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First of all, this is just up the road from us, so we'll be heading up to check it out and I'm sure it will be awesome.
But, I have my concerns. Why the hell did the UCI award a World Cup round to a resort with no DH track? The track built for the French nationals is a token gesture "tape it out and a track will appear" affair. Haven't had a chance to ride it myself, but know a few people who have (and who's opinions I value) and they don't rate it at all.
Val d'Isere has shown minimal interest in mountain biking up until now and I just find it weird that suddenly they're hosting a world cup round.
I've ridden sections of the route used for the XC races previously held here. Again, not impressed. Use existing doubletrack, minimal singletrack, no trail construction of any kind.
The 4X track is also p*sh.
I really hope they get on the case and build some amazing trails for all disciplines by the end of July. But I fear this may not happen.
Because they paid the UCI for the privilege, that's how it works.
UCI makes Fifa look good?
This happened in Canberra a few years back, as long as we do well it`ll be fine, if we dont.......
We thought we would head up to it too but I'd agree it's a strange choice. Maybe Val D'Isere is using it as a springboard to getting more mountain bikers to the resort but it's probably a money thing no?
There are rumours that Meribel are currently trying to get a World Cup DH stage in the near future but at least we've got the French champs coming here and Fast Riding People (local MCF) is run by a guy who coaches a few pro teams.
Worrying to hear this. It was strange to hear they'd picked an area famous for skiing but not associated with MTBing at all.
I'm sure I read something (possibly on the Dirt site) about the UCI getting a lot more applications to host DH rounds of the WC than they can accomodate.
So we can only assume that the selection criteria are more about money offered than the quality of the track and the location.
If they're getting more applications than before then extend the championship, a 7 round world-cup is a joke....i'd like to see 10 rounds more evenly spread through the year.
I also dont mind the less techy, more pedally tracks....it means the winner of the overall points series is a more rounded rider and has proved themselves on more than one type of track....every track being a Champery clone leads to a one dimensional championship in my opinion.
It'd be brilliant to have more rounds and they must be considering it with the increasing popularity of DH - but I suppose the cost to the teams would rise with the number of rounds, particularly if further afield.
But that could be mitigated by staging a round somwhere like South Wales a week after Fort Bill.
If Canada can have two rounds, why can't we? They had pick-up uplift in SA and La Bresse.
Top half of Canberra is a good track, well above most in here, shame the hill runs out though!!
BTW, if the track stays where it is (on the Bellevarde, running on/parallel to the famous "Face" ski run), it will be very, very steep indeed - not pedally at all.
The resort hosted a round of the French cup 2 years ago, then the French nationals last year.
I haven't been there for a while, isn't the area around the Face clear of trees? There are some lift towers round there that might give good angles for TV?
There are some trees off to the side (especially lower down). This is where the track runs.
Steep or not though, it won't be a Champery-copy. This is Tarentaise dirt rather than Portes du Soliel dirt - even if it's wet, it'll be pretty grippy.