Not So Sunny

Yesterday brought us several thunderstorms, one of which I had the luxury of driving through, pretty monstrous! So naturally I couldn't be bothered to drown so didn't ride, but today I got out in the mud over at Lindarets for some sliding about.

The weather wasn't quite what the forecasters had promised (Clear? No...) but at least it didn't rain on me very much. I took a few moments to get some snaps as well as saying hello to Rich from Aston Hill. Get booked in for the next race on 5th of September!

I also got a new headset from hope, fitted masterfully by Gareth from the Morzine Mountainbike mechanics. Another top job.

Riders Retreat's Rad Rides: Part 2

The second RRRR is Jonny's Intense 951. In pimp blue, with pimp blue hubs and rotor spiders, pimp CCDB and pimp boxxers, it's a pretty pimp bike. It's just a shame he went and smashed the E.thirteen before I could get a photo.

Mamma's

Mamma's is a glorious pizza place in the centre of Morzine (just up the road from Bar Rob), that also does pastas and a giant fish, sausage and chips (see pic). If you haven't been there already, then get yourself there now!

The Pizzas are each named after a different ski resort, with loads of topping combinations to choose from. The tagliatelle carbonara was delicious (ask for no mushrooms if you don't like them, you get loads!) and well, like I said, the fish was giant.

Champery World Cup: Finals

I only just got to Champery in time to watch the top 18 riders come down, and because of my late arrival, didn't have such an amazing point to watch from. I could just about see the last few big jumps though, and was close to the track so could scream encouragement right into the riders ears.

I was pretty disappointed to miss CG throw down the style, but was in time to see Danny Hart and Brendan get sideways. Peaty was pretty much the only rider to go round the jumps, what's that all about? Anyway, it was brilliant to see the riders hit such huge jumps in the soaking wet.

It was also pretty cool to be around the pros in the pits, with all the posh kit to check out. I even bagged myself a fork pimping kit from the SRAM tent. We hung around to see the podium - team CRC still top team, and Manon Carpenter's cheeky smile, as well as the top 5 men and women - then jumped back in the car to escape before the traffic went bananas.

Champery World Cup - Qualifying

Today I got totally soaked through and covered in mud, and I was only watching! The track at Champery is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen, especially in the wet today. Huge deep ruts, mixed with the plethora of roots, all laid down on the steepest route down a mountain you could think of.

I tried to get a few photos and videos but the rain was so heavy I gave up. But anyway as I'm sure the interweb could tell you, Blinky qualified first, Gee in third and Brendan fourth. Some surprise names came up, Spagnolo in 2nd, Wyn Masters in 5th Danny Hart in 7th! Peaty appeared to be back on form with 6th, and he looked flying on the section we saw him through.

Forrest Gump

Obviously I won't be telling you where this track is, but if you find it, you're lucky. It's fantastic.

A lot of work has clearly gone into it, with a large step-down that must have taken ages to build, not to mention the bridge across the river. It features some steeper sections, plenty of roots, with some tricky lines that you need to take to keep the momentum, and it finishes with a nice wide and fast section with a thousand line choices.

Me and Dave took a run down to grab some pictures, finding a new jump along the way which has a magnificent corner into it. After seeing some slower riders come down it, we concluded it's probably not one for the easily scared, though it's far from the gnarliest track in the area.

Riders Retreat's Rad Rides

Hopefully I'll get a few RRRR's, unfortunately I forgot to get a photo of Will's TR450, kitted out with BOS and DeeMax shiny parts, so that one you'll have to imagine.

Here is Dave's Intense M3, anodised black with pimp green anaodized everything - linkage, brakes, stem, seat clamp, drop outs, with matching green hoses and chainring. Pretty Beasty.

Dave looks after it well too, he's been here 2 days and is planning on stripping his forks tomorrow, and has already taken everything apart to clean and regrease. If you want the pimp treatment from Dave, get on over to Formby Cycles.

