Hi All,

Its my first trip out to ride the mega this year and wondered if anyone could offer some advice on the following;

Best insurance company to go with?
does the lift pass cover the 2alpes bike park?
Any tips for the trip in general?

Cheers

Matt

In my humble opinion…

Dogtag

Can’t remember!

Practice the route loads (as everytone else will be doing), take spare everything for your bike, wear every bit of body armour you have and try not to hurt yourself too seriously.

-Dogtag or Snowcard?

-It doesn’t cover 2Alpes, to my knowledge

-Take spare tyres/lots of tubes/CO2 cannisters.
-Be VERY early for your qualifier race, the lift queue is mental (we set off with 3 hours in hand, ended up running for the start line minutes before)
-Don’t go to the “Sexy Show” club night
-Practice the quali lots, maybe do 1 full practice run of the main race run.
-If you’re serious, scout out the moonscape bit at the top of the quali for the best lines.
-Save your energy for the fire roads, chances are you’ll be stuck behind slower folk on the singletrack. Sprint past them the moment the trail opens up.
-Ride the Oz DH track, it’s lung fillingly dusty.
-Riding on deep snow is harder than it looks. Bollocks to the tripod technique, get your feet on the pedals and stand up. Let the bike move about under you.
-Drink lots of water and take a chap stick.

…..oh yeah, have fun! It’s the most fun I’ve ever had on a bike 😀

In the past the week long lift pass has covered a days riding at 2 Alpes..

not sure about this year.

Another insurance option with a lower excess = Sportscoverdirect.com
They do a top-up policy for DH racing, to cover what your regular travel insurance excludes.

2 Alpes was NOT included in the pass we bought last year (I think it was a full week). It’s definately worth visiting after you’ve done with the Mega.

Tips: The quali result is critical. I was on the very back row, managed to make up over 80 places and still missed the mass start 🙁
The quali is way more fun to ride than the race itself. Practice this.

Dual plys and either DH tubes or tubeless.

Take it easy, the racing starts with the Quali not with your mates.
Look, see scope out. If the snow is bad get running.

If it’s your first time, just go & have fun. No point in having grand plans to slay everything & then getting there & realising everything is bigger & harder than it looks on video.

Always worth taking your lunch up the mountain, sitting at the obvious bottlenecks & watching the variety of lines there are. You can overtake large bunches of people just by looking past the obvious sheep lines.

This year it’s different it would seem, due to vast amounts of snow left. Looks like qualy starts a bit lower than normal & they only have half the number in each heat so overtaking is still possible.

If you’re quick & want to do well, don’t be afraid to muscle past people. Shouting obscenities at the slower rider in front is obligatory.

If you’re quick & want to do well, don’t be afraid to muscle past people. Shouting obscenities at the slower rider in front is obligatory.

Some bloke stopped in front of me on the board walks during the quali……

“ALLEZ……. ALLEZ YOU BASTARD!!” 😀

Yep, I did an awful lot of shouting & swearing, it’s great fun!

Thanks all, probably not going to win it so will be taking my time and enjoying the experience!

In the past the week long lift pass has covered a days riding at 2 Alpes..

Same this year

Best advice is don’t do it as all riding you do in future will become instantly boring 🙂

Do scope out the uphill sections – just so you know what to expect.

Don’t ride too much as you’ll be knackered on the race day

Plenty of water

as mentioned set off early enough for your heat as there will be lift lines everywhere

Don’t under estimate the effect on qualifying as the europop gets turned up to 11 and the helicopter rises in front of you.

Take the line less travelled on Race day as the obvious ones will be full of people on massive bikes who cant actually ride that well

Above all enjoy yourself – it was singular the most intense brilliant experience I’ve ever had on a bike

I did it first time last year.

My advice….

The qualifier is the key part to get right.

Your race number defines where you start in your group of 200.

So if you’re say 923, then you start 123 people back from the front of the grid (well it’s done in lines, but you get the idea).

The only points to pass people are on the fire road or the wide ‘moonscape’ – a couple of people let me past on the singletrack, but I found I did get held up by other riders.

I managed to make up about 50 places based upon my start position.

Odd as it may sound – practice walking some of the more technical sections – there was one section last year which quite a number of people walked (it was perfectly ridable) – once one person was off & walking pretty much everyone else had to follow suit (this happened on my quali, so I was forced to walk)

Qualifier decides which main race you go off in, if you qualify: –

1-35 = Megavalanche
35-70 = Mega Challengers
70-105 = Mega Amateurs

After that it’s the Mega Affinity 1 & 2 (but you don’t get the mass start in these groups).

I made the Mega Amateurs, but was towards the start of the grid (this turned out to be good luck). I got a much cleaner run down than one of my mates who qualified better than me & made the challengers race at the back of the grid.

Ideally the best places to be (if you’re not Dan Atherton etc.) are at the front of the challengers race or the front of the amateurs race.

