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Carlos, this is probably what you're looking for
that stuff looks miles easier in vids than in real life lol
You're so right weeksy, though it depends on the bike. Once I got myself a well-used (i.e. don't care what happens to it) DH bike, it suddenly became a lot faster and a lot easier - momentum is your friend on this one, though I now have some significant dents in the downtube from flying rocks.
The Morzine switchbacks are "easy" they are just fast due to it being easy. The best bits of the trails in Morzine are not on the trail map but there is lots of stuff that was great in the vtopo book [url= http://librairie.vtopo.fr/vtt-portes-du-soleil-english.html ]http://librairie.vtopo.fr/vtt-portes-du-soleil-english.html[/url]
The problem is that you can't have lush singletrack with 1000+ riders going down it everyday come rain or shine.
The VTOPO book is excellent - cost something like €15, and it's paid for itself many times over in terms of fun new descents.
Trekster weather is improving had a couple of dry days outlook is sunny and showers more towards sun.
Had a brief shower over in champery when we were having lunch made it fun the other side
And right now it's raining heavy in Morzine
Much like hear atm ❗
Flying out tomorrow am 😆
Cool thunder and lighting last night and rain this am which just stopped, time for a pain au chocolat and maybe put the wet screams back on!!
Safe flight
Its got 2 weeks to clear up before i'm out there! 🙂
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Just back from an epic 9 day adventure in the Alps - my first ever taste of riding in the Alps
Drove down on Wednesday evening with 5 bikes and 14 wheels in the back of a clapped out 16 year old Audi A4 - very cosy! More worrying was the fact that we traveled over 100 miles with the boot wide open!
Met up with 18 other members of the group and went for a play on the Morzine jump park and some other red and black runs on the Friday. This helped us get our mind tuned into Alps riding
Completed a 30 mile XC route with the group on the Saturday in glorious weather
Tackled the PPDS on the Sunday - it started nice, but we ended up riding in the misty rain clouds - which was an awesome experience. Then the heavens opened up
The riding was unbelievable - we found some crazy red DH which was muddier than anything i've ever seen! The following picture will give you an idea of the mud!
[img] http://www.flickr.com/photos/67749037@N02/7528460570/ [/img]
Of our group of 20 riders, 4 of us split of in front to avoid suffering from everyone's faffing - great plan!
I wasn't particularly well prepared for bad weather - with just a neoprene fork mud guard - how I lusted for a Crud Catcher!
We added a few extra loops to the PPDS course, but the scariest DH was the Super Morzie switchback which was the craziest I've ever done - coming across people walking downhill when your hitting 30mph in next to zero visibility is emotional to say the least.
A very tough 70 miles of riding - the post ride beer was superb!
We explored various spots on the Monday/Tuesday, including several runs down the Morzine Mainline - which is an awesome track. We also played on a red DH track behind Avoriaz on the Tuesday, discovering mud so thick that it would stop your wheels turning when you are downhilling. The techniques learnt were very helpful - pedal harder
[img] http://www.flickr.com/photos/67749037@N02/7528523238/ [/img]
7 of us hired a great guide for the Wednesday which allowed us to really get away from the masses. €220 well spent. We could have hired his lodge above Morzine for an overnight stay, but we had to leave early the next day
[img] http://www.flickr.com/photos/67749037@N02/7528554648/ [/img]
A few of us travelled over to Zermatt for a couple of extra nights. No one else could face any more cycling, so I went for a solo ride in the shadow of Matterhorn and it was one of the most spectacular rides of my life. 20 miles across some ridges looking down onto a spectacular glacier - mind blowing
[img] http://www.flickr.com/photos/67749037@N02/7528568998/ [/img]
[img] http://www.flickr.com/photos/67749037@N02/7528596124/ [/img]
My finishing stretch on my first Alps trip was the Zermatt World Championship DH course - which was insane!
Completed the course, crossed the road, went down some steps and went over the bars - my worst crash of the week
What an adventure!
I'll be back with a vengeance
Just got back from 10 days out there.
We did the passportes on Sunday, we found it really tame, I expected a lot more hard stuff but most of it was on fire roads etc, it even seemed to want to take you down fire roads when there were decent other route, like in les gets. Some bits were very much like rising the peaks, just longer, lots of very slow people... The weather Sunday was horrific though, temperatures ranged on my garmin from 36c down to 6c at the end.
