..or wishful thinking stick on the moon and i will need to eat more hob nobs ? 😐
There are no skill requirements just depends how much you want to enjoy yourself. I'd look at riding snowdon or helvellyn as a better skill test chuck in some good Shropshire roots and a bit more. That and how fit are you?
That and how fit are you?
This. The course itself isn't [i]that[/i] hard, providing you can stay upright on the snow at the top. Fitness and maintaining concentration is the name of the game.
Its not that technical and you can walk any bits you can't ride - loads of people do.
You don't even need to stay upright on the snow - sliding down on your arse works just as well 😉
There is a fair old pedal across Alp d'Huez town, which wouldn't be so bad if you weren't in a full face lid and body armoured up.
It's not insanely technical for the most part but it's extremely sustained. Have you ridden much techy/rocky stuff in the Lakes/Scotland?
I think where skill/experience mainly comes in is that it probably means you brake less and ride more efficiently so get less tired. Arm pump is the no 1 enemy IMO.
There are no skill requirements just depends how much you want to enjoy yourself
This is a very, very good point. It's not whether you can get down in one piece, it's whether you can race down surrounding by angry French people in goggles with their elbows out, and whether that is something that appeals.
I was a bit borderline in terms of ability to ride it at any kind of speed and hold my position, especially in qualification. It was fine, I didn't die, but the strain of it being THIS HUGE RACE THING made it one of the least enjoyable big mountain holidays I've had. 🙂
That and the bug fella sliding out of control towards you on the snow.Arm pump is the no 1 enemy IMO.
Be a girl and unless you're Anne-Caroline Chaussan you'll have the entire route to yourself after the first black piste on the glacier. Other half (male)had a very different race experience to me!
This is the one where you slide on your bum on the snow for 10 minutes, pick a random bike from the pile at the bottom, then do a cross country ride?
Thick hard wearing shorts, ski-shaped buttocks, a natural resistance to piles, and the ability to spot a good bike from 50 meters are the most important factors.
This is the one where you slide on your bum on the snow for 10 minutes, pick a random bike from the pile at the bottom, then do a cross country ride?
That really made me smile 🙂
A mate posted a helmetcam vid on fb of him being taken out from behind and then losing his bike way up the slope. Took him ages to get back up to it all the while dodging out of control people heading straight for him. Reckon it'd be great to be a spectator...
Maybe one of those surfboard leashes...
As BigDummy alludes to - It is very competitive and there will be lots of people much much faster than you - but it really really doesn't matter! No one else will care how long it takes you to get down.
I went with the intention to get down in one piece, to enjoy the unforgettable crazy Euro techno start music, the helicopter blades swooping low and the atmosphere in general.
Treat it as an experience and if you do better than you thought you would its a bonus!
As others have said, it's not overly hard.To be fair the upper third of the quali track is harder, and more technical, to ride at pace and race on.
If you can survive that, and qualify for a mass start race, you will be fine.
Unless you are on the front row, a riding genius, or amazingly lucky the main race is gamble anyway. Without rutless, fresh snow, it's bloody hard to ride feet up from the top, so just go with the flow & see what happens 🙂
Go and ride down Snowdon Ranger path and get some of your mates to follow you shouting at you and jostling you, while others weave about unpredictably in front riding slower than you.
Maybe ask the ones in front to slow to a snail's pace at any technical bits.
Should give you an idea whether you fancy it.
If you can get somebody to turn sideways across you for no reason at the start, causing you and the entire rest of the pack to have an almighty pile up it'll be close. For extra realism try riding with a broken bike or random injury too. Can't wait for next year.
Thanks all for the replies... Seems like i found the light at the end of the tunnel, all along i thought this event is not for mere mortal men 🙂 ..also have spoken before to a coach when i went for skills course moons ago that he can help me out to ride that particular event as he has been multiple times already.
...some mates planning to ride snowdon very soon also, I might tag along 🙂
What is this qualifying by the way? Is this to sort you out by batches..from fastest to slowest or, you slow you go back home thingy?
yeah the qualifier just sorts yu into heats for the main race, its a great race in itself, with no real climbing
everyone gets to ride the course (weather permitting)
but the top 25% get into the megavalnche
next lot into the Challengers
then Amateurs
then last lot in Afinity, which you dont have to start as a mass start if you dont want, you are just timed the whole way down from whenever you start
the course only has a few really techy sections and they become bottlenecks it can be just as quick to walk
fitness is just as important its a gruelling race, arm pump will get you
red antur skills will be fine, but if youve got the confidence to take on the blacks at antur youll probably have a bit more fun, its a good place o practice, theres a lot of rocks at the mega!