Don’t be tempted to take a DH rig – 160mm travel full suspension is most suitable. Quite a number of people were pushing DH rigs uphill on the fireroad sections, which is when I passed them.

It’s going to be different this year, due to snow, we won’t be starting at the top, so I assume the whole moon surface area is a no go zone, which is a shame.

The only points to pass people are on the fire road or the wide ‘moonscape’ – a couple of people let me past on the singletrack, but I found I did get held up by other riders.

They are the only places you can pass vast numbers of people, however, there are still plenty of overtaking opportunities, you just have to be creative with the line choice to do it. It’s a lot easier when they are the slower riders though.

I was a 5th row starter in my qualifier & still finished top 20 so it can be done. I had done most of my overtaking before it went into the singletrack by the top of the DMC lift, but in doing so most of the front row guys had enough of a lead to stay out front.

I’m hoping for a front row qualifier this year, if I don’t do anything stupid I should be able to get into the top 10 fairly comfortably, due to not having to overtake 100+ people, which in turn should make the main race a more pleasurable experience, rather than being in a traffic jam the whole way down.

Can’t wait now, we go a week tomorrow 🙂

Cant wait either, my first time on the Mega. Will be on an elderly Mk1 Santa Cruz Bullit with 130 mm Bombers, dropper post and 2×9. I have some bigger forks but they’re triple clamp Stratos that often need re-alignment after a stack so prob best not using them looking at the vids.

I’m looking forward to it but am shitting myself at the same time. It’s my first time. I want to get into the main race, if I do then I’ll just keep it together on the trail and pedal my tits off on the fireroads and climbs.

I’m be on my (very) bright yellow/green MDE Carve 6 so say hi if you see me. 🙂

Don’t worry about it, I did the first time I went, got there, realised all was fine, accepted that some stuff is out of your control (nobbers who can’t ride crashing into you or crashing in front of you & taking you out) & just get on with it.

Qualifying for the main race was reasonably easy I have found in the past. If you can ride a bike half decently & pedal hard then you should do it.

The race itself i’ve only ever treated as a bit of fun. Unless you can qualify high enough to be in the first few rows the start is utter carnage in the pack. If you get there, go with the flow & see what happens. The guy next to me who came one place behind me in my qualifier missed out the massive pile up last year at the start & finished in the top 40 overall. I wasn’t so lucky & ended up just inside the top 200, that’s just the way it goes.

Nothing has come close in terms of biking experiences to 8.58am on Sunday morning at the top of Pic Blanc with loud techno music, the downwash from a couple of helicopters buffeting you around & 350 other idiots shouting & screaming as the testosterone hits overdrive.

You will love it.

We were running for the start of the quali with seconds to go. As I crossed the start line, the back of the pack was rounding the first corner. I dug deep and clawed my way up to 75th. I was gutted to be honest, I missed the Challengers by 30s and my original grid position was meant to be second row. What could have been? 😳

I did most of that passing on the top 3rd of the track. Mainly on the moonscape and following fire road. You can afford to dig deep as you’ll almost certainly get stuck in a bottleneck at the start of the singletrack and have a bit of a rest.

Cheeky lines are definitely a good call! You can easily pass 5 or 6 people on the some parts if you straightline over a boulder or two.

It’s nothing to be worried about though, it’s just really good fun. The most dangerous thing is other riders, just be aware of what’s going on around you and shout at people to get out of the way if you need to.

Giving it a miss this time, but will be back next year!

Sat my bike at the top of the Glacier I genuinely questioned my sanity.

The waiting around for the race to get going with the pumping techno beats certainly builds the tension.

You need a good slice of luck – I definitely had my share of luck – no crashes on qualifier, no crashes on the main race, didn’t get hit by any other riders & the only damage I did to my bike on either run was one broken spoke.

Once I got down to the finish I wanted to go straight back up & do it again.

what ever result you get you get, don’t look at the the other qualifier times – 2 years running me and a mate ended up in the 2 fastest runs! The same time had a 30 place spread.

what ever result you get you get, don’t look at the the other qualifier times – 2 years running me and a mate ended up in the 2 fastest runs! The same time had a 30 place spread.

I’ve experienced this 2 years on the trot. I was 19th last year. In every other qualy based on time I would have been worst place 12th, best place 7th. It’s quite annoying, but you can only race the people in front of you 🙂

The most important advice is to get to the lift that takes you up to the quali early, like 2 hours early. If the quali route isn’t on the moonscape this year though they might be using a different lift for it and it could be better. Has the quali route been posted anywhere?

Also, do we need a doctor’s note this year?

Thanks for that, Hob Nob. 🙂 I’m just hoping to come back in one piece so I don’t throw away my position in the UKGE overall.

Race numbers are out.

http://www.megavalanche.com/ckfinder/userfiles/files/MEGA%20ALPE/2013/LISTES/Feuil1.pdf?PHPSESSID=t9h4b7nltmlnu7kk6cv616qq63

Front row qualifier for me, happy face!