After packing up camp in Val di allos we mouzzeyed on over to Les du Alpes where we settled in for the week to prepare for the 3rd round of the enduro world series. The course was unrideable up until the day before the race mainly due to the fact that most of it had just been taped through random parts on the hill side the day before practice which made for a very varied terrain from bumpy grassy off camber lines to techy rock sections. The race format this time consisted of 4 timed runs with practice on the Saturday from 9.30 to 5 and race day on Sunday and with very little climbing throughout the four stages it suited the more skilled riders and the times were a lot closer together than last week.
I was still sick from last week and was feeling a bit drained leading into the race, but still wanting to have a good race I was resting as much as possible to up the anti.
Stage 1 was the most physical with a lot of grassy down hill sections up the top and one steep climb in the middle followed by a false flat climb and a tight and fast section through the trees to the bottom, I struggled in this stage and had one crash on the last corner of the stage due to a moment of lost concentration.
Stage 2 was all downhill with one tight tricky rock section up the top which is my favorite type of riding, I did well through this section getting through clean. The rest of this stage was mainly dusty corners to the bottom of the hill, I wasn't able to keep a good flow around most of these corners which is now part of the list of bike skills I need to work on a lot
Stage 3, another downhill stage with more dusty corners and a rocky section at the bottom which could be mostly ridden in a straight line after cutting all the corners. I struggled on this stage and started to realize I needed to step up my game a lot on downhill skills for sure.
Stage 4, the most downhill of all the stage with some really fast bumpy grassy sections which I was holding on and hoping for some luck, fortunately for me I got away with a lot of mistakes on this stage and really enjoyed it. I ended up cutting some lines that had not been ridden but also riding through bushed to do so hah.
Finishing the day in 37th in the open men was a good surprise as well!
Mega Avalanche.
I did not have very good luck at this race which was a bummer a s I had been looking forward to it for a long time, but still enjoyed the experience and really want to race it again.
The day before our qualifying runs I had a bit of a crash on the rocks and may have broken my finger but hopefully just sprained it (will find out over the next week or so haha), then at the very start of my qualifying run I snapped one of the pivot bolts on my bike. I still rode it out to 5th which was pretty cool, unfortunately the Mega is a lot easier if you are on the front row at the start and 5th in the qualifier only gets you 3rd row.
Starting out on the Mega I wiped out in the first 20secs and spent a lot of the snow section off the bike and came onto the single track really far back with way too many riders in front. Once I got there I just enjoyed the ride down and did some good dodgy overtaking on the single track to finish in 72nd. Pretty gutted with this result but am happy to not be too beaten up!
Am heading home now to New Zealand where I will prepare for the XC World champs in South Africa.. Cant wait!
no photos again.. can not find the good internet
Thanks for reading
Cheers
I was still sick from last week and was feeling a bit drained leading into the race, but still wanting to have a good race I was resting as much as possible to up the anti.
Stage 1 was the most physical with a lot of grassy down hill sections up the top and one steep climb in the middle followed by a false flat climb and a tight and fast section through the trees to the bottom, I struggled in this stage and had one crash on the last corner of the stage due to a moment of lost concentration.
Stage 2 was all downhill with one tight tricky rock section up the top which is my favorite type of riding, I did well through this section getting through clean. The rest of this stage was mainly dusty corners to the bottom of the hill, I wasn't able to keep a good flow around most of these corners which is now part of the list of bike skills I need to work on a lot
Stage 3, another downhill stage with more dusty corners and a rocky section at the bottom which could be mostly ridden in a straight line after cutting all the corners. I struggled on this stage and started to realize I needed to step up my game a lot on downhill skills for sure.
Stage 4, the most downhill of all the stage with some really fast bumpy grassy sections which I was holding on and hoping for some luck, fortunately for me I got away with a lot of mistakes on this stage and really enjoyed it. I ended up cutting some lines that had not been ridden but also riding through bushed to do so hah.
Finishing the day in 37th in the open men was a good surprise as well!
Mega Avalanche.
I did not have very good luck at this race which was a bummer a s I had been looking forward to it for a long time, but still enjoyed the experience and really want to race it again.
The day before our qualifying runs I had a bit of a crash on the rocks and may have broken my finger but hopefully just sprained it (will find out over the next week or so haha), then at the very start of my qualifying run I snapped one of the pivot bolts on my bike. I still rode it out to 5th which was pretty cool, unfortunately the Mega is a lot easier if you are on the front row at the start and 5th in the qualifier only gets you 3rd row.
Starting out on the Mega I wiped out in the first 20secs and spent a lot of the snow section off the bike and came onto the single track really far back with way too many riders in front. Once I got there I just enjoyed the ride down and did some good dodgy overtaking on the single track to finish in 72nd. Pretty gutted with this result but am happy to not be too beaten up!
Am heading home now to New Zealand where I will prepare for the XC World champs in South Africa.. Cant wait!
no photos again.. can not find the good internet
Thanks for reading
Cheers
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