Another huge week of race marshalling done and dusted Exhausted but ready for more the usual chaos lead into a great week for the competitors. Tons of "epic" descending and high fives everyday come rain or shine, Nico Lau of CUBE / Cube Action Team took the win over Francois Bailly Maitre of BMC / BMC Switzerland with Jamie Nicoll of Polygon Hutchinson United Ride in third. Me on 'Brown trouser ridge' high above la Plagne.  Find more superb photo's here by Ronan Dugan . Summer is coming to an end as guiding season is over in Beaufort.  Here's to hoping for a great Autumn with lots of exploring to be done in Swiss Valais, Aosta Valley, Italy and the greater Gap/Briancon/Queryas region of France.

High alpine singletrack into steep and deep brown pow above Albertville This short summer's guiding work has not allowed that much time to explore and adventure, despite the barage of thirty plus degree temperatures, ice creams, coke zero's and cold beers.  However early in August we got out for one of those special days. 45 minutes, only a short hike-a-bike off the Piapolay lift, where we were able to eye up the descent ahead of us, and also Albertville, down far below us. We made our way across, and about 700 metres down to a little bit of fireroad descending to be able to link up some footpaths.  We climbed some tech singletrack that lead into a short, but sweet descent full of huge roots that we had to commit too at full speed, blind of course.  The best way to experience a new trail! After this we still had about 800 metres of the 2000 metre total descent.  We were all very excited by the prospect of this lower section...

La Varda, les Arc, Savoie, France About 8 years ago I last rode this trail, and despite having been in the area lots over the past few years when travelling through with the Trans Savoie race  I had not been into this area that skirts the ever beautiful Vanoise National Park. In that time I have been lucky enough to descend many thousands of metres of the best alpine singletrack around France, Switzerland and Italy. I couldn't remember much about the la Varda trail, except that it was so good 8 years ago we did it twice within a couple of days, and that everyone in the les Arc area bangs on about it.  Not wanting to sound like a trail snob because the incredibly high concentration of great natural singletrack trails in the les Arc is like nowhere else, BUT, I prefer the rural feel of Beaufort and high rugged peaks of Chamonix. This is where I was wrong, and like 8 years ago, the la Varda trail is still as good as ever.  It still deserves the...

I have talked before about the beauty and technicality of the area surrounding the Telepherique du Brevent.  It’s somewhere not many mountain bikers venture, like the North face steep skiing lines off the Aiguille du Midi lift, it’s for the high calibre adventurist only. So off four of us set! The previous day we’d blasted around the best of le Tour/Switzerland/le Buet area in a mad frenzy trying to tick off the best on offer.  We didn’t ride everything, but we sure had fun, and could have gone back there for Sunday, but no, instead we headed high above Chamonix Town in search of tech rock rides, hike-a-bike and a huge descent into Servoz.  Overall we did 1900 metres of descending. Along the way we bumped into a Scottish hooligan, and linked into our classic Flatiere trails for high speed shredding and mate chasing shenangians. At the end of the afternoon we drank beer’s and ate French snacks before heading back from Servoz on the train ready for the bi...

Holidaying with the parents & surviving one of the gnarliest World Cup downhill tracks Before I get busy with work for the summer months I was able to sneak off to Italy with my CUBE and a Giant rental bike (Thanks Legend CHX ).   The plan was to hike in the foothills of the big Dolomitic rock faces, take in some bike rides and of course sample Italy's legendary food, coffee, beer and sparkling wine. At one refuge they were still installing the coffee machine which was being moved around in a wheelbarrow For the main part of this holiday we stayed at the amazing Pra de la Casa B&B , near the ski resort of Madonna di Campiglio. It didn't matter that the resort was dead and had no restaurants open as we were well fed for breakfast, tea, and dinner at the B&B. We found some great gems to ride just behind the B&B, but already the Italian map was proving a bit of a nightmare. Paths missing, accuracy off in places, yet bang on in others. Su...

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...

Desperation is rewarded Read part one here . I didn't sleep all that well.  The constant wind on the tent and rain storms throughout the night meant the temperature was pretty close to zero.  My old sleeping bag was not good enough, even with a down jacket on. Meteo France was predicting gusts upto 80kms on summits, I was half way up the hillside. I woke, packed up and followed the winding road in search of the main road, coffee, croissants and phone signal.  I got into Crest and found a patisserie to, again do some online weather searching.  I'd seen a sign for GAP, along with Marseille. The latter being to far to drive for my 3 day trip.  However Gap seemed to be having better weather.  Today it would still be windy, but less grey than around the Vercors Massif.  The drive would be close to 3 hours, and I deliberately chose some back roads to try and take in some scenic roads and minor valleys.  The drive was great, ...