MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
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Just got to pondering today, I think the only WC dh track I've actually ridden is Champery as part of a Morzine trip.
It was about 4 years back.
I could well have ridden parts of other wc tracks without realising. Les Gets perhaps but I'm not sure.
Not me....
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Obviously I wasn't going race pace but we were picking our way down. I think I had one crash on a steep section of switchbacks, losing my bike about 3 or 4 corners down. That shit is steep! 😯
It really puts things into perspective when you watch the coverage of the fast boys and girls, just how on the limits and how skilled they are.
I'd have loved to have been able to time myself and see how many days behind the pro riders I am.
Thinking back, that's the only wcdh track I've ridden. Not even made it to Fort Bill yet.
What WC tracks have you ridden and how'd you get on with them?
Fort William, back in 04, want to try Cairns if I can
edit
Stromlo about 2 months before Peaty won his Worlds, it was mid week they were still dumping the dirt for the doubles
Hafjell , Norway.
Sh*t myself. 6 mins 30secs in
Erm Les Gets... that was a WC course once I think.
There was another they called the "French National" near Morzine which I hated.
Just Fort William (apart from the big doon, **** that)... It's pretty straightforward tbh, it's not easy to ride quicker but as far as getting down I've done much harder #enduro stages.
Bits of Pila and Val d'Isere but not as full "world cup tracks", really not sure how much was and wasn't.
FW a couple of times, on both occasions I have had the same thought - Thank **** that's over, never doing that again - But I will.
I'd love to do the endurance event up there, but my Spectral 29er is just not up to it really, and there's no way I'm taking the shiny new Bronson down that, bound to end in tears.
Fort Bill, minus the gaps.
Pila, which is mainly fast with just a couple of techy sections. I'm 33rd out of 300-odd on the Strava segment for that one, which I'm pleasantly surprised by.
Still not gonna enter a world cup though.
fort bill minus the river gap
Croft.
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Nobeerinthefridge - MemberI'd love to do the endurance event up there, but my Spectral 29er is just not up to it really
Doooo it, I did it on my Hemlock the first time and I'll be on a Remedy 29 this year. OK so the Hemlock snapped in half about 2 weeks later but I'm sure that was a coincidence
Fort William a lot.
Champery once. Never again. Horrific.
French national is at lindarets and has never had a WC.
Les Gets is in the woods on private land on Mont Chery so not really possible to ride wholly.
Pila was harder than Champery for me due to rocks and difficult lines.
I'd have loved to have been able to time myself and see how many days behind the pro riders I am.
I can get down Fort William in less than 9 minutes
Champery took me 22 minutes 😆
fort bill several times minus the gaps. hardest part pinball i thought. the rest after that quite fast and fun. not the harsdest thing ive ridden but deffo gives your bike a battering.
braking bumps and steepness out in morzine were harder to cope with, never did champery.
Champery and Vallnord. Cham is steeper than a steep thing and Vallnord in places is just plain "OMG please let me not die" scary.
Leogang. Twice, I think.
There was another they called the "French National" near Morzine which I hated.
Rode past that - ironically - on the way to the Swiss National, which I believe is a valley away from Champery.
Champery took me 22 minutes
That's pretty good going to be fair! 😀
Yeah I've ridden the French and Swiss Nationals but as mentioned, I don't think they've been actual wc venues.
Champery, Pila, Les Gets
Cap d'Ail.
😳
Champery and fort bill.
Found the last section of champery over the road which I think is private? No way attempted the jumps at the end . The 'look at the whip' jump
Has no one rode msa? I spose it's other side of Canada to Whistler
No one ridden :
Maribor
Vigo
Schladming
Val di sole
Winterberg
Andorra (08 track was bike park wasn't it?)
Leogang
There are loads in Europe actually
Somehow I missed a turn t Whistler and ended up on the Canadian DH track, managed a couple of small gaps and some roll-ins before coming to enormous granite boulder drop, which had tyre tracks in, and shitting myself and pushing back up 😳
Pila, morzine?, Andorra, Les Gets, and a world cup training ground in Lousa Portugal when lots of the teams were testing there in Feb 2016 before the racing season.
Andorra (08 track was bike park wasn't it?)
Hmmm, may well have ridden that too then... Or at least parts of it.
French national is at lindarets and has never had a WC.Les Gets is in the woods on private land on Mont Chery so not really possible to ride wholly.
Well... that pissed on my chips 😉
I've rode the Swiss National too, I actually enjoyed that - but sadly it seems, no WC tracks ha ha
Champery
Was tough especially on a Stinky rather than a full on dh bike, ripped out my back brake hose half way down which made it impossible, must have gone over the bars 20 times then got stung for an extortionate repair bill in a Swiss bike shop at the bottom that cost more than both my brakes !
Yeah Andorra is the Vallnord Park. Stupidly steep, massive jumps, loose and dusty, can't stop, but can't go fast enough. Ridiculous
Leogang three times, but never the complete track in one go.
Val di Sole a few years back.
Champery, back in 2004, and quite a few times at Fort William.
I've ridden both the Andorran tracks. The old track wasn't that bad to be honest, on a 160mm 26 er.
The new track was tough. It was so dusty and blown out, it was just a case of surviving. It's definitely a track for a proper dh bike.
Champery back in 2008. It was hard.
Interesting:
Leogang...
I went to watch last year's world cup race there. I didn't do any riding but the world cup course for lots of sections was along side and crossed the 'bike park' style course. I assumed that for the rest of the year you wouldn't be able to ride the whole thing as you'd end up colliding with users of the big BMX track. Trying to walk up the huge berms was interesting!
French national is at lindarets and has never had a WC.Les Gets is in the woods on private land on Mont Chery so not really possible to ride wholly.
Not sure if kept as a permanent track, but the French National a few years back was in Les Gets down through the woods over at Les Perrieres end of the ski resort. Not ridden that, but did walk the course on practice day.
Don't think I've ridden any WC or National DH. Have ridden on bits of XC circuits though. And skied several WC and World Champs DH/GS/SL pistes.
I went to watch last year's world cup race there. I didn't do any riding but the world cup course for lots of sections was along side and crossed the 'bike park' style course. I assumed that for the rest of the year you wouldn't be able to ride the whole thing as you'd end up colliding with users of the big BMX track. Trying to walk up the huge berms was interesting!
When I was there they sort of criss-crossed. There's an easier 'flowy' freeride trail and a more 'natural' DH track, as well as a 'XC downhill' (which is stupidly techy on its own) if memory serves. I've not been back since 2009, but watching the Leogang race in later years there were definitely elements of both the faster bike park stuff and the steeper, rootier 'natural' track.
Les Gets - when you could still find it and it was still just about ridable
Champery - nuts but amazing in equal measures
Pila - amazing place, some lines more nuts than Champery
Fort Bill - not for a few years, fun but prefer the steep Alpine tech
I've ridden the Fortwilliam course a few times - dislocated my elbow on the last run of the day. And on the flattest part of the course, just before the deer gate. Great trail imo.
The Champery course looks absolutely mental.