Report
by: Aidan Bishop
Pictures by:
Barbara Sztyk
It’s Mega time again!!!
The annual pilgrimage to the biggest and craziest marathon DH
race was once again upon us this past week, yes it is MegAvalanche
time! This year I was signed up to race again with Gummy joining
me from the Berkshire sector of the Rapidracerproducts team.
This year we had set off earlier than last and headed down to
Alpe D’Huez the Sunday before so we could acclimatise
ourselves as best as we could before the race. Mackie was again
racing and kindly booked up the chalet we stayed in from last
year, so there was a total of 9 of us living and riding together
for the week...happy days!
So after catching up with faces from last year and beyond and
a couple of beers, we were up Monday and got the mountain bikes
out and headed for the qualifying track. As it turned out the
morning was wet and rainy (the only bad day of the week) so
once we were at the top we headed down fairly quickly to keep
warm. The tracks for qualifying and the full mega course were
‘new’ for this year and so I for one was interested
to see the changes. The qualifying track up top was the same,
after the first half dozen loose rocky hairpin track corners
they carried on over wide open rock bed with a couple of snow
patches still not melted as opposed to last year where it was
fast dry fire track road to follow. This new section was I believe
similar to previous year’s so not new but it was to me
and was an eye opener to follow where you had to go and was
physically tiring to pedal along and over. Past this and you
re joined the fire track to guide you into the singletrack top
half. This was the same as last year, a dusty and rocky path
with a nasty little steep section with wooden pallets strategically
fixed to enable you to ride down the rock faces, then it was
bermed and rocky trail until you hit the next fire road above
Alpe d’Huez. The same fast dusty trail brought you out
just above town and this is where you split from last year’s
track and continued down the side of the road on a manmade trail
with berms, small table tops and a triple and quad pack. After
here you headed right through town, which was a new experience
for most, slaloming the flags over jumps through a tunnel and
weave down the main road and then you drop onto a dusty red
graded trail. This consisted of steep and very dusty berms and
drops all the way to the finish in Huez 300m below the main
town. Race runs saw times from 21 – 30mins or so. We did
one run and was liking it until the we realized the lift queue
wasn’t moving much at all and so decided to ride back
up the road to town....20mins later and we were in a restaurant
to try and dry out and have a beer and some lunch!
The next few days saw much of the same, just taking time to
ride different tracks and have fun. Most of us brought out road
bikes also and so a few road miles were covered to hopefully
aid the acclimatising process and ride some alpine hills in
the sunshine. This included myself and Gummy taking on the famous
21 hairpin bends of Alpe D’Huez on the Wednesday, our
plan was to ride from the chalet in Oz down along and up to
Alpe and then get one of the last lifts back down to the chalet,
therefore avoiding the 5mile climb back up to the chalet and
saving our legs a little. The plan half worked! I climbed the
Alpe in under an hour, got lots of drinks and got one of the
last lifts up....Gummy text to say he just missed the last lift!
As it turned out I Also missed the connecting last lift down
to Oz where the chalet was and tried to plead with the operator
I had to get down to oz and waved my road bike at him showing
an off-road ride down was out of the question! The result was
an off-road drive down the mountain in a pick up truck, people
pay for such a driving experience so a unique end to the day.
Gummy rode back down the road and along the valley and awaited
one of us to collect him as he was feeling a little ‘blown’
from his climbing efforts!
Me chasing Rowan Sorrell into the first corner of qualifying
Friday soon approached and that meant it was qualifying time!!
