Enduro World Series Round 2, Val di Allos

Last week I was dropped at Geneva airport and picked up by Jamie Nicoll. We wasted no time and headed straight into the French Alpes for my first night camping in a while. Good times.

We took the scenic route on the way to our destination in Val di Allos, touring along some classic Le Tour de France stages and getting in some good quality big mountain rides along the way, and camping as high as 2200m brr.. There seems to be a marmot outburst this year and I have seen well over 100 in the past week.

After arriving in Val di Allos on the Monday before the race we realised it was a bit too early to get here as course riding was forbidden until race day and walking was only permitted on Friday. To our good luck though there are some awesome tracks hidden around the valley and I managed to ride most of them before the weekend rolled around.

Race day came quickly, we were allowed one practice run before our race run on each stage and on a 10min+ stage I was just trying to remember  blind corners that had rocky treats hidden around them (there were a lot of these) I was seeded in 204^th but luckily there were only 3 male riders in front of me with a 5min gap between us and the end of the woman's field. I was pretty nervous and didn’t know what to expect for my first run. As soon as I started off down the hill I lost focus completely and tried going too fast catching the rider in front quickly and then the next but as I caught up I couldn’t see the ground in front of me due to all the dust and washed out awkwardly, I lost a lot of time and was passed by the rider behind, I rode with him to the end and had another small crash just before the end of the stage finishing in 76^th, after this I changed my frame of mind completely and realised the only way I could race well was to chill out and have more fun during the runs, unfortunately I did still crash on the next stage but coming in 63^rd this time it was good to see there was improvements to be made. On the last stage for the day I was completely relaxed and was feeling a lot better than the other stages, I caught up to all the riders that were in front of me and some woman riders and finally I got the result I was looking for coming through in 28^th, putting me into 49^th on the overall standings, luckily for me we were seeded for the next day from our overall position.

I had an  awesome sleep on Saturday night waking up fresh for an early Sunday start, getting on the lifts at 7.30 was a bit chilly but a lot more relaxed with less crowds and waiting around. I aimed to stay on the bike today but still go as fast as possible, I now had a 20sec gap between me and the next rider which made things a lot nicer. Stage 4 and 5 were on the same course and were by far the hardest to race well on with short techy climbs and a long forestry road section to really get the lungs and legs burning before heading back into single track to the bottom, I had a tough time on this stage having picked up a throat infection on Friday and spent a lot of time weezing away on these “physical stages”,  I still managed to catch up to two riders in front on these stages but was a bit held up on the single track with the level being a bit more competitive and they did not want to pull over to let me through. By the final stage I was in 31^st overall with a 20sec gap back to 32^nd, the last stage was really short so I played it safe just trying not to crash in this one. It all went to plan in the end and I finished 31^st overall and 30^th in the open men’s category, pretty happy with that! Am hoping next week will see me seeded a lot higher up in the field and am getting amped already!

The overall event was really awesome and a lot of fun, I met a whole lot of people and am making some good friends on this trip which is making it all worth while for sure! They even supply all day lunch and dinner and for only a 50euro entry fee this is well worth the money!

Big thanks to a lot of people this time haha. The Urge Yeti team who supplied me with bigger brake authority rotors and letting me use their workshop to get the bike running smooth was awesome. Shaun from the Yeti team for fixing up my snapped derailier. Mateal from the GT team for changing my cables. And all my sponsors Yeti NZ, Black Seal Imports, Wildland Consultants, Adidas eyewear, Roam Industries, Southstar Shuttles, Bike Culture, and Outdoorsman Headquarters.

Thanks for reading

Cheers

ps, internet wont let me upload photos sorry.. will put some up next week