Doesnt really appeal. Would rather go to Finale Ligure or Spain than 'apparently a bloke on Earthed told me I had to do this dressed as a hungover plastic Star Wars trooper with **** all chance of finishing in the top 100. All that spend/expense etc for what for the average punter?
All that spend/expense etc for what for the average punter?
When I did it (twice now) the entry and 1 week lift ticket was about the same price as a morzine lift pass. I did the dh, quali and race and ride for a week. Stayed in a chalet with a bunch of good lads and had a great time. Awesome atmosphere and great riding. It's not a typical ride holiday but it's a great experience it's not something you can replicate. The feeling sat at the finish is amazing.
Year 1 broke toe taken out in qualifying and ran the last also ran race.
Year 2 dislocated finger in practice and massive head cold/man flu qualified for 2nd race and had a good run considering.
Want to return fit and healthy.
Doesnt really appeal. Would rather go to Finale Ligure or Spain than 'apparently a bloke on Earthed told me I had to do this dressed as a hungover plastic Star Wars trooper with **** all chance of finishing in the top 100. All that spend/expense etc for what for the average punter?
That's fine, there's 2000+ people it does appeal to.
Lots of people go in groups, to race amongst themselves, with the goal to do as well as possible overall. But hey, a BMX'er who hadn't ridden an MTB in an article in Dirt years ago didn't have a particulary enjoyable experience, so it must be rubbish, right?
Just because you don't race, or get it doesn't make it any less an experience, in fact, it's quite nice it's not Hora approved™
I didn't say it was rubbish.
That'd be like me saying I wouldn't buy a Audi A3 TDI as I think they are rubbish. No I wouldn't buy a Audi A3 TDI as it it does nothing for me and its not really my cup of tea. It appeals to loads others though.
A once in a lifetrip/bike experience for me is something like BC, California, etc. Costwise would they really be that far apart nowadays to negate the decision to chose Canada etc over Alps?
Is there anything that could really prepare you for a mass start DH race? (Aside from another one)
For your hundred quid you get a lift pass
Always camp and cook ourselves, biggest expense is petrol or flights
As for once in a lifetime experience... Who cares where you finish, you get a weeks riding with on some unbelievable trails across the entire valley and then race down a black ski run, a glacier, and then km after km of rocky single track, alpine meadows, rooty forest trails,
Even of you hate the mass start its bonkers sliddibg through the snow to French techno whilst being buzzed by a helicopter
I think the average punter could do a lot worse
A once in a lifetrip/bike experience for me is something like BC, California, etc. Costwise would they really be that far apart nowadays to negate the decision to chose Canada etc over Alps?
Having done the Mega, and also been to Whistler both this year, yes, they are worlds apart in terms of cost.
Is there anything that could really prepare you for a mass start DH race? (Aside from another one)
In a word? No.
My prep was heaps of riding, getting in a line of fast riders on technical ground helps to just f ride it. Non stop laps of whinlatter as much dh as I could fit in, carrying to the top of the biggest lakes stuff and riding non stop.
Mad as it sounds but I reckon some short course xc might be good for at least some crowd racing and the tactics of hold, rest, recover and overtake.
Learning to overtake was the best thing I did.
Having done the Mega, and also been to Whistler both this year, yes, they are worlds apart in terms of cost.
Comparing both - total cost (excluding any bike part breakages or hire) - how much do you reckon on each?
Well I did 2 weeks in France 1st week mega then 2nd week Morzine. We drove from Aberdeen and I think it cost me less than £750 for everything. Food accommodation beer fuel etc. So that is around the same cost as your flights to Vancover!
Mega is 100 for entry + lift pass + insurance
Camping was 40 quid for the week
We cooked most meals ourselves 100 quid each including the odd lunch out? including beers
Biggest cost was petrol and tolls about 400 between 3 of us
Last night blow out meal and drinks - about 60 quid
<£500 for 7 days including spares etc
Hmm need to save harder.
If there is a few of you, you can get a Mega week in as said for less than £500, you could do it for that with a chalet too & splitting the costs. That should cover a few meals/beers out too (Smithy's for example do a deal on a half decent burger/chips/beer combo).
You can get flights to Vancouver fairly cheap, if you spend a lot of time looking for the cheapest, but at the mercy of airports, flight times etc. I would budget around £700-£1000 for economy if you don't book really early when airlines release the seats. As my wife & I earn fairly well, we didn't want to fly, or live like hobo's so we didn't fly Economy, and we wanted to fly from Heathrow on a mid Saturday afternoon, and return around the same time 2 weeks later. I think our flights were about £1600 each, plus 2 weeks accomodation, food etc. We stayed with BBB so most of your meals were sorted, but that was another £1500 for the two of us for 2 weeks.
