Who’s going?

Its my first time, dead excited 😀
A group of 4 of us are camping at Le Plan municipal campsite in Allemont.
Heading out 7th, coming home 14th.
Anyone else staying in same campsite or one close by?
Any good pubs in Allemont to watch the footy?

Me
Don’t know but if France are still in they will be insufferable
Last time I was there Wiggo won the tour – that was milked 🙂

I was……but then an accident at work now means I’ll be enjoying Op/Rehab instead :0(

Enjoy yourself!

Me. Billy no mates… driving down solo this Friday night so arriving Saturday afternoon. Camping with the rest of the cheapskates at the lift station.

Me!
Driving down – arriving Sunday.
None of my mates were up for it this year either, so I’m going with Mrs and our Daughter (non-riders) and making a holiday of it.
Staying in AdH as managed to book a cheap studio place for 8 nights.

Riding a black Liteville 301, (or maybe a baby-blue Patriot for the quali).
Say hello if you see me!

Ill be there. Driving down Sunday with my dad, and picking a mate up at geneva on Monday afternoon, as he’s watching some bike race in Yorkshire on the Sunday.
First time for me, stopping at le bergers in alpe d huez, and can not wait.

Yo!, campsite down the road from you qecp guys, I think the bar in between the 2 sites has a TV,

im getting very excited

I am, camping at the bottom of the lift with the other nutters, driving up on the 4th with 3 others in a white Sprinter, riding a green Mondraker Dune, going to ride the full course every day, can’t wait.

Yep, leaving a week today actually. Have done it enough times before so don’t need a whole week out there, If I don’t know where I’m going by now I’ve got no hope!

Staying in Alpe D’Huez. Not sure how it’s going to go, after smashing myself up last weekend, I’m a bit sore with not much shoulder movement available. We shall see though!

If camping at le plan make sure you bring toilet roll. We got caught out last year. Four fellas searching around campsite for spare bog roll is not good!

We’ll be there again this year. Also insect repellent is a good idea.

Not sure about any decent bars in Allemond, I’m sure there will be though. I’ve never really spent any time down there, other than at the end of the race.

I do know there is a patisserie about 3 minutes walk from the finish that is amazing, of that’s any use!

I’m going as one of the “QECP guys” can’t wait!
Traveling with Superfli.
Looking forward to meeting up with Kimbers crew etc.. for a beer.
Superfli, Kimbers, any other Allemondtarians, Monday or Tuesday night in TV bar in Allemond?

After killing my 2001 bullit at last years mega, I’ll be there on a much newer 2002 turner RFX or possibly a kona steely if the turner doesn’t live through qualifying.

OK, I’ve seen the race numbers and program:
http://www.megavalanche.com/ckfinder/userfiles/files/2014/alpe%20huez/liste%20doss/liste%20dossard_MEGAVALANCH%205_07_14.pdf

http://www.megavalanche.com/menu-gb.php?rubrique=38&course=1&nom_rubrique=ALPES-D%27HUEZ&sousrubrique=PROGRAM

http://www.megavalanche.com/menu-gb.php?rubrique=119&course=1&nom_rubrique=ALPE-D%27HUEZ&sousrubrique=Lift%20&%20Shutel&PHPSESSID=7he1salpvc3k8ev2ju3ver8pd7

Timing is a little tight if you are staying in the valley isnt it?!
Qualifying for me is 10:15. Be there at 9:45. Oz lift starts at 9:00. 45mins to get across 2 or 3 lifts (I’m hoping L’Alpette is open, in which case its 2). Glad I dont start at 10!

Race, could need to be at DMC for 6am 😯 . So drive to Alpe D’Huez then, which means having to get the lifts back up after the race to bring van down 🙁
It’ll be great if we all qualify for Challengers, would much prefer a Sat race day as we leave Mon morning. Mega+Amateurs on Sun. Aff1 Sat, Aff2 Sun.

I’m going to be bricking it! Glad its a long race, takes me ages to shake the wobble from my legs!
Driving down tomorrow 3am 😯

Where are the quali start times ?

The first link. Its a PDF gets your number and then 1 of the other links has the times.
Aidan 2099 = 12:30
Kimbers 1245 = 11:30

I saw the numbers came out last night, got myself a front row qualifier, so fingers crossed i’ll be racing on Sunday if all goes to plan. My quali is 12.45 so a lie in for me 🙂

The times for people getting out of the valley are tight? To get to the top of the qualifier you have to get out at the mid point DMC lift station & traverse across the hillside – which is a good 30 minutes at a fair pace, then you get the big Vaujany cable lift to the top.

There is another lift running out of Oz, that takes you straight to the Vaujany lift station – I don’t know what it’s called though, I would have a look for that to save you some time potentially.

There is another lift running out of Oz, that takes you straight to the Vaujany lift station – I don’t know what it’s called though, I would have a look for that to save you some time potentially.

Yeah, the L’Alpette. It takes us from Oz to Dome des Rousses. I’m hopnig this is open as the timetables dont mention it. Else we can drive to Vaujany and get the Dome des Rousses all the way up.

