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Cheers brant,got a few friends doing it this year 😀
thanks.
nico on the podium? cool.
I cant understand the race cats in french lol.. what category was crawford carrick anderson racing in? looks like he`d have been 17th in megavalanche. well done!
My mate went but it seems he didnt finish or even do the full race but did the Mega Affinity.
What is the Mega Affinity?
second I aches question
second I aches question
Mega affinity is when you don't qualify high enough for the main mass-start races. It's essentially just a timed run down the course.
XC whippets Stu Bowers and Martyn Brooks in the top 150.....only a minute down on Brendan Fairclough!
Iache - of the 1800 ish riders, the first 45 of each qualifer get into the Mega race (total 450 riders), nos 45-90 get into the Promo race, nos 91-135 get into Affinity 1 which is a timed run, not head to head, and the rest are in Affinity 2, like wise timed.
In my qualifier I ended up with a trashed bike after getting baulked by another rider dumping on the brakes going round the second snowfield, so had to ride most of the run sans chain or mech (still overtook 15 odd riders 😀 ), so ended up in Affinity 1 (came 9th).
Oh, and Martyn Brookes is FAR more than an XC whippet. He was leading his qualifier until he woke up near the woodwork bits to find he was in 12th, then in the main race he had the mother of all stacks on the glacier - went down and hit the catch fence at full tilt - tore his front wheel out and had to spend time hunting for it!. All this on a Yeti 4x bike with 75mm of travel (nutter..)! I was struggling to hang on with twice that.
Wow. Alot of good names in there. Way to go Nico!
Wooh. I finished.
Something 3rd slowest in the Affinity 1, but I won't bore you all with the excuses. At least I got down it in the same number of pieces I started with.
I finished and didn't come last, or break my bike or myself (that much) - which I am pretty happy with. 🙂
Really enjoyed the qualifier and I think I was doing ok til about half way down, when the arm pump started to kick in really badly, and I had a couple of stacks and a lot of people passed me. Finished 134th so in the Affinity 1. The start of the qualifier was great fun - setting off with 200 riders and the helicopter filming - awesome!
Despite the lack of a mass start on the snow for me on the main mega course I still got clattered hard by someone near the top and got a pretty sore back, then clattered myself hard on my hip just before the big traverse. Did the rest pretty gingerly apart from the last section when I knew the end was in sight. It's a bit of a shame cos I ended up being slow and walking a couple of sections I had ridden in practise, as I was feeling pretty shaky, but hey ho. Finished 414th in the Affinity I think.
My main problem I think was just being nowhere near fit enough to ride that distance downhill flat out - not really sure how to prepare for such a thing. Was amazing to see how much further there was to drop down to the valley once you had already done the main mountain section.
Really wish I was there this year.
Couple of mates finished 126th and 131st in the avalanche which is pretty darn good.
Hope to be back next year,
Agree preparing for that amount of DH is very hard in the UK.
No doubt luck plays it's role also. Technicals, punctures and being knocked off by someone else are all real possibilities
Fair play to the guy who completed the Mega promo that we saw half way down with no cranks/pedals!
Couple of mates finished 126th and 131st in the avalanche which is pretty darn good.
He came ~80th last year so got worse - doh! There were more this year though. His preparation involved a 12 hour solo, a 24 hour team event and the Dragon sportive road ride in the preceeding weeks - so mainly fitness based!
Remy is the king.
Awesome!
Hats off to you grumm. Takes balls to take such a thing on in the first place. Bet your pre-race nerves must have been hell!
Jurgen Beneke in 24th - 'kin Legend!!
Cheers hora. Was absolutely bricking it before the qualifier. There was a pile-up right next to me just after the start but I managed to avoid it.
The actual mega was a bit of an anti-climax cos I didn't qualify for the mass start categories - still good fun though and I was pleased to finish. I'd def do it again.
I think if I wanted to do well the main thing to work on would be fitness, especially the forearms - there are some techy sections but most of it isn't too bad, just pretty relentless.
Was pleased with how my Pitch coped, and no problems with a 2.5 dual ply high roller ghetto tubelessed to a 719 rim. I think some 160mm forks would have been ideal, but the Pikes worked fine.
It was awesome. Can't wait till next year.