Enduro Marathon de Roubion

Great day up in the ski/bike resort of Roubion today. Took part in an "enduro marathon": groups of 20 bikers race from the top of a mountain to the bottom, twice!

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.

Roch'Abadie: Redemption

So this year, the plan was to train really hard and get some good results, not just my usual "not bad" results. So let's start off with a little season recap:

Round 1: Levens: snow everywhere, crashed a million times, terrible result.
Colomars (not part of the series): Pretty good results in the 1st and 2nd stage, then destroyed my drivetrain. Stupidly expensive to fix, and I ended up pretty much dead last.
Round 2: Sospel: Bike broke a few days before the race, attempted to ride, but ended up having to forfeit.

Time for some serious changes! Oh wait, the part that broke before the last race took over 3 weeks to arrive from the manufacturer... Going into this race, my training had been the odd trip to Nice and back on the "velo bleu" (i.e. horrible bike share thingies that rarely work), and the odd attempt at trail running... But only downhill, because uphill is tiring and stuff...




Before the race:


I got my bike running about 3 days before the race, and needed to do a bit of maintenance on it, mainly changing tyres. After an hour long struggle to fit a new tyre on the front as tubeless, I gave up and put a tube in (i.e. heavier and more likely to puncture). This also lead to me not bothering changing my rear tyre, which was very much slick. "Ah sure it'll be grand, so long as it doesnt rain"...

Slick, not a mud tyre, barely an offroad tyre tbh.

Rain, that is what I woke up to on race day. Brilliant! Drove off, wondering whether they would even run the race. Right up until I parked my car, the rain was pouring down. As I unpacked the bike though, there was only a slight drizzle. The race was being run in the hills behind Nice, so it should have had a fantastic view, but this is all you could see:

Cote de Greyness

So I started the pedal up after meeting up with Anthony. There was a lot of water on the roads, we were not sure what conditions the trails would be in. Once the road up met the track, we were greeted by a depressing scene: only about 10 people had gone down as the race had just started, yet already there was someone crashing, one girl abandoning as there was too much mud on her bike and one guy who had broken his derailleur, all about 1 minute from the start line. I was not feeling it. But onwards we went to the start.

Too much mud for the front wheel to turn.

I know the feeling buddy, I recommend crying and writing a blog about it.

The race:


Stage 1:

I set off 30s ahead of Anthony, and Seb was off another 30s later, with only one thought in my head: "Do not let them catch up to you". After about 3 or 4 turns, all the crap from the previous races was forgotten and forgiven. It was simply the most fun I have had on a bike all year, two wheel drifting into all the muddy corners. Then came a steep section, followed by endless switchbacks to the finish line. I overtook two riders, and had a nearly perfect run. I ended up taking the 27th fastest time and putting a huge gap between me and Anthony and Seb.



Stage 2:

The sun was peeking through the clouds at this stage, and the road back up was noticeably drier. This stage started the same as the first one, but veered off in a different direction during the steep part. As soon as I set off I noticed how much the track had dried, corners could be taken much faster with little to no sliding. I knew straight away that this meant the other two would be able to catch me if I didnt do a good run. The spectators were really encouraging on the hard parts of the track, and helped me keep the fingers off the brakes in order to try and look fast! It was a great stage, but I made a few mistakes, Anthony beat me by a second, but my overall position was still a strong 32nd for this stage.



Stage 3:

Pretty good view!

By now the sun was beaming down, and the track was almost dry. Stage 3 was actually a repeat of stage 1, as the original trail they had planned to use was too boggy to race after to the rain. It was crazy how much faster the track was, compared to mere hours before. The steep chute which had claimed so many riders in the 1st stage was now barely a challenge. I got the top and middle of the track pretty well, but then my lack of training this month really showed. As I got into the tight rocky switchbacks, I was barely in control of the bike. I was having a lot of trouble holding on, and even came off once, but luckily landed on my feet. Most people went up to a minute faster in the dry than in the wet, I barely managed 20s. Anthony nearly caught up to me on this stage and made up a good chunk of the time I had taken from him on the 1st stage. I ended up 30th overall, while he took 32nd.



Big thanks to the organisers, especially the marshals who turned up on what could have been a horrible day. Great race, delighted to back up there at last after the last few months of bike trouble.

Best part of the day: my bike still worked afterwards...

Sospel: spectator mode

So after looking forward to this race for the last month, my bike decided to let me down 2 days before the event: split one of the main pivot bolts into two pieces, just a month after replacing it already. Tried to salvage the weekend, and actually raced the first stage of 4, but the bike felt way too flexy at the end of the run. I couldn't risk breaking another frame so soon after buying it, so I packed things in and took some pictures!

