Each run took about 25 minutes of seriously challenging descents featuring wide grassy sections, forest singletrack, steep drops and pretty much impossible switchbacks. To make things worse, I somehow managed to get the 38th starting plate, meaning I was in the 2nd hardest group out of the 250 riders.
The first run started off a little too calmly as I thought I would take it easy enough. I was sitting around 10th in my group when I took a fairly big fall at high speed and lost a lot of pride, a little skin and 3 positions. I was pretty much stuck behind an awkward rider for the rest of the run and ended up doing pretty poorly: 65th. But mostly I was frustrated that I had chickened out of a lot of sections due the guy in front walking every other technical feature.
Got to the end, ate a some fruit, got a bus back up to the ski station, got my arm patched up to cover the friction burn, chairlift, pedal, hike and good to go again! I decided to really attack from the get go in the second run since I knew the course at this stage. I started off very strong getting into 4th position in the group. I lost a position or two towards the end when I wasnt as fast as the locals in the ridiculously steep stuff. In the end I managed to go nearly 3 minutes faster in my second run, and really enjoyed myself as I managed to get through the harder sections pretty clean. Although I did crash 6 times over the 2 runs... Savage fun though, really happy with my second run: 30th place and 44th overall for the day.
A few pictures below, click on the first one to get a slideshow. It starts with the view from the chairlift over to the start of the race, then a few scenic pictures of the ride/hike over, and finally the start of the first run.