We did the Torgon loop on the Saturday, that was interesting, nothing quite like having to hold your bike onto the longest highest lift on the PPdS route.
Morgins downhill runs were very very good, steep, rooty and rocky. Chatel bike park was very good, avoriaz was quite good, the decent down from the chatel side was very good.
I don't think I'd do the PPdS again, quite boring.
One thing is for sure, the grades are totally different to here, the greens have bigger drops than most blacks here.
Updated - with photos
Just back from an epic 9 day adventure in the Alps - my first ever taste of riding in the Alps
Drove down on Wednesday evening with 5 bikes and 14 wheels in the back of a clapped out 16 year old Audi A4 - very cosy! More worrying was the fact that we traveled over 100 miles with the boot wide open!
Met up with 18 other members of the group and went for a play on the Morzine jump park and some other red and black runs on the Friday. This helped us get our mind tuned into Alps riding
Completed a 30 mile XC route with the group on the Saturday in glorious weather
Tackled the PPDS on the Sunday - it started nice, but we ended up riding in the misty rain clouds - which was an awesome experience. Then the heavens opened up
The riding was unbelievable - we found some crazy red DH which was muddier than anything i've ever seen! The following picture will give you an idea of the mud!
[img][url= http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8168/7528460570_444435ef1e.jp g" target="_blank">
Of our group of 20 riders, 4 of us split of in front to avoid suffering from everyone's faffing - great plan!
I wasn't particularly well prepared for bad weather - with just a neoprene fork mud guard - how I lusted for a Crud Catcher!
We added a few extra loops to the PPDS course, but the scariest DH was the Super Morzie switchback which was the craziest I've ever done - coming across people walking downhill when your hitting 30mph in next to zero visibility is emotional to say the least.
A very tough 70 miles of riding - the post ride beer was superb!
We explored various spots on the Monday/Tuesday, including several runs down the Morzine Mainline - which is an awesome track. We also played on a red DH track behind Avoriaz on the Tuesday, discovering mud so thick that it would stop your wheels turning when you are downhilling. The techniques learnt were very helpful - pedal harder
[img][url= http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8147/7528523238_df868c0f49.jp g" target="_blank">
7 of us hired a great guide for the Wednesday which allowed us to really get away from the masses. €220 well spent. We could have hired his lodge above Morzine for an overnight stay, but we had to leave early the next day
[img][url= http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7106/7528554648_468a4a3d6f.jp g" target="_blank">
A few of us travelled over to Zermatt for a couple of extra nights. No one else could face any more cycling, so I went for a solo ride in the shadow of Matterhorn and it was one of the most spectacular rides of my life. Starting at 3,100m, I travelled 20 miles across some ridges looking down onto a spectacular glacier - mind blowing
[img][url= http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8012/7528568998_3d296c4a17.jp g" target="_blank">
[img][url= http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7276/7528596124_88240f6780.jp g" target="_blank">
My finishing stretch on my first Alps trip was the Zermatt World Championship DH course - which was insane!
Completed the course, crossed the road, went down some steps and went over the bars - my worst crash of the week
What an adventure!
I'll be back with a vengeance
Awsome posts lads.. nice nice work.
I'm not jealous, Really I'm not.
@gps - the PPdS is a grand day out, it's not a technical challenge. Certainly a ride for a sunny day, it's a good focal point for a weeks trip.
@bolton - that's some serious mud ! Zermatt is indeed fabulous. Have you seen the Anthill Strength in Numbers Trailer on Vimeo (Verbier and Zermatt). I think your sort of tour is the way to go, really good to see new places.
Our group finishing the PPdS in Chatel... thankfully they still had free beer and sausage left at the revitalisation point.
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and to offer a complete contrast... two days later.
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and a fail during mountain style practice demonstrating why you need decent insurance out there.
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gsp1984 - love the photos - especially the gap jump and helicopter shots!
What was the physical damage and how is he getting on??
100% agree with jambalaya about the passports. Its not overly technical, but if you take a chance on a few of the 'extras' dotted around the course, then you can find yourself in some wonderful places - places which you can then easily hunt out after the event
I'd love to do the PPDS again, just to experience it when its sunny - but also to find more hidden trails and pass lots of Frenchmen in their lycra!!
First day back at work today for 11 days and it hurts like a b*stard!!
No news on the rider that was taken away no 🙁 they were concious, looked like hip/pelvic injuries which can be quite bad.
