The ups and downs of mountainbiking
Whilst waiting for Tom H to get his bike ready for some Suisse action I checked Graham's blog and it looked like he'd beaten us by a day to riding down to Trient, and written a good in depth blog post about it. This is one of the best "all mountain" descents around, up there with Bennevy & Loriaz. And in a way not having the train run from Chatelard-Vallorcine makes it even more special, we used to lap this trail 2 years ago!
Me and Tom headed up to Argentiere on the train late in the morning, the sun was already out and beating hard as we span our legs up to the Le Tour lifts. Up, and up again, {short new red section looks quite good actually} and then across to Col de Balme, and up one last time to Col de Croix de Fer.
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| Tom H posing with the Verte behind |
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| Tom's Mega looking 'good to go' with some new parts |
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| The ol' girl still going strong... |
After taking in the amazing 360 degree panoramic views we started the descent, and flow we did. "This is the first singletrack I've ridden in Chamonix" Tom said commenting on the smoothness and flow of the perfect ribbon we'd followed compared to the usual rock/root and technical fest of our singletrack trails in Cham. And there was more to come!
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| Bedding in the new forks |
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| Me flowing with the Berard Valley behind |
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| Booty & Glacier |
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| Me following the ribbon |
As you duck into the tree's halfway down this 1000 metre descent the roots appear, along with the rocks and loose stoney corners. Plan of attack is something like this: Fast, brake into a corner, rooty section, up to speed again, all the time keeping your eyes peeled and trying not to breath the dust in through that huge grin on your face.
It was all going so well. We didn't fall of the edge as the trail traverses left around those left handers that are just ever so sightly gravely and blind that you can't go full tilt. We hadn't hit any walkers, well we only saw 5 on the whole descent, so its not hard...
and then... front pinch puncture... no... my lefty had blown up...
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| Me trying to pump the lefty fork back up |
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| With air in the fork it extended far past where its supposed too! |
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| But quickly lost its air and bottomed out ridged |
And that's how I finished the last 300 metres of trail. It was lucky to happen where it did, so near to the bottom as I was able to just cruise to Chatelard on the road having enjoyed most of the descent.
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| Tom H amongst the rocks on the lower part of the trail |
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| I was tempted to chuck my bike into the Suisse abyss |
After a drink stop at the boarder we span up to Vallorcine. It only took 15 mins so that was quite a relief, especially when we saw the Information screen reading 39.C and that we also had to catch the last Vallorcine lift before 4pm!
From there I gently rode back to the le Tour mid station on a rigid and low front fork and 4 inch's of rear travel.
Tom took the lower DH track down and I tried to snap from above:
I then hit the road back to Cham on my old Cannondale. She's done well. I've had her for about 8 years. I've ridden many Welsh and Scottish Trail Centres on it. It's survived several Welsh winters in Cardiff and snowy Snowdon descents, ripped many a Shropshire singletrack trail and downhill course, and finished with 3 years in Chamonix Valley. The main pivot is warped, the bushings on the shock wobble, the shock itself needs a professional service, the rear wheel wobbles, the fork is blown, the hanger is bent and possibly the rear swingarm, the gears are tired and worn, the front tyre has a patch on the sidewall, the rear rotor is bent. However the grips and saddle are comfy and I still ripped on 3/4 of that trail today! If only my IML training wasn't so expensive I'd get a new bike... 27.5"/650b...?
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