusterf*ck, I must have been taken out 5 times before I hit the glacier, then I was properly wiped out by a madman, I went down so hard I had to have a little rest. I rode the next section to Alpe d'huez in a complete daze, I can't actually remember any of it. I stopped by the carpark by the big climb only to have it pointed out my bars were seriously bent. Unfortunately my rear mech (second one of the week) was toast by the time I got to the top, so I had to go chainless. Had I realised how much further I had to go, I would have just sacked the whole thing off. I got a tow off a few people though, ended up around 300th with a time of about 1.20 - complete sack of shyte.
Going back next year I've decided, we have unfinished business now.
I wasn't there but the big story for me is Lyndsey Carson from Velo Club Moulin who broke her wrist in the qualifying but went on to race and come 17th in the woman's race. How hard is that? You can take the girl out of Paisley but you can't take Paisley out of the girl 😉
M@tt off here finished 1st in the seniors category in the Challengers, 2nd overall 🙂
Good year for him so far, 1st in the mixed teams at Mayhem too..
He runs Revolution bikes in Bangor, North Wales - so not only knows his bikes, he can actually ride 😉
Well done Matt.
Well done to those that did it, sounds like you did pretty well. I did it a couple of years ago and would love to do it again one day but I'm still recovering! Def agree about the arm pump, I was doing ok in my quali run also until about halfway down then it kicked in and I crashed repeatedly, ended up in 109th.
Thinking of doing this next year. I've seen plenty of footage and I'm confident I can ride it, but I've not really any race experience, let alone mass start race experience. Any tips of things to practice. Whats the general ride level like? Obviously there are pro's there, but the averages riders, what are they like?
The tracks themselves are not hard at all. Although they point downhill, they are a lot more 'trail' based.
I'd never done a mass start race before, and granted, some of the quali start position is down to luck, but they arn't very strict when it comes to grid placement on the lines. If you can, get on the outside, as you don't want to be in the pack. Tip for the quali, as I was told by this years winner in the lift, 80% of the overtaking is done in the first 5 minutes, so be prepared to bury yourself off the line, and look for a few alternatives to avoid the traffic jams. You want to be up the front by the time you hit the berms at the DMC 2 lift point.
Basically if there is no tape, it's a free for all. There are plenty of alternative lines. Practice some shady overtaking opportunities, as it's pretty frustrating being stuck behind someone slower.
Regarding the standard of riding - I race DH, normally to an upper mid pack level at a national. Without wanting to come over all big headed, the standard of riding was pretty dire on anything remotely technical, and pretty slow, which surprised me. Had I not been out front in my heat, I would have been pretty hacked off with people mincing down sections and walking parts of the track. I timed a few runs down the quali track to ~22 mins, and traffic up top/crashers knocked me down to just under 24 mins for the actual heat.
In the main race, unless you are on one of the first 3 rows, or Nico Vouilloz you're gonna be in the pack, and its going to be a bunfight, so just go along for the ride. The first few rows will be on the glacier before you are even half way there.
Oh, and have fun - it's certainly an experience.
Yeah there's a lot of people who aren't that amazing technically - I'm fairly average I would have thought and there were many that seemed less confident than me. I got lucky in my qualifier and found a sneaky line around the main bottleneck on the rocky bit after the initial zig zags. It would be very frustrating to have to walk all the technical sections - I've seen videos where everyone was doing that.
There are a few bits on the main mega course that made me think twice at first, but I was fine after a practice run or two earlier in the week. No big silly mandatory air drop offs/jumps or anything, just bits where you have to ride down a bit of a cliff where braking would be pointless.
Hob nob – would you say racing a few DH events would be helpful? Or practice riding downhill tracks with a few mates deliberately up each others ar*s*s would be better practice?
Second Mega and enjoyed it as much if not more than last year (and that was a lot). Vastly improved quali but still missed main race by 14 places which was disappointing. Next year...
Lost tyre in the Challenger at Oz and rode the rest on the rim. Big up to Mavic and Hope, as although rim was a write off, the wheel was straight as a die despite several km of roots, rocks, drops and tarmac.
Can't wait until 2012. If you have never done this race, do it, it is amazing.
Bluebird - both would probably help you. If you don't ride much DH either I would say do some serious forearm work & cardio on the bike if you want to be competitive.