Back To Riding

It feels good to be back on the bike. Although I still have a fairly painful shoulder, I can cope with it so I'm happy again. After scaring myself in Morgins yesterday, a quick crash on the road down from Avoriaz made it pretty painful for today again though. If you've ever crashed on that road, then you're an absolute idiot - just like me.

Today has been good, despite being a little annoyed about feeling out of my comfort zone on the black runs in Chatel bike park and being afraid of mud. There are some new gaps on one of the red runs in Les Lindarets, check out the clip to see a couple of them. Keep an eye on WideOpen for Paul's next blog entry for more details on the changes.

The weather is still glorious pretty much every day here, I'm hoping it stays this way, chasing Tom's dust trail down Super Morzine at the end of the day was fantastic. Keep an eye out around the PDS for some snazzy looking folk in Riders Retreat jerseys from SixMotion too!

New Gaps in Les Lindarets from Riders Retreat on Vimeo.

Crashing...

Yesterday the Swiss national track attacked me for no reason again, I was simply riding at warp speed when the ground just got closer and collided with my shoulder very hard. So now I'm in a lot of pain, don't think anything is broken as I still have full movement. Plus me being me, no hint of bruising so I have nothing to show for it, except for an even more grazed bum.

Anyway, it's Bastille day today, and we had some wonderful fireworks to watch last night (not sure if they were connected - we'll see if there is more tonight) and the hot tub might sort out my shoulder. For now though, some rest until the next guests arrive.

Tour de France and more

So on Sunday the Tour arrived in Morzine, so a few of us went up towards Avoriaz to watch them do the formidable climb. I'm not sure what I was expecting, I think I was a little disappointed, but it certainly was an experience, and we got some tasty (free) cheesey crackers.

Today we rode some steep and rooty tracks over in Les Gets, one of which which got the better of me with an over the bars, then I really enjoyed the uphill finish on 'your mum'. Then a short stop at the Nyon waterfall made a nice finish to the day. I also finally gave in to the bullying and changed my rear tyre, I still think it was fine...

Chatel River Gap

Here's a quick clip of Riders Retreat guests Dave and Matt, and Morzine Mountain bike mechanic Gareth hitting the big old river gap on the track 'People' in Chatel bike park. I was pretty impressed, the gap is well over 20 feet with no margin for error.

First proper crash...

So I've finally had a good crash. A rocky section on the Swiss national got the better of me and I had a tumble, grazed my arms and elbows, as well as my hip, leg and arse. Also hurt the ribs a bit, and something obviously went for my nose as that was leaking blood when I got up.

Nevermind though, we ended up in Chatel where we were fairly flying down some steep rooty tracks, as well as hitting a fair sized ladder drop on the Chatel Blackshore. On the way back from Switzerland we also took a scenic route and encountered some snow to play in. Marvellous

Chatel Mountain Style: Sunday Finals

Well the finals were pretty insane. Typically, it started at 1, when it was scheduled to start at 9am, which mean the riders only got 1 run. The ending was timed well though, with the rain coming literally a few minutes after the last rider came down.

To be perfectly honest, I don't know who won, we spent most of the time watching at the top, too far away from the speakers, so understanding the announcer was difficult. I did manage to get several videos which I put together in this edit. The song reflects the madness of the event, but as a warning, you might want to lower your volume slightly...

Chatel Mountain Style: Friday Practise

I headed over to the Chatel Mountain Style course ('the face') to watch the riders practise for the weekend's events. Managed to see quite a few pros - Semenuk, Bearclaw, Zink, Kinrade, and others. They all seemed quite pleased with how insane the course has become.

No one hit the biggest drop at the top, perhaps because it was slightly windy, or perhaps because it is so enormous, but plenty hit the old drop, which lead into a huge step up. I saw some guy (clipped in!) case it big time. Straight away there was an even bigger casualty, a french rider got bucked over a double, leading to what I presume was a broken collar bone. Damn.

I'm looking forward to Sunday's finals, just hopefully the weather won't do what it did today, the ride back from Chatel through a worsening thunderstorm was less than pleasant.