-edit, just seen Alpette is open at 08:30. Should be fine for Qualis then.

That’s the puppy, make sure you’re earlier than you think you need to be, people seem to be obsessed with getting to their quali race hours before, and screwing up the queues.

The Vaujany lift is a bit of a bun fight because of this.

Last qualifier race for me, so got plenty of time to get to the start. . Setting off in half an hour. Now what have forgotten to pack?

Same qualifier as kimber but on the back row 🙁

If you catch me scott ill know im in trouble!

You are only 71 places in front of me, I will wave on the way passed 😉

I’m writing this in a hotel bar in sight of the campers in ADH <waves at campers>. Out here with the road bike for the Marmotte, but I’ve been up to Pic Blanc on the gondola today and now have huge MTB envy.
I KNEW I should have packed it 🙁

Woop I’m off!

And we stop. Broken down on tunnel 1/2 way across. About to be evacuated. Gfs, hope we don’t lose a day riding.

Yup in car park at Chunnel waiting to get on

Only 1.5 hr away now putting tent up in the dark will suck but feel bad for the qecp gang overnight in calais are they putting you up, have they got your van out yet?

Looking on Facebook, they had am 11 hour delay but are on their way.

There already folks! Where on which link did you find which row for quali you were on? I see the numbers and start times, but can’t see the grid positions?

Cheers

You have to work it out. based on your number.

Each qualifying heat starts on an even number (1-200, 201-400, 401-600 etc). There are 25 per row. So if you were number 1876 for example, in your respective heat you would be on the 4th row.

Fingers crossed the Chunnel is sorted today, not sure my patience could cope with yesterdays antics.

I’m here. First day riding today, weather is god awful and is forecast to continue all week. Not exactly stoked :/

Weather has been forecast fairly crap for yesterday & today, but seems to be improving after.

Its still snowing at Pic Blanc too!

I’m crossing everything it does all it’s raining today, and is nice from tomorrow, not that I’m selfish!

anybody know if this is being broadcast, it always looks ‘fun’ 😆

Still raining here, thunder earlier

Had a good days ride, showers on and off and sleet on the top of the qualifier
Its running pretty well some hairy moments in the rocks near the top greasy and a lot of folks looking nervous, after that it’s not too bad though

Only ridden the bottom of the mega course and its wet and sliddy plenty of roots to catch you out
apparently loafs of snow on top and very muddy after the climb out of adh and on down the switchbacks is supposed to be very tough

Will see tomorrow but the forecast looks, interesting

😆 😆 😆

Well that was an experience! Cursed from the off, but still had a great time.
Rode the whole mega track on Wednesday, christ it was cold at the top – glad I bought winter gloves, but still my fingers froze. Really hard to ride on the extremely steep glacier! Just point the bike down and hang off the back, about 10% in control 😯 I fell a lot! Then lots of rocks, which I like (the techier the better). All the fast, flowy fun sections after that were slippy and muddy and tough work. The lower 1/2 of the course was a muddy hell!
Quali’s on Friday started pretty well, although carp of the line as always (cant sprint for toffee), I was somewhere near front. All the short lines on the rocks I hit lovely and clean. Chap in front with a yellow cover over his backpack took out a French rider when clipping his bars on a stupid overtake. I passed and told him it was a a bit bullish. 3mins later on the approach to the end of rocks (just before the pallet over the stream) and the same guy tries a silly overtake on me. Clips my bars and sends me off my bike. (guy behind me here):

Back on and immediately knocked off again. I thought just my front brake was squishy and bars slightly bent.. Carried on as hard as I could to the end. I was suffering and couldnt work out why I was having to work so hard to catch or stay with riders? Got to end in 36th spot. Had a look at the damage. Helmet chinguard cracked in 2, wheel struggling to turn at all – rotor bent badly, and worst of all my forks had a massive ding in the lowers meaning they only compressed 2″ and then needed force to go lower 😡
After that I was pretty upset and was thinking of abandoning the Challenger race. Hobnob kindly offered some replacement forks (thanks buddy!) but the old frame is a straight steerer. My mates and a few beers in the evening persuaded me to race on Sat.
Damn it was cold and wet (yet again!) on Sat. No one I met on the bus up from Allemont knew which start it was (Dome Rousse or top of DMC) lifts hadnt opened, lots of hanging around. I got to Dome Rousse cablecar early, and although I had a good grid position, I thought screw that, I’m not hanging around at the start for hrs in the pissing snow. I was wet and cold. So I waited at the lift station under cover until the last of the queue. We arrived at the top at start time! I was last man just about on the grid. I didnt care! Race started and there was a lot of pushing of bikes, however 1/2way through the rock section on Quali track, on the “ladder drop”, I managed to get a clean run on my bike, this allowed me to cycle uninterrupted until the mud, just after 1/2way. Lots of queuing here and then I managed to get on the bike again to ride the slippy switchbacks and off camber stuff. Single pivot bikes and sitting off the back really helped here. I managed to pass loads and loads of people. Riding most of the mud! Some slippy bits later on and lots of wet mud, saw me roll into the finish in 98th, 17th in my cat, and overtook 70 or so riders on a bike with limited front travel 😀
What a day! Loved it. Gutted for Scott as he got really bad stomach upset and was unable to race on Sunday 😥 such a shame. However, even though he missed the race, he got to do quali’s and rode the whole mega track. Chin up mate.
Next time I go on holiday, I’m not going to camp! Camping, cooking every meal inc lunches, and having to sort out filthy gear every night was not much of a holiday! Great to meet up with Kimbers and clan on many nights drinking sessions down in Allemont and Hobnob after quali (should have towed you up the hill 🙂 ).