Gate crashed the Mountain Style party in Chatel on Friday night... that got very messy, between 3 of us we managed to spend £200 each, and each ended up with a bottle of Champagne on our debit cards lol... was amusing rubbing shoulders with Brandon Semenuk, aggy etc another USA Freestyle MTB elite.
They were saying we were the crazy ones by the end of the night.
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I bet that picture looked to be in focus when you took it.... 🙂
Glad the weather improved for you Graeme! Really thought it was in for the week!
Our amazing trip went from this
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To this
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And Finally
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Beautiful weather today. Went over Mont Chery and sessioned the black DH in the morning. Nice burger for lunch then back to Morzine via the red DH as my forks refused to retain their contents internally, the shock needed an air can service and the headset bottom cup split in half.
Conditions perfect for Minion/High Roller.
Was a very mixed bad for the weather, did the PdS on the sunday with visibility down to 15 metres in places, got lost coming off the Swiss National DH track and ended up riding down a ski piste until we linked up with the Champery singletrack, did manage to avoid a great number of the actual yellow PdS markers and ride a lot more of the interesting red marked trails this year though, cuts out a lot of the climbing and fire road in places.
Once it got very muddy last monday/ tuesday, I actually found the green/ blue trails more fun, they often followed the contours a bit more, so you got longer, but less steep runs, especially on the Chatel side and the trails there (Fluid etc) and you could get used to riding in the mud and getting a bit sketchy and opposed to the black runs and just about holding on in places.
My synopsis.
It was wet then it was dry.
Muddy Marys seemed a great tyre for the whole week.
Lots of new/ updated trails compared to the last time I was out there.
Lots of good trails are now forbidden (still ride just as well though).
There were mincers everywhere. There's nothing more annoying than some softy southerner on a £6000+ bike track standing his way down a trail, or just stopping to chat just round a blind corner. Go back to Afan/Essex.
On a more positive note, considerably more ladies out there.
Mafiafish.
I'll try and defend the south, but i did my fair share of formation mincing for the first day!
But with regards to the ladies, did anyone else develop a bit of a "thing" for girls in body armour? Bit like coming back from Glastonbury liking the hot pant/ wellie boots combo?
Next year if the forecast is the same, it will be a Wet Scream up front, Rubber Queens were great in dry, but riding turned into surfing when really muddy.
Did anyone have any encounters with the legendary Goat of Morzine this year?
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There were mincers everywhere. There's nothing more annoying than some softy southerner on a £6000+ bike track standing his way down a trail, or just stopping to chat just round a blind corner. Go back to Afan/Essex.
smiles and waves.
Was also surprised by the number of hard boy Orange 5 and Alpine riders walking up gentle inclines or standing round at crossroads for a rollup and discussion about which way was down. Oh, and they don't seem to have proper mud up north judging by some of the skills and swearing on display. 😆
I was guilt of the odd walk, only because I couldn't be bother raising my seat or tyre pressures lol.
My spectacular over take of about 5 people off a 5ft drop onto rocks on the way down to Les Lindarets makes up for it though... defo not guilty of moaning about mud though, stuck it to the end on minion, also known as slicks.
So on one hand it is ride within your limits....and the other is 'mincers' walking / not going as fast as us...
Perhaps they were on a first run and doing a reccy - - look before you leap surely??
look before you leap surely
Aye, just don't do it in the middle of a trail so people crash into you at 20mph. (though on graded trails it's not that necessary?)Or, for that matter, get all your mates to line up on the trail to take pictures of yourselves doing a jump or drop. We were riding in a group of 4-25 depending who was about and we never really caused any issues for anyone. But you can see how doing something that's fine on a normal ride or even at a trail centre becomes quite dangerous with the amount of traffic and the speed it's coming at and the terrain those people have to navigate. The French 'get it' en if someone's only marginally slower than you they'll pull over and let you through or give you a wee shout to let you know you've got some pure-sponsored whip machine up your chuff and it would be great if you could stop pretending your on the cover of dirt for five seconds to let them through.
- Yes. for some reason I kept thinking if a girl's in a full face then she must be hot. There were a bunch of fairly rapid, genuinely gorgeous French ladies giggling away pushing up past us at one point and that was quite a moment. Probably laughing at the Rosbif, no doubt.did anyone else develop a bit of a "thing" for girls in body armour?