June already and time for the snow to clear the way for summer sports around Europe’s mountain resorts. And so it was time for the MaxiAvalanche series to kick off for another year, the premier marathon DH races series in Europe, a series of four rounds this year of ‘mini mega’s’.

Beats riding to the top that’s for sure!

A smooth drive down this year, me and Gummy and friends filled the van up and got down there a couple of days earlier this year, to try and acclimatise and get in some good riding at the Vallnord bike park. It being still early season for summer activities the lifts weren’t to be opened until the Friday before the race....D’oh! We managed some riding anyway and enjoyed some great conditions, until official practice started on the Friday when it was cloudy and wet pretty much all day which made the track pretty wet.

Gummy enjoying the Vallnord trails

During the Friday I got to see some familiar British faces in the car park, including Alex Stock and Ian Austermuhle to name a couple. The course was very similar to last years, with an open fast top section with berms some jumps and singletrack and a couple of fire roads to pedal on. The major difference was at the start of the bottom half where last year it took you around a long XC pedal loop, this year the organisers re-routed to take along a narrow rutted path and then straight down a very steep embankment where the trees are cleared for power lines, a section that was very tricky to ride in the wet. This then joined you back onto the XC loop for the final section of it and then followed the same DH trail to the finish down rocky and rooty trails that had some very technical gradients and corners to deal with, made harder after 15-20 mins of racing already covered.
So Saturday afternoon was qualifying time. With entry number around 750 in total there were 5 heats setting off in order to determine which final you would be racing in on the Sunday. The fastest 125 qualifiers would race the ‘EuropeCup’, the next 250 would race the ‘Challengers Cup’, with the remainders racing the ‘Amateurs cup’, so avoiding disaster or injury everyone gets three races. Due to last year’s races I was fortunate enough to be seeded for my heat and so was on the front row, crucial for this type of racing. Gummy wasn’t highly seeded and so started on the second row. Franck Parolin was the fastest qualifier, closely followed by Karim Amour and the likes of Tomas Misser, Alex Stock was riding well and after a mishap at the start came through strongly to win his heat, I placed third in my heat placing me on the front row for Sunday’s final so job done. Gummy was comfortable in around 10th place but a chain device malfunction meant multiple stops to put the chain back on and therefore ending up 21st and taking the last spot in the main final for Sunday.

The open top section of the track.

Sunday morning and race day required an early start, getting on the lifts at 8am for a 10am start. The sun was shining again so it looked like a nice dry track and conditions. We got to the top of the mountain with the other riders and people were warming up and lining up ready to be called to the line. I got my call for the front row and opted to place myself on the left of the fastest riders as the first corner is always trouble! You have 125 riders sprinting 5metres into a right hand hairpin turn on off camber grass, a combination that always has carnage! 10am and the helicopter circled us, filming, then the tapes were lifted and it was hectic. I opted for the left so I could avoid trouble and go around it if any occurred, it did and consequently I was pushed down into some crash netting that then got caught on my rear brake, by the time I had got free the whole field were going round the second corner, a disastrous start! I went for it still, managing to pass many riders on the first 1km of the track but then having to follow a long line of riders through singletrack sections trying to pass where possible. I did have fun catching Gummy and passing him mid air on a jump whilst he was styling it I kept it low and fast. I made the finish 22mins later in 50th place, not happy with how the race went, Gummy got down without mechanicals but was also very frustrated having to start from the back row and just wasn’t able to pass people where he wanted to and so finished in 86th. On seeing finished riders I caught up with Alex who had faired very well to finish in 4th , behind winner and team mate Karim amour with Parolin second and Nicolas Lau third. Ian didn’t fare so well, on his way up to the start he noticed his tyre was split and so didn’t make the start.

Trying to make my way through the field.

A break for lunch and then it was up to the top again for the second race. I lined up with the same idea in mind, determined to avoid trouble this time and salvage some kind of result. We set off again and this time I made it round the first corner cleanly but not at the front of the pack, round the second corner and the grass was polished and so I slid off the bike but got up quick and back on and sprinted to gain as many places as I could. The race was going better with faster riders up front, you just rolled through singletrack sections faster with less traffic. I made the pedalling sections count managing to make places here and there. Midway down the course on a road crossing and to my surprise I was passed by first race winner Amour, something must have happened to the start of his race. I tailed him until we hit the new steep section where his DH speed was very impressive and I couldn’t match. Entering the bottom section of the course and I heard Alex behind me, so knowing my chances of a good overall result gone I let him pass where it was wide enough. The second race went much better than the first and 2 mins faster, finishing 23rd after a shaky start and a tumble on the steep section. Gummy came down better also, managing 68th.

The first road pedalling section takes you past the start of DH world cup course.

So the final results were:
1st Franck Parolin
2nd Nicolas Lau
3rd Kari Amour
4th Tomas Misser
5th Armin Beeli

Brits:
7th Alex Stock
28th Aidan Bishop
57th Ian Austermuhle
79th Paul May

So another good weekend of racing, with chairlifts and sunshine, I look forward to more rounds.