This year there were 10 qualifying heats consisting of 200 men
per heat plus one heat for the women...that’s a lot of
racers! To make the cut for the main final Sunday you had to
be in the first 35, the next 35 would be in the ‘challenger’
final on the Saturday after the women’s race, the next
35 would make the ‘amateur’ final after the main
men’s final Sunday. So the 350 qualifiers in each final
were then split down in three’s, therefore make top 3
for the front row ‘a’, 4th to 6th row ‘b’
and so on. First up was Gummy in heat 3, unfortunately not managing
to get any sort of seeding from previous racing results he had
to line up on the back row making it a near impossible task
to make the top 35 if he didn’t overtake at least 100
riders in the first corners of the race. He didn’t and
along with a few collisions with other riders and an electric
fence!?! He finished 68th, therefore a place in Saturday’s
challenger final. Mackie was next for the team and having a
better seed than last year was confident of making the main
final on Sunday, unfortunately a puncture meant finishing 45th
he just missed the cut and joined Gummy for Saturday’s
final. One of the unluckiest of chalet mates was Dan who missed
the cut by one place last year only to finish 37th this year
and miss out by two spots!! I was in the last heat and from
previous results had second seed and took my place on the front
row, alongside the notable Welshman Rowan Sorrell. The tape
went up and Rowan was like the proverbial off a shovel and led
into the first corner, luckily I was hot on his tail. I kept
upright and in contention on the top section going into the
singletrack in 4th place. One rider took an excitable line and
nearly took me out only to nearly crash himself a minute down
the track. I then battled with a French guy whilst Rowan and
another fast rider on a DH bike pulled away slowly on the technical
downhill track up top. Exiting this section and the guy in front
of me was starting to get in the way a little so nearing the
new section of track I made my move past and then kept the pace
high. I drew myself close to the leaders, keeping a focus on
Mr Sorrell’s red jersey. Heading into town and I passed
for second place and closed onto Rowan’s tail, it stayed
like that to the finish where I rode safely on the dusty steep
berms so as not to throw it away before the finish. So 2nd place
in my heat meant an eventual 19th seed and front row for the
main final on Sunday, one row better than last year and I was
happy with my efforts and that my training had paid off.
Mackie in finals action!
Saturday morning arrived
and we headed up the mountain to watch Mackie and Gummy race
in the ‘Challenger’ final. They set off 30 mins
after the women’s final. We got the lifts up above Alpe
D’Huez and then followed the track just above town to
a tricky section containing rocky drops which always drew a
bit of a crowd. On our way there and we saw Anne Caro fly past
a clear 3 minutes ahead of her competitors already, a class
act still! We watched the rest of the women’s field tackle
the drops with some tumbles and awaited the leaders of the men’s’
race to come into sight. They soon did and it was clear the
leaders were fast riders, indicating to me that a lot of these
guys were easily fast enough for the main final but must have
missed qualifying due to crashes or mechanicals in their qualifying
races. So I counted through the riders hoping to see Mackie
or Gummy in a good position. Mackie was first to pass us and
I shouted to him his placing at that point, he was in 35th,
Gummy didn’t take too long to pass us next in 76th, clearly
frustrated he couldn’t ride at his speed due to traffic,
a result of not starting from one of the front rows. The guys
both finished unscathed and made place on the rest of the track
with Mackie finishing an impressive 21st and Gummy battling
through to 69th, good job guys!
Gummy battling through traffic in Saturday’s final.
Another new experience for me was that normally you would go
along Friday night to collect your line sticker to signify where
you qualified, if you make row ‘A’ you have to go
along Saturday night to collect the sticker along with being
called out and introduced in front of a crowd, flattering for
the ego but meant we didn’t eat till late when I had to
be on the lift at 6am!! But I had to collect the sticker and
so the presentations were made for the women’s race, with
Anne Caroline Chausson taking the victory by a clear 7 mins
I believe. Then the 30 front row qualified riders were called
out in reverse order and each one had to pull an entry form
ticket out of a box for jerseys to be won for each ticket, nice
but prolonged the whole affair as you can imagine. Anyway the
Brits had a good showing on the front row with Joe Barnes, Alex
Stock, Rowan Sorrell, Myself, Joe Rafferty and Martin Astley
making the line up alongside the favourites and previous winners
like Remy Absalon, Rene Wildhaber, Nicolas Voulliouz, Karim
Amour with just Jerome Clementz and Franck Parolin not present
due to mechanicals in qualifying.
Row ‘A’ riders presentation (move it along, I’m
starving!!)
So the alarm went off at 5am and like
last year I thought ‘why?’ to myself!!! But looking
out the window and seeing sunshine was of slight comfort as
talk of a heavy storm for Sunday turned out to be a false alarm.
I made it to the top and set about walking the first couple
of corner to try and see what I would try and do come race time.
I decided you can’t really plan what you’re going
to do as with hundreds of riders around you all you can do is
ride where there is space! The helicopter was soon hovering
above us and the 5 second board was in front of us, the tape
raised but didn’t seem to raise fully, with a moment’s
hesitation thinking if we could go or not everyone else did
and I didn’t get a good start, something that is essential
if you want a result. I rode the first snow path feet up and
in control but at the end of it Ross Schnell was on the floor,
this caused me to slow right up and try to get round his bike.
Coming off the first snow from the start.
