Matt Page- Mega Avalanche report!
Doddy | Blog, Mountain Biking Uk | 12/07/2011 10:15am
The morning of the qualification for Mega Avalanche I was a bag of nerves, made even worse by the fact I was in one of the final heats- 9 of 10. I was able to watch the first heat come through the town, with 2 British riders leading which was fantastic. The top guys were making it look effortless and hardly seemed to be trying…
I started making my way to the top of the course with plenty of time to spare, as I knew there was a pedalling section to get across. The queues were pretty long to get on the final lift and some people in the earlier heats obviously didn’t read the race booklet and left it way too late and missed their start. Not good! Once up on top there was just time to watch the heat before set off and watch the carnage that followed on the first corner. It made me even more nervous and my heart was pounding.
We were lined up and I was on row 1, positioning myself towards the right hand side. I figured that most people would go for the inside line, but if I took the outside hopefully I’d avoid a pile up. With 30 seconds to go they play some euro dance track which is almost as crazy as the race itself.
5 seconds to go, I tucked in and got ready and as soon as the tape lifted I pedalled as hard as I could, knowing that 199 other people were all looking to get away fast. The steep, loose, rocky lead into the first corner was pretty sketchy, but I made it through within the top 20 or so and through the next series of loose switchback I roughly held position as a few came past and I passed a few as well. Just when I thought the worst was over, approaching the last loose switchback some idiot decided to fit through a gap that wasn’t there, took my bars with him and I hit the deck. My foot was tangled in the frame and I watched as swarms of riders came flying past. I knew right then my chance of making the main final was over. I eventually got back on my bike, pedalled hard through on a fireroad, taking as many people as possible before the long singletrack, where it all became a bit slow with very little chance to overtake unless you are a much better rider than I am. Whenever an opportunity to pass came up I took it, especially if it involved pedalling!
Going into the last section I finally had some free space and could enjoy it, eventually crossing the line in 51st position. Only the top 35 of each heat of 200 riders qualify for the main race and I was really disappointed that I didn’t make it, especially as it was no fault of my own – but that is Mega and I was certainly not the only person to suffer a similar fate. I was pleased with how I rode the course and know that I could have made it inside the cut off given a clean run.
Race day
Having finished 51st in the heats I was then to race the B final, or Mega Challenger as it is called. It is exactly the same as the main final, just for people who qualified between 35th and 70th. It was an early 5.30am wake-up to get on the lifts just after 6am to make sure that everyone made it to the top of Pic Blanc in time. I made it up by about 8am which meant a long wait at 3300m. Luckily I’d been fore warned about this and had some warm clothes with me that the organisers bring back afterwards.
They took a while to line us up on the glacier at the top, the reason being ‘The glacier is too slippery’. What!? So I am expected to ride down something that is too slippery to walk on? Crazy. Our start was at 9.30 and we were lined up 10 minutes before. I was on the 6th row back, roughly 1/3 the way into the pack of 350 riders.
The cheesy euro dance track that is now embedded in my mind was the 30 seconds cue, then we were off. I took the decision to start off the bike and run. It was the right choice, those who tried to ride didn’t get anywhere. The start was chaos and the front few rows managed to get away cleanly while those behind just got stuck in a big slippery cue. The first 4km or so, as it goes through patches of snow and ice were a slow on/off the bike with lots of pushing and waiting for riders ahead. It was frustrating as I could see a long cue of riders ahead way down the mountain. After eventually negotiating the snow sections I hoped things would improve, but we were onto a ribbon like singletrack which would have been amazing to ride if it were not for all the riders ahead making progress extremely slow. Other riders were getting a little over aggressive, and causing a few accidents along the way.
I sat back, rode what the pace allowed and took any overtaking opportunity that arose, which was more often that not a short uphill. As the course turned the hill and headed back towards Alpe d’Huez there was more pedalling and the course widened, so I used the chance to get by as many people as possible and by the end of the uphill fireroad I’d passed quite a few people and the track was looking clearer. One problem was that form this point of the course onwards I had not practised, so I was riding it blind. It started off fast and swoopy with nice berms then as it descended the berms because tighter and steeper, it was amazing and went on and on. The lower section was in the trees and pretty bumpy with loads of roots and braking bumps. I knew I was pretty slow here as riders behind were catching me and passing if they could. There were a few short road or fireroad sections on the way down and more often than not I’d pass them back, which no doubt frustrated them but it felt like good racing to me! Crossing the finish line after 1 hour 7 minutes of riding I actually felt pretty good and I was buzzing from the amazing ride. It felt like I had ridden every type of trail and condition there is to ride – snow, rocky singletrack, dusty berms, steep woodland singletrack and a little bit of climbing in for good measure.
I loved every part of the Mega experience, even though I didn’t qualify where I wanted to and the race was a procession on the top I would recommend it to anyone and I want to come back next year. I guess what makes it so addictive is that you learn so much and feel like you can improve on so much to get a better result. I’d do a few things differently and learn to ride more aggressively, but my 661 kit and the Rocky Mountain were perfect choices.
XC Enduro specialist Matt Page tearing up the mega...
This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 12th, 2011 at 10:15 am and is filed under Blog, Mountain Biking Uk. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
