Skip to main content

Midlands

Middle Mountain Trail sharing with a Hereford and Shropshire crew, plus an Aussie...

Rich was back from work and his mates had bought him a new toy all the way from Shrewsbury.  Sandy the owner of The TrailHead bike shop had come out to Chamonix to personally deliver Rich his new Santa Cruz V10.  He was so fast on it I couldn't get a proper photograph all day long.  Shame Tom H was taking photo's of posh-eco chalet's this weekend...

Sandy and Neil are both very fast.  I'll say that straight away.  In the UK they hang out with Neil Donoughe (Trans Savoie 3rd place), Matt Simmonds, Marc Beaumont, Richard Cunynghame, Atherton's & all the other top tier riders of the UK enduro and DH scene. Lucky me and Rich had big bikes to their trail bikes...  I did make some switchbacks they didn't...

After getting past the runners in Cham centre we headed into the clouds at the very top of Brevent.  I'd warned Rich it would be tough on the V10, but he wanted to ride his new bike. Straight into it!
Brevent at its best- Rich (l) & Neil (r)
Look carefully & you can see the trail
We hiked across to the Aiguillette and discussed options.  All the way to Servoz, back to Cham or Les Houches and then some Tramway trails. Les H was called, but we had to keep moving as the last tram is now at 15:10 from le Fayet! Take note if you wish to ride before its closes at the end of this month.  We twisted and turned our way towards Merlet animal parc on alpine singletrack that gets progressively steeper as the roots grow  leaving the open alpine behind.  From there we zoomed down the trails of Copeau to come out in Les Houches.

Neil threading through
Rich throwing the big new girl around
Sandy executing a classic alpine hop turn

Rich
Neil testing his pivot's out

Neil
We kept moving to get to Prarion, lucky these UK boys we fit and full of enthusiasm, and began the fast descent down the backside of Les Houches.  Neil tried using a rock to brake into a corner and pinched his front tube in the top woods which gave us all a little rest-bite before zooming off downhill again. A few falls from Rich going around puddles and we were in St Gervais before we knew it.

The pipeline trail is now open again so we hit that up for one last UK length descent before a well earned drink in Le Fayet.
"Why are we going back up on this?" asked Neil,  "To get one more descent in" I answered which was greeted with big smiles as the Shropshire boys thought the day was over.  We had to get near 4000m of descending in to make it a good day really. They also loved the ride up on Janette, even if we did get kicked of at Bellvue rather than Lachet (the lifty had no answer to why we'd been allowed up there before, but not today, good ol' CMB).

I was a bit stuck with what to do so I gambled on an old classic that Andy had said was washed out from the winter. Near the old downhill track is a lovely ribbon of singletrack that leads into 5 or so great flat out turns and then drops into the woods by a drag lift.  The trail was still in great shape and we hopped around tight corners and then took a new turn, even for me, which was so fast, and so smooth I couldn't believe it was in Cham' Valley! Great end to an epic 4000m day.


And Neil (pimped out VW owner and smooth bearing-ed Orange) - Thanks for gloves!

And of course that Aussie for post ride beers whilst the V-dub was loaded for Trailsheads next adventure in Chatel/Portes de Soleil.
l-r: Bmx, DH bike, DH bike, Trail bike, Trail bike & 29er


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What guides do between work in the peak of July

Summer is here, and after fantastic spring riding in Southern France and then all over Valais, Aosta and Haute Savoie with good friends it's been time to get back to summer guiding, taking hikers around the Tour du Mont Blanc circuit.  There's much worse things to do, but with three weeks off the bike I was itching to get back on some trails. With a carefully planned week between tours I was excited and made some plans to hit up some classic lines, and some new stuff too. It's mid July now, so in Chamonix valley you have to think carefully about where to go to miss the crowds, and to avoid going on the bike ban trails (July & August).  Luckily it's still easy to find quiet trails in nearby resorts, or to simply drop round the back of a hill away from the frontside lifts. It went a little like this: Day 1- La Thuile with Wayne of newly qualified French legal mountain bike guiding service  Chamonixmtb.com  . Enduro race venue at it's best, rough and raw. ...
1 comment
Read more

Aiguille de la Grande Sassiere 3751m

One of those pure adventure days *warning mega photo post* Ali-venturing as it's been known by over the summer.  When Ali from trailAddiction gets grand idea's in his head it always leads to hike-a-bike. Read here on DIRT Mag  about a previous mission, its the highest rideable peak in the alps! A special team was organised:  A top ten finishing team from the Bivouac Enduro, Mael and Max, Ali, myself and Fred the mountain bike mechanic from Mavic. All keen, all stupid? And then my alarm went off at 04:30.  Time to eat and drink as much as possible.  I hadn't been up this early since ski touring in refuges last winter.  In my tired state I did subconsciously know how to load the bikes onto the trailer, it's easy after doing it everyday all summer.   We drove up towards Val d'Isere, then turned left up a singletrack road.  It was around 6am, and it was still pitch black. Slowly the sun began to rise: Tignes...
1 comment
Read more

My new favourite place- Part 3

It is possible to beat what you thought was a world class trail when in Gap Read Part 1 and Part 2 . I woke after a warm nights sleep.  The wind had died down too as I ate my breakfast and took my time to pack everything away.  I was in no rush today.  It was very mild even at 8am & the scenery was stunning. View under the road bridge near my campspot From my research I decided to bolt on an extra descent onto a circular loop ride near where I had ridden yesterday.  The climb would be long, beginning on a very minor backroad, and then slogging up a fire road. Over 2 hours later I was nearing the top. The first part of the descent felt familiar, like Saleve or Servoz. Within beech and pine tree terrain, roots, switchbacks, fast and fun. Again, part way down I stopped to take in the views when it cleared momentarily. Lower down things opened a little and began to feel like the southern alps should.  Dry du...
Post a Comment
Read more