Got going again, then cut tight down a
bank and set about crossing the next snow patch. The majority
were staying right to get off the snow as soon as possible,
I found myself far left but with a clear run, so I continued
to stay on the bike and followed a rut right across the snow
and ride the rocky path wide around the next corner. I was now
back in the pack with riders everywhere, the next few straights
was spent trying to ride it all smoothly but a couple of times
I found myself slowed up by riders falling in the line I was
following and then causing me to stop or fall. Onto to the glacier
and for pure ice it seemed grippy, I stayed high on it and managed
to pass some riders here, just concentrating not to grab my
brakes and pedal smoothly across it to maintain grip. Off the
glacier and it was onto a fast rolling track heading for the
singletrack, I passed another couple of riders here and found
myself back onto Mr Schnell’s back wheel, he had got himself
back onto his bike quickly and back into the race. The pace
of the riders I was with was good, and so I was just concentrating
on being as smooth as I could so as not to puncture up top and
then managed to pass riders where the track widened or climbed.
Staying clear of trouble on the second snow section.
With the top section done with no dramas,
we traversed across the top of Alpe D’Huez and prepared
for the major climb of the race. I found myself in a bit of
a pack up here, it was hard work in the hot sun and high altitude,
I heard people in the crowd counting us through, I was now in
26th place, better than this point last year. We started to
descend again and this section of the track was pretty fast
and got rough from the braking bumps often, luckily the extra
days riding this year had appeared to pay off as armpump wasn’t
holding me back as much as previous races. Passing by the town
of Oz En Oisans and we were past halfway, I noticed a strange
sound coming from my brake somewhere but they were still working
so didn’t stop to investigate. With a pack of 4 or 5 of
us together we rode the next, new for this year, wooded section
together down the singletrack trail with very tight and steep
switchback turns. Exiting here and onto a long fireroad section
with a gentle rise halfway along it. I knew I had to attack
here to try and gain places and so as soon as it started to
go up I put my head gritted my teeth and span passed the group
of riders I was with, managing to pass them I started to close
in on another rider in front along with the shadow of another
rider who stuck to my wheel. This section fired you out onto
a short road climb past some houses, I kept the speed consistent
up here, climbing it all out of the saddle and came across Rowan
Sorrell here so I didn’t stop to chat and kept the pace
high to try and take a little gap on him into the next downhill
section ahead, knowing he is a talented downhiller and would
likely hustle my back wheel if I didn’t. From here I knew
the finish was drawing closer, my arms weren’t completely
shot and so I was riding strongly and was now looking to pass
another rider but the track just wasn’t wide enough to
pass. There was one little road climb left until the final straight,
I stayed on the riders tail until here and then climbed the
whole road out of the saddle and into the last DH section and
passed the rider. Turning onto the bridge before the final straight
and I nearly fell off, giving my chasers a chance to close in.
The last straight I simply didn’t have the strength to
get out of the saddle and so I put my head down and tried to
push a gear as fast as I could, hoping the riders behind felt
the same, turning left towards the line and I checked over my
shoulder to see if anyone was close enough to try and pass...they
were and one guy was just about to try and pass me on the very
last corner metres from the line, I soon closed that door on
him to his annoyance and crossed the line. I had finished, exhausted
but content I had got down with no major dramas, punctures or
mechanicals. I made my way through the finish area where the
other riders were and asked Mr Voulliouz who had won, he told
me the results....Remy Absalon, Jerome Clementz, Rene Wildhaber,
Nico, Karim Amour, a near French whitewash of the podium! I
caught up with other riders before checking the results so far....I
had made it into the top 20 and finished 17th taking me 48minutes
to finish, I was happy with that, a top 20 at the Mega is no
easy task I can tell you!!
Well, that’s another Mega done!!!
So the notable performances from the Brits this year were:
10th Joe Barnes
13th Alex Stock
17th Aidan Bishop
22nd Rowan Sorrell
37th Greg Callaghan
40th Charlie Williams
I spent the next hour or so recovering from the race, swapping
stories with other riders, washing the bike over quickly where
I discovered the disconcerting noise I heard, it turned out
one of my rear brake calliper bolts shook loose and so my rear
disc was effectively hack sawing its way into the calliper body...I
was just thankful my Cannondale got me to the finish intact!!
I then sat and had a celebratory beer in the bar next door and
relaxed in the sun (before doing some more riding in the afternoon
with gummy!!)
So that’s it for another year then!
What a great week of riding and racing with friends and fellow
riders. An event that is well worth doing, whether you racing
to win or riding to experience, it really is something most
mountain bikers should do at least once and I’m sure I’ll
be back again...this time going for the top ten!
Big thanks to Craig at RapidRacerProducts.
Mavic, Cannondale, Crank Brothers, Maxxis and all sponsors that
have helped me and the team this year.