Rain?

It's been so dry and dusty lately, been awesome. I rode Champery again, hit every section, which to some people might sound pretty standard, but for me, I was pretty happy. Some of my guests that I took with me were less impressed, and the crazy French dude we met survived the whole lot then binned it on the road.

I've also been trying to get fast on Super Morzine side, which has been so loose and dusty, whenever you see anyone else you just try to kick up loads of roost and dust, it's been awesome.

So I was a little bit down-heartened to see rain yesterday, then even more so to see that it had rained all night too. So today, I can't be bothered to go and get muddy, I'll stay in and watch the World Cup. With a forecast like this, I don't think it will be long before it dries out again.

  
Also been doing some chilling up at the mines and down by the lake since it's been so hot, so here's a few snaps of that!

Found this creepy geezer living down the mines

Definitely a safe game

RRRR 2012 Edition 2

You may remember some of the parts off this Rad Ride from 2 years ago. Dave has updated a few parts, the frame being the most obvious. Here's a few photos of the big red (soon to be pink?) beast!

The green parts are from back when Dave was on a stealthy M3 with green anodized parts. The brakes and hubs still remain.

Cane Creek, what else?

Dave flew here this year. Not with easyjet, but using his bars as wings. Cut down to 860mm!

Even his pedals weren't wide enough

Flying the flag. You can't get a more pimp seatpost than this

New Bits in Les Lindarets

Although these bits aren't technically that new, I think Les Lindarets is often an overlooked riding location here in the PDS. There's a blue, two reds and the remains of the French National track to ride here, and they're all pretty fun. The top of the blue run has had a fair bit of work this year, with completely new corners and a open section with two really good (smooth) berms. The red trails have had a few new corners, or old ones have been rebuilt and still feature the wooden drops and gaps. Go check it out!

Riding Champery Single Handed!

Tom Bannister is a true hero. He paralysed his left arm in a massive crash a few years back but still rides holding on with one hand. Now that already sounds pretty impressive, but when you see how good he is at doing it, you'll be blown away. He certainly did a better job with the Champery World Cup track than I did. So any of you two armed riders out there who are scared to ride some of the steep stuff, time to pull your finger out!

Chatel Blackshore

Yesterday whilst in Chatel we did a few runs of Gueps, then dropped into the Blackshore. I hadn't actually ridden it before but it's amazing! It's mainly 'north shore' jumps and gaps across the gorge. The jumps themselves aren't very big, but they're high up and jump over deep sections of the gorge, so you get a pretty big rush. I decided to try to stop on an off camber bit of wood, I really don't know what I was doing but I was left hanging off, holding onto my bike, it was quite a mission getting me and bike down. Oh well! Here's a quick vid of Riders Retreat guests Bran and James hitting the bit I tried to stop on.



blackshore on Pinkbike

New bits in Chatel

There are a few new bits in Chatel Bike Park which I got some snaps of today. The infamous road gap has been completely re-built, bigger but better. There's another pump track which looks like a lot of wasted effort - who takes a hardtail all the way over there anyway? Also some work was being done on the old Ric et Rac top section, and is looking good. There's also some new doubles at the bottom of Komatrotrail (hopefully got the spelling right there!). In addition, but not in my photos (sorry) there is a new trail with a multi-syllable name, featuring loads of doubles, with a big ladder drop start. Not open yet but it looks to be very good!

The take off of the new road gap. I couldn't describe it as a booter, but it's definitely more of a jump now than a fly off.

Little bit higher, little bit longer, steeper landing. The run in looks better, plenty of time for panic cranks before the take off.

New pump track

The new doubles. This one was still closed and the line in looks a bit strange, maybe there is more spade work to be done. There's a little one on the left though which is nice and easy.

French Champs

I know I'm a bit late with this but... It was the French Champs in Les Gets at the weekend, so I popped over to get rained on and watch people struggle in the mud. It was a long day, with lots of waiting around, mainly due to people crashing and having to be airlifted. Inconsiderate eh?

