Chatel Jumps

So a few weeks ago I'd hit that step up on Fluid in Chatel Bikepark, but not the double afterwards. After explaining this to some guests, they followed me in, and I decided to lead them off the double anyway, oops! That double is sneaky though, I'd been told to slow up for it, but with a dab of brakes, I still overshot it by miles, wish I could have seen it, it felt huuuge!

Unfortunately later in the day, one of my guests crashed into a stealth drainage ditch coming out of the bottom of one of the runs. After most of us saying, 'nah, nothing's broken' he decided to pop into the medical centre, and returned with two fractured wrists and a cast on each arm. Must be awful, healing vibes to Sam Willard. He did however manage to get a super quick clip of myself and Riders Retreat guests Bruce and Glyn hitting the aforementioned step up on Fluid.


Fluid step up on Pinkbike

Hot Stuff

Fashion error! Photo by Paul Thomas

After one night of rain the weather is back to hot and sunny, with a forecast that promises even hotter temperatures to come. Today has been fantastic, I've never seen it so clear, no clouds in the sky all day.

I spent the day sessioning the tracks under the Zore lift and they're running amazing. Some work has been done to the top section of both tracks, as well as some new lines on the red. There are some incredible new corners that you can really pop in and out of, getting both wheels sliding.

Whilst I'm posting, Paul has finished editing the blackshore video we filmed.



Chatel Black Shore - Riders Retreat from Riders Retreat on Vimeo.

Deval Karts

As a birthday present for Matt Jones (give him a follow on Twitter, he'd totally love that - @matt_jones94) I said I'd show him and the Woburn Sands crew around Chatel bike park. They didn't disappoint, sending it off all the big gaps I could show them.

After throwing down some some flips and tricks on the airbag, they wanted to try out the Deval Karts and the Luge. I got some videos of them trying to roll the Deval Karts, I should imagine it felt a lot faster if you were behind the wheel!



deval karts on Pinkbike

In other news, there's been more work done on the red track under the Zore lift, with a totally different line through the top bit. Loose dusty berms meant mega roost! There's still a few holes in the old corners, but I've really been enjoying the two tracks up there this year. Gotta fix another snapped spoke tonight though, I just can't seem to stop snapping em!

Zougouloukata

Yeh, that's the name of the new trail in Chatel Bike Park. No idea what it means. But the track starts off with a hip/drop with a squelchy narrow landing, into some doubles, a snowboard style beam sticking out of the ground, followed by a giant ravine gap. There's then a step up and a final little jump before some berms, joining onto the bottom of Fluid.

Riders Retreat staff ninja Will Elliot has a screw loose and hit the giant gap pretty much without even looking at it. He overshot it and crashed into the bank, then did a little celebration dance before doing it again a few times for the camera. He came up a tiny bit short on the first one, before finally throwing in a sick bar turn.



Will hitting Zougouloukata ravine gap on Pinkbike

It really is quite a large gap

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

Air Miles

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

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.

Wet or Dry?

There seems to be a lot of panic amongst the forums about the weather. Fret not! You don't need to pack your arm bands or life jackets, the trails are dry and dusty! The forecast is fairly good for this week, and has been good other than the storm. So no need to worry for now.

Pleney is still closed, with reports of Wednesday being the earliest it is likely to be fixed, but lest we forget, we are in France. I've got out on the bike again, and the arm and shoulder feel alright, not quite 100% but not too bad.

For now, here's a little clip of bandaged up little me riding the new 'mini jump park', nothing too exciting (see - dry!).

Lindarets Air Bag

I stopped off whilst the weather was glorious to catch some people hitting the Lindarets airbag jump. I was pretty impressed by the xc riders hitting it (I didn't!) though their style - see pic - varied slightly from the downhillers and dirt jumpers.

Also, look out in the video for Neil from the Morzine Mountainbike Mechanics hitting it for the first time on his full sus, after a full run of one of the downhills! It seems bike repair wizardry isn't his only game.

On that topic, although the lifts over that side will be closed from this weekend, next week and after, the MMMs will still be around if you need help with your bike. They told me they'll carry their mobiles on them, so if you're stuck with a broken bike, give them a shout.

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.

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.

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...

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.