The Canadian dollar isn't too strong against the pound at the moment, so eating out wasn't expensive, nor were lunches, and most bike parts were 'reasonable' even at resort prices due to exchange rate.
It's not a cheap holiday by any means. We could have maybe knocked 20-30% off by going poverty on the flights (which isn't really an option as I am too tall to barely fit in an economy seat, let alone one for ~9 hours) and saving a bit on the accommodation etc, but we got guiding included for the Whistler valley, which to be fair is where all the classic, awesome stuff is. now I know where it is, when we go back we can go at it alone, but first time, you want to cram in the riding as much as possible - and a guide is the only way really.
Yep, it was sub £1000 each when three of us drove down (in a car that only did 20mpg with bikes on roof) to do a week in AdH/Les Deux Alps includung Megavalanche entry and lift pass for a few days.
Its looking like a minimum of 50% more to do Canada. And thats optimistic.
i fancy kicking this off the bucket list next year. my mates did it a few years ago tho so dont know if any of them would fancy it again... Does anyone do it super streamlined, like in two days? travel Friday PM, practice Saturday, race Sunday, then return home? reckon thats how id have to play it - unless i tied it onto a week with the family maybe? ADH & L2A arent the most picturesque places tho, would need more forest and lake.
Not possible, qualifying is (first thing) Friday. Racing is both Saturday & Sunday, depending on the race you get into.
Re the cost (sorry for the hijack OP!) - is BC worth the extra as a one off bucket-list?
Jaffejoffer - What you are suggesting is not possible. The Qualifying race is on the Friday and ideally you want a few days practice on it before you try and charge down with 130 other riders. Depending on where you qualify you could be racing on the Saturday. You would not be able to practice the course on the Saturday even if you had qualified for Sundays race as it is being used.
I did it this year and was very glad for the practice on the qualifying track. The weather was rubbish all week so knowing the course was a good advantage. Learning some good lines really helped me qualify for the main event as I started the qualifying race right at the back.
who races on the saturday then, the shitbags or the elite?
could i travel thurs, qual on friday, race sat then do one?
The women race 1st on the Saturday then its the 1st losers of the mens race. You don't really want to aim for racing on the Sat as the snow will have softened by then and the women will have cut it up making the snow section a bit poop. You would still get the Mega experience though.
could i travel thurs, qual on friday, race sat then do one?
no, it's much more spread out than that
second race goes early Sat, then some of the plebs
top race early Sun, then more plebs
qualis happen at least on Thurs too IIRC
Saturday racing is:
Ladies first, then the first quali losers (so people who qualified from 22-42nd from memory) then it's either the Affinity 1, or Affinity 2 wobblers (riders who qualified is 63rd place or above)
Sunday is:
Megavalanche main race (1-21st qualifiers), second loser qualifiers (43-62nd place) and which ever the other Affinity race is.
Ideally, you want to get into the Sunday morning - that's the real deal race, with all the big boys, heli's etc.
No Thursday quali, all done on Friday - think there is 18-19 in total every 20 minutes from about 10am.
They are normally done after lunch some time.
Does the saturday race for the biggest loser category still have that techno music on the start? I might qualify for Affinity2 at best..
Is the qualifying trail is the the same they use in the mega itself?
Is the qualifying trail is the the same they use in the mega itself?
No, when I did it in 2013 it was shorter, more rugged up top (but less snowy) and then a very long bikeparky run down through the town and a bit below.
No, quali is a completely different track.
It starts at the top of the Dome des Petit Rousses, which is the top of the big Vaujany lift. The Main race starts a the top of Pic Blanc.
could i travel thurs, qual on friday, race sat then do one?
Also, unless you usually ride this stuff I'd want at least a couple of days to get my mountain eyes in. I got the chills when I first got off the cable-car at Dome Des Rousses, and that was just for a practice run, after 3 days in the mountains. It is quite a big hill.
🙂
I thought Hora was a roadie? Anyway, take both bikes and ride La Marmotte the week before 😀
could i travel thurs, qual on friday, race sat then do one?
It's more than a weekend gig.
Best tip is to come home Monday not Sunday. Shortest I would go for is probably arrive Tues night Wed/Thurs to get up to speed - 1 day Quali track and 1 day main. Even at that I'd feel fairly underprepared.
Only the affinity 1 and 2 don't have the techno and the heli the mega, challenger and amateur all do, so you've a good chance of getting the full experience
Thanks kimbers, watched some affinity 1&2 in you tube.. I think i can push myself to be more competitive than that in a years time to just get into the amateurs.. Need some techno music start 😛