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