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/115748445785957786834/albums/6036187527991499905

good write up superfi! yeah conditions couldve been better 😉 –
(at least youve garuanteed dry dusty trails for qecp enduro…..)~

but still fun, perversely,I even like camping in the wet!

looking at the stw write up I see the comencal guys were running 26 wheels in their 650b frames, which is exactly what i was wishing i couldve done, a pair of 26inch wheels with swampthings sitting in my shed at home!!

watching those guys come down they clearly had an advantage over all the other riders, respect to them as they forced their way through that middle section but the commencal boys wheel where actually turning

those on 29ers seemed to be suffereing really bad as, clearance is even poorer on those frames as they try to keep them low, and bigger wheels = even more mud on them!

Well, I had an entertaining week. Not entirely sure what I was thinking, but I literally took no wet weather riding gear. Turned up on Wednesday morning after driving through the night to p*ssing rain & 3.5 degrees, with it snowing at the top.

Managed to bag me a 19 euro waterproof, and some under gloves, as it was in minus figures at the top of the DMC lift & went out. Did one run on the Weds & got hacked off so I bailed out. Tried again Thursday, to have a look up the top of the main track, only to be greeted by a snowstorm on the DMC lift, so sacked that off, and gave up riding until lunchtime. Ended up bashing out a couple of runs on the part of the quali track that runs between the DMC lifts & left it at that. No idea where the start of the race was on Friday, and not ridden the bottom part of the track, it was going to be a fun day.

I’d had reports about the bottom of the main race track being unrideable, so didn’t bother, and hadn’t managed to make it up top, so I was going blind on racing, assuming I qualified.

Friday came round, and it was nice weather! I was on the front row, but over on the right, on the edge of the rough stuff, but went for it anyway. Got a reasonable start, and managed through the snow ok, I think I was in about 11th place. Got held up a bit, and started picking off people. I was in 4th place going through the town, but got done on the inside of a gravel corner – thought I had overtaken another guy further down, but I ended up 5th, which was pretty good still. Kicking myself a bit as if I’d known I was up there I’d have pushed a bit harder through the mid section, as there was 3 of us within seconds of each other. 3rd row for the main race!

Thanks to the QE guys for giving me a lift back up to the town, I was all set to ride it up, but they kindly offered to help me out.

Sunday came round, and we were going from the top. I was sandwiched between Eddie Masters & Kerry McGarry (RedBull Rampage canyon backflip fame) so no pressure there! Snow was a complete clusterf*ck as usual! I made it quite clean to the first righthander, maybe 50 people ahead of me, then got wiped out! Had a bit of battle from then on, with the pack, and had some bike issues, so stopped to try & get some gears back. I was near the back as the climb went out of Alpe D’Huez so the race was a write off at that point.

Then the mud came. I’ve never seen anything like it. My bike must have weighed 80lbs at one point, both wheels solid. I ended up carrying past countless people trying to ride, clear etc. There were bodies & bikes everywhere! I went everywhere but the main track, people were pinballing through the trees off piste, falling, sliding etc, utter chaos. I managed to ride most of it, I think the whole wooded section I rode straight down the hill & popped out on the fireroad, and cruised home, convinced I was still a back marker. Finished & I had seemingly overtaken over 150 people on the last half of the track, so not the disaster I had thought.

Still, I came back in one piece, which was the plan as we’re off to Whistler in a couple of weeks, and I didn’t want to break myself. Will we go back? Who knows, I think if the weather is nice, then I would be very tempted, but I’m not doing it again if it was like this year. Frustrated, as I wanted a decent finish for the main race – but it wasn’t to be.

Gutted for Scott as he got really bad stomach upset and was unable to race on Sunday such a shame. However, even though he missed the race, he got to do quali’s and rode the whole mega track. Chin up mate.

I will sum up my week:
Good points
-Got to ride on the glacier in practice which I love.
-Qualifying was great fun, started at the back and over took 40+ people

Bad points
-Train broke (11 hours in Train/tunnel/bus/Calais)
-Rain/snowed all week
-Had severe food poisoning
-Missed the Mega race because I could not be away from a toilet for more than 10mins.

I think I have to go back as I missed out on the whole reason for the trip.