There was also the xc finals which I saw a bit of. I wanted to be open to the thought that it might be good. But no. It was bloody pathetic. The track looked alright, but the riders were just hopeless. They crawled down the slightest of slopes, and when it got ever so slightly steeper, they got off and pushed! I was shocked to say the least! I can't help but think that with a tiny bit of skill/balls and a dropper post, loads of time could be made up on the downhills.

The dh track however looked pretty good, a mix of tight bits through the trees mixed with several French hucks, with the last bit being a classic off camber blast across the piste, with another mega huck out to the finish. I did plan to make a quick edit from some clips, but lack of time mixed with rubbish weather on the day means I think I'll leave that and throw in a few photos instead. And, I won't lie, I don't know who won or what happened. It's pretty hard to find information on it online...

Big sender on the piste

Big sloppy ruts to land in

Yeh, it was really wet and mucky

More ruts

There was a pretty cool huck over a root that stuck out of the bank. Few of the girls sent this, but Ragot did, and crashed, on what I presume was her race run, and still took the win!

All the above: mud

The view from the La Turche end of Les Gets

Air Miles

Here's Riders Retreat guest James Gould's attempt at flying. Just a few scrapes though, good effort!

La Clusaz

Yesterday I drove over to see my family who are staying in La Clusaz. The drive over was pretty epic, over Col de Colombiere. It doesn't go particularly high, about 1600m, but it certainly feels it as the road winds up. It's super steep (the sign says 12%) and my advice would be take a bigger engine! 2nd gear a fair amount of the time on the way up. And go steady on the brakes on the way down!

As for the riding, I rode with my brother which was cool, don't get to ride with him as much as when we were younger. La Clusaz was our first taste of Alpine mountain biking back when I was about 15. Unfortunately, they appeared to be building a new lift, and so only one side of town was open. The track itself has a few different lines down and is mostly rough, rocky and fast but does have some decent rooty lines and tight switchbacks. There's also a 'north shore' area. The main track does have a rope bridge though, which is the dodgiest thing ever to ride over!

Weather is sunny again in Morzine, but not quite as hot as it has been. Tracks are running dry and dusty!

Marsh Guard

Finally rocking one of these bad boys! For those not in the know, Marsh Guards are available anywhere in town for 10 Euros, or better still, from Morzine MountainBike Mechanics in Les Lindarets for just 8.50! Tested it out today on some ultra muddy tracks and it certainly works. Looks neat too. The Syndicate are running them, what more do you need to know?

Guest Vid!

Morzine 2012 Contour HD on Pinkbike

Check out Riders Retreat guest Danny Wilson's footage of his week here!

Productive Week

Been a stressful week, looking after both chalets just when the boiler decides not to work... Hence, not much riding. I put my wet tyres on ready to face the mud, but then couldn't go out, so ended up changing them back for the next day. Fun.

A few of us also went up to the mines at sunsent. A big storm looked to be rolling in but it disappeared somewhere and we stayed dry.

We also did some filming with Geebeebee Media over at Chatel to test out their new camera. Despite me riding like a donkey for every shot, everyone else made the video look good!
Chatel - People from geebeebee media on Vimeo.

Passportes du Soleil

 So it seems I waited for the rain before I chose to go and get some photos of what was going on in town. The Passportes is not an event I take a massive interest being more xc/all mountain orientated. However, you get people entering on DH bikes, and you don't have to ride everything if you don't want to.

Labyrinth were here, I think it's a pretty good looking bike

YT industries were there with some nice looking bikes, they were hiding their top model a bit though!

   

Electronic shocks eh? Not sure if these were available to test or not

Some more unusual bikes were on display too. Clean lines on this

Our friends Hope were there

YT also had this mega truck for some reason. It was loud as hell!

Fortunately I arrived in time for this bizarre French trials/drums fusion