Pros: 

- Got to see Sospel

- Got to see Nicolas Vouilloz ride and take the win

- Figured out I can take sequences on my phone... Sometimes you have to count all the little victories...

Cons:

- I'm starting to hate mountain bikes. Why do they break every single time you use them?

O. Giordanengo

F. Nicolai

L. Solliet shows off his perfect technique!

Descente des Feuilles

First day back in the proper mountains, big crew, stunning weather, insane trails, lack of fitness, not enough water, the biggest two wheel drift I have ever seen: Winter is over!!!

Luceram

The crew

Big mountains, and Anthony "Le Drift" Pena

Cool little dodgy bridge

Mooooo

Getting close to the finish, totally wrecked at this stage

Luceram in sight

Taissoun

Quick report on the Ronde du Taissoun, in Colomars just behind Nice. Usually, this place gives a great vantage point to look over Nice and the entire Cote D'Azur. This time though, after a lung bursting hike/pedal through the fog we got treated to a different view which, as you might have noticed from the pictures, was absolutely phenomenal.

While on the short side of the enduro spectrum, at about 26km, this was a ridiculously punishing event. Each of the three stages required a hike a bike section, resulting in searing hot legs. Added to that was the fact that all the stages were extremely rough and physical, with a relatively large amount of uphill sprints required. The first two stages went pretty well, I came in 25th and 26th out of about 80 riders despite 2 falls in the first stage, and several mistakes in the second from coming into corners too fast or simply not seeing turns in time. 

I was pretty pumped for the third stage which I know very well from many spins with LeChris, and which was by far the longest and most physical, two aspects which played to my strengths. After a good top section, I got to the section I had been fearing all day: le GR. A wide, flat hiking trail, which doesnt sound too bad, but the problem is it is pretty easy to hit ludicrous speeds on it as it alternates between smoothish for 20-30m followed by extremely rough for 5-10m, and many a tube and tyre have fallen victim to this section, which I now slow down considerably for. But this was a race, so F--k that! Full speed ahead, I was gliding over the rough sections like they wern't there, until I heard a horrible noise which I assumed was my tyre exploding but turned out to be my derailleur, derailleur hanger and gear cable all snapping at once... To add insult to injury, as I mentioned previously this stage had a very long uphill/flat section a few minutes later, meaning I had to push the bike for a good 10 minutes without even being able to coast...

Fun day overall, a proper challenge. Team mate Anthony and regular competitor Seb both posted impressive results in some of the stages and ended up in the top twenty overall, it would have been nice to see where I would have ended up without the mechanical. Oh well, time to peruse chainreaction for some drivetrain components...

Rallye Hivernal de Levens

Just finished the first enduro of the 1001 series which runs through the year. The winter enduro in Levens is known to always have a bit of snow to add to the challenge. Unfortunately, for me anyway, the massive snowfalls from 2 weeks ago meant the trails were more then just a little challenging.

Started off with a massive climb, just under 2 hours, half of which was on compacted snow. Got to the top for one of the greatest cups of tea ever, and then straight into the first stage of the race. The format was 3 man starts, and I was starting with my buddy Seb who usually posts identical times to myself. The first 5 seconds of the race set up the theme of the day: I took the lead, pedalled hard to get away from the 2 others, slight bend in the road, leaned into the corner, slip, crash, covered in snow. Over the next 10 minutes this happened over and over... Eventually I finished last in my group, soaked and frozen...

Things picked up massively in the second stage, which started lower down the mountain and thus had much shallower snow. I managed to just about stay ahead of Seb (some bad manners required), until half way down when the track was dry and I was able to ride properly and took a reasonable lead in my group.

Pumped up from the second round, I thought things would go great in the third. Sadly this was not the case. The last special was probably the steepest track of the day, and while not under snow, it was covered in mud. No proper excuse, despite 3 years of mud riding 100% of the time back in Cork, I just couldnt hack it on the (seriously) steeper parts and rode very poorly. By the time I got to the dry section of the track I had psyched myself out and couldnt feel my fingers from the cold.

So a pretty terrible performance all-round from myself, ended up with a not quite so terrible 89th with Seb trashing me with a 73rd. Pretty bummed at how poorly I rode anywhere that wasnt either dry or flat. Really well organised event tho, and definitely planning on heading back up there later on in the year.

About half way up the 1st climb. Levens in the foreground, the sea in the back

Tea with a view. Really needed it after 2 hours pedalling/pushing up in the snow

Lotsa bikes

New year, new gear, new club...

SS1 Start gate

Race on

Fall number 1

Should have pushed him off

If this was me, I would be even more sideways, but also more lying in the snow

Spot the biker

Everyday heroes

Photo credit: Seb, Will from Levens. Thanks