Chatel Mountain Style Contest

The annual mountain style contest at Chatel bike park will be happening this weekend (2nd, 3rd and 4th of July). It mixes the usual slopestyle/dirt jump theme with a gnarly mountain for riders to get down, their runs then judged on style and tricks and the like.

Last year it was rather insane with a huge drop at the top. Well, click the picture above to see that drop, with another one being built over the top, that must be a good 10 or 15ft higher. I think this year, the contest will be truly unbelievable. Look out for pictures and words about it shortly.

Morzine Mountain Bike Mechanics

If that alluring alliteration doesn't make you want to visit these guys then maybe the friendly service, the tonnes of bike repair knowledge or perhaps even their lovely van will. Based in the Lindarets bowl during the day, they're in prime location if you're having problems with your bike. I've heard that their favourite job is brake bleeding...

They'll also come to you! In Morzine or any of the surrounding towns, if you need a repair job that you can't do, get onto them and they will be there, then they can either try to fix your bike, or take it back to the workshop and deliver it back to you when repaired.

Another reason you should pay them a visit is to get your hands on some Fenwick's bike cleaner! They sell a tub which you dilute (which will last forever) or a spray. I tried it today, and to make it clear, if you want a clean bike, buy some of this! Works wonders.

Portes du Soleil is open!

The lifts all opened yesterday, so I took a brief trip over to Chatel bike park, via the new track under the Chaux Fleurie lift. The Chaux Fleurie track is very good, despite the usual few odd jumps and the like.

Chatel bike park has also seen some changes. Although I didn't stay long, I had enough time to find out they've changed some of my favourite sections. Nevermind. It also looked as though they were building an even bigger drop at the top of the Chatel mountain style course. Mental

BBQ at the tin mines

Yesterday evening we (the guests, Tom, Paul and I) took a trip up past Lake Montriond to some abandoned tin mines and had a BBQ. It was probably the most amazing place I've ever been, perched high on the cliffs, with stunning views and nobody for miles around.

Whilst I got over the excitement of the rocks on the cliff face, we took a quick explore down one of the mine shafts, it was pretty dark! Apparently you can get right down one and into a chamber and the ceiling shimmers. I wasn't really feeling the caving with no torch idea though.

The BBQ was epic, loads of merguez sausages went down a treat, but the mega special something was the fillet steaks that Ben and James cooked on a slate in the campfire. As the sun set, we realised we had to climb back down and get through the woods in the dark...

The sun is shining!

Today I woke up, took a look out the window to see the clearest skies possible. Glimpses of Mont Blanc going up Chavannes and a little bit of sunburn on my wrist tells me it was a nice day.

As for actual riding, we rode a few bits at Les Gets bike park, sessioning the berm gap at the top for quite some time. A few runs of Chavannes too, even I feel like I'm absolutely flying on that track.

We've also seen a few celebs over the past few days, Sam Blenkinsop, Cameron Cole, Ruaridh Cunningham, Matt Simmonds to name a few.

We took quite a few photos, here is a selection of the best.

New sections on Le Pleney?

Well yesterday we went for a couple of runs on Pleney before heading over to the Lapierre track. And on the way down we stopped to check out the new berms we'd scouted earlier.

To be honest, I'm not really sure what they're going for. At the moment there are two long sweeping berms than sort of lead onto the main track. Just before the rejoin, there is a route off into several flowing berms.

However, these two new bits aren't connected, and at the moment are two loose and cut up to ride. Hopefully they'll get on it. An interesting thing was to see the maintenance that had been done overnight to remove holes and the worst breaking bumps. Which is great!

First Ride

Finally got out on the bike! The weather has marginally improved, with a few bright spells and only a drop or two of rain, although we woke to a fresh covering of snow at the top of the nearby peaks and up towards Avoriaz.

Today was spent doing 7 runs of Le Pleney, which continued to dry throughout the day, getting faster, but also rougher. It hasn't really changed much, except for the removal of that silly double nearish to the top. The 10% has also got no less scary...

A guided tour of The Barn

Ok, so here is a little guided tour of the Barn. Apologies for the old man style commentary. Shame it wasn't sunny so I could show you the views, but at least you get to see the luxury I'm living in!

EDIT: The video seems to be not working, hopefully this is a temporary issue...
RE-EDIT: Here is a temporary version of the vid

On the road to Morzine

I made it! I am alive and well, only one slight hold-up, other than that, the journey wasn't too bad. It definitely gets more interesting as you get into the mountains. However, for me, so did the weather.

Then came the climb up into Morzine, in the cloud, which my little car didn't enjoy as much as I did, probably used a tonne of fuel to get it up there, but mountain roads are simply amazing to drive, even in a little old car in poor weather.

The video isn't that interesting, but there's a little of me driving, and something about a hairy dog that I'm sure you'll want to hear about. I forgot to video me at the tolls, as that was probably interesting to watch me scrabble to the other side of the car, sorry folks.

And now I'm here, it's been raining a lot. I want it to stop as there are some outdoor jobs that need doing, and I need to go shopping and get my rear wheel sorted.

Tools at the Barn

If you're staying at the Barn with Riders Retreat, and planning on bringing your own tools with you, it might be useful for you to know what will already be here in my toolkit. All guests can borrow any of my tools, if they're not lying around, just ask!

So here is a list of tools which I will be bringing:

-2 allen key sets of mediocre quality
-bb and crank bolt tool for hollowtech 2 cranks/bb cups
-ISIS bb tool
-Square taper bb tool
-Old skool crank puller
-Cassette lockring tool
-Chainwhip
-Pedal spanner
-Cable cutters
-T25 tool for disc rotors
-Shock pump
-Some screwdrivers
-A little spanner that should fit the nuts on orange shock shuttles (fits my patriot 66 at least)
-A chain tool
-Some tyre levers if I can find them all
-Grease, loctite, and some chain lube (though this is likely to get used quick so I might hide it!)
-A file
-Anything else you can see in the photo, a few bolts, might even have a few half used brake pads lying around

That should be everything, I'll see what else I can find that might be useful for guests. Hopefully knowing what is here already will help you keep the weight down to keep the airport staff smiling in case you were going to be brining a suitcase of tools.

There is also an assortment of tools at each of the Riders Retreat chalets, along with a workstand and a pump to add to my list aswell, so don't fret if you can't fit all your tools in.

BarCam

This started out as a bit of a joke, 'I know, I'll attach a camera to my bars!'. But then I realised I had an old camera and a child inside me that wanted to do arts and crafts...

So I made a little cradle for the camera, zip tied it to the bars and there it was: BarCam V1. It needs some adjusting and altering, and I need to think about my cables, though I've run out of zip ties for now. Something else to buy then.