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Sprint Avalanche at Oz De Oisans
July 16, 2008Published by superflyJuly 11th to the 13th 2008 was a date already penciled in diaries almost 12 months ago for the mountain biker in the know.
In fact you can't call yourself a mountain biker until you have descended quite literally on l'Alpe d'Huez in the South of France for what can only be described as the event of the year.. The Saab Salomon Megavalanche consists of three main event races. To start the ball rolling we are first covering the Sprint Avalanche at Oz De Oisans which is the downhill race mid-week warm up before the main event.  Last berm, 100mph entry then drift the final corner, foot out, flat out The long, long journey started from NPS Round 3 of the Monster Energy/Halfords Bike Hut at Fort William. Sunday night: 18:30 Greg Minaar had just been crowned the winner on the podium and the Descent-Gear van followed him out of town. Monday Morning: 01:30 415 miles later and we landed in Birmingham, shit, shave, shower and we were off again. 06:45 Another 200 miles clocked and we rolled onto the Sea France Ferry which took us in style from Dover to Calais on a 90 minute ferry crossing. Hit the duty free and snapped up some cheap booze and some Jean Paul Gaultier. Before eating a hearty breakfast and still managing 60 winks in the lounge. 08:15 rolled into Calais (pop watches forward one hour) so now it's really 09:15 and hit the road and the tolls for the next 600 miles. 20:30 pulled into the race pits at set up. If your dedicated you can make it work, even a 1,200 mile trip in just under 26 hours.  Cost of the ferry by SeaFrance was Ł159.00 for the big Mercedes LWB Sprinter, top tip is to have the extra option of an open ticket. This means if you get there early or even late, then you can get on the next available ferry! All is crystal clear on www.Seafrance.com. Back to the race and what a track. Almost the height and severity of Fort William with more natural features. Your on it for 4 minutes for the lightening boys and certainly sub 5 minutes for us regular guys.  The Boys on Tour Tuesday was open practice and straight into the Gondolas, two or three up with zero queue all day, just make sure you have a backplate (French Rules). A fast flowing track threw a random assortment of obstacles at us full chat. Steep chutes, rock Whistler style wall rides, roots and ruts, dust, rocks, mud, grass, jumps, drops and berms. If that wasn't enough, ever increasing breaking bumps destroyed the arms and hands. Am I selling this to you? This was a real challenge of a course, nothing big and burly, just a steady artillary fire from Mother Nature, straight at you for the full duration of the course.  Cyril Lagneau, ex World Cup ripper and SPD master as not seen here. Braking before the line as well on both runs, why? Most people dropped 7-8 runs on Tuesday, enough to learn the whole course and be ready to go straight into battle with first runs starting at 09:00 the next day. (Zero practice).  Adam Brayton on his way to 7th overall and is uncontrollable, possibly the fastest man on a set of Swampthings ever? He left the next day for a welcome trip home for a proper cup of tea and a bacon sandwich. Wednesday is race day and everyones frantically touching toes, stretching and yawning, a rude awakening indeed even for the seasoned racer out there. Two runs to take and battle down the course with the top 50 riders going through to the Super Cup race that evening. In France they call the fastest time of the day "Scratch" and the riders at the top changed faster than your girlfriend's mind on a clothes shopping trip. Everyone comes down in a mixed up way meaning the guy in front of you may well be a master and the guy behind a junior. This is all worked out on lasts years performances and your race history that you entered on your entry sheet.  Parkin Focusing, or should I say re-focusing? Second run was seeded nicely with the slowest riders down first and the fastest last which is what can only be described as the best way. Thus theoretically never catching your front man unless they have a big off.  Danny Hart is hotly tipped to be the third Brit to consecutively take Gold at the Worlds. Here you can see why. Once these two runs were completed the categories were very quickly worked out and announced. Then the open invitation to anyone who scored within the top 50 with a time of 4:32 or less went onto the Super Cup for the big prize money and all the glory!  Switchbacks.com James Stock two weeks after celebrating his 21st Birthday back home in sunny Chesire in England. Big Bro Alex is currently taking a year out to chill.   Danny Hart keeping his goggle sponsors happy  Paul Aston originally from Wombourne near Dudley in the West Midlands. Now rides Pro for Solid Bikes in Germany, currently living it up on his overdrawn credit cards Top times overall, note seven of the top ten were Elites except for David Eme who is Seniors, Danny Hart is still a junior and Pau Misser is a Master. Good work boys! COUSINIE Fabien Q BIKE Q BIKE France 4:02.380 RANKIN Nathan IronHorse Nouvelle-Zélande 4:02.881 RUFFIN Thibaut IRON HORSE ADDICTION France 4:03.130 EME David VTT CONLIEGE JURA GIANT France 4:06.881 KURTZ Cyrille RIVIERABIKE.COM SPECIALIZED France 4:08.094 MISSER Tomas GUAK Espagne 4:09.719 BRAYTON Adam IRON HORSE IRON HORSE Grande-Bretagne 4:11.193 HART Danny LAPIERRE SALOMON LAPIERRE Grande Bretagne 4:11.273 SKINNER Mike IRONHORSE PLAYBIKER ORANGE Nouvelle-Zélande 4:11.552 MISSER Pau GUAK Espagne 4:11.680 Full Results are listed here: http://www.avalanchecup.com/photos/pdf/197.pdf Ben Cathro in 17th? Well he only did two runs on the track, both of which were his races runs, he rode the course blind! Many thanks to the event sponsors, without them there wouldn't be a race: Saab, Salomon, SR Suntour, Hope, Commencal and Julbo.  Smiles all round, Si Paton enjoys another good day at the Office Stay Unclipped. Si "Superfly" Paton. www.Descent-Gear.com Fli XXL Wide Bars Instock @ Ł49.99 incl p&p. |
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giantjunkeys
(July 18, 2008 at 8:25)
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NICE LOOKED LIKE ALOT OF FUN
me and 2 mates rode the sprint last year
no idea what we were letting ourselves in for on our 5 inch all mountain bikes air shocks front and rear
for us novices was a punishing course but sooo much fun
we all qualified but bottled out on the race having 2 sets of bruised ribs and a bust wrist between us ill be back next year with my new dh bike :-)
no idea what we were letting ourselves in for on our 5 inch all mountain bikes air shocks front and rear
for us novices was a punishing course but sooo much fun
we all qualified but bottled out on the race having 2 sets of bruised ribs and a bust wrist between us ill be back next year with my new dh bike :-)
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