Forum

So - I had the small kiwi man on the phone yesterday asking 'whats going on with the alps this year'

My response - dunno mate - which i guess means we should get a plan together for some lush DH action.

Pop a post down saying....

- If you are up for something
- When you are free
- How long for
- Any preference on location

and I can start to enquire as to availability of stuff

Me

yep im up for something
July August
Week or weekend
Open to suggestions

Hmm i would love to.. but since i'm there already for a week in june i don't think i can get another pass....

Yea I'll be there

Hard to say at the moment exactly what I'm going to be able to do, but I hope i'll be in a position to do a week or weekend.
At the moment I know I've got a wedding from 15th - 18th July so couldn't do around then and can't do weeks either side of 21st/22nd August. Other than that I'm pretty free I think.

Would really like some feedback before I commit Jon.

I really would like to go but very twitchy after my recent dislocated shoulder injury & last years UKBP experience. My session with jedi was brilliant in bringing me along but that was last year, so a little rusty at the moment.

My main question is whether you guys feel that the session areas you play around with have softer/safer options for Alp newbies ! Or would we end up doing differrent stuff?

Will definetely get some UK riding in to prepare me (as best you can be!)

Cheers

Yea I know what ur saying mate - the stuff we tend to do in the alps is not massive feature after massive feature. The taxing bit is the amount of distance covered, the length of the runs, how rough they can be, and sometimes how steep it gets.

In summary id say if you can ride aston hill you will have no probs - the thing is its aston hill 30 mins non stop at a time and if your riding more of an AM set up on your bike that can get tiring quick.

Id advise anyone to do it - you learn more in a weekend in the Alps than a Summer going to Woburn etc

Matt/Tom might have some thoughts on this but I think ull be fine dude.

The first time I went in 2007 I had only ridden a couple of the Welsh trail centres and Aston Hill twice, and I was on my Banshee hardtail. The first day or so was eye opening, but after that my riding improved so much during the week, the quantity of runs you can do, and consistently good trails brings you on so quickly. I completely agree with Jon and think you would be fine. There are def a few thinks you could do to prep for it tho.

Bike wise - You have Enduro yea? It is true the smaller the bike the more you do get beat up, especially on the faster rocky sections. But don't think you have to go out and buy a full on DH bike! I had my Wildcard last year (150mm front, 160mm rear) and it was fine, taller forks and slacker geo would have been nice on the really steep stuff, but the rest was ok. And the smaller bikes have an advantage on the smaller twisty/flowy trails.
But like Jono says it is pretty tiring, moreso when you don't have 9" of squidge to help, so fitness is fairly important, a bit of specific fore-arm training would also be good to help with the arm pump.
These grip trainers get good reviews. I've got one and they are a lot more comfortable than others I've tried, should use it more myself really!

Aston is the best place to practice around here, it has a couple of nice steep sections which will really help build confidence.
If you are thinking about more skills courses you could see if Tony can hold courses at Aston, or alternatively Firecrest (Ian Warby) run DH specific courses there. Also worth getting them to help with bike set-up, particularly with cockpit, brake lever positions etc.. getting those spot on will really help.

Small possibility of me making it.....its very much something I want to get ticked off.

My thoughts are similar to Pauls, wouldnt want to travel all that way to sit out of all the features cos they are all too massive. Whats the comparison to Cwmcarn ?

If its a long weekend it could be a goer....but will need to see how things progress at home with the bambino over the next month so if I do come ill work around you guys.

No Alps for me.

The big features are few and far between, except in the main bike parks. I sat out on a lot of the big stuff last year (ie these drops on 2nd half of This Page) Granted I would have like to have do them, just a bit of a step up for me at the time, maybe this year...

Hard to give a comparisson to Cwm really, there are some bits that are similiar and lots of others that are very different.
99% of the riding is 'trail riding' - be that man-made open fast DH track, or back-country trail or sketchy wooded rooty off-camber single track etc.. Just over there you can ride those trails constantly downhill for about 30mins without having to go uphill! Check out the vids from last year, that will give you an idea. It will look like there is a focus on big drops etc on the vid, but thats just because thats when everyone stops, cameras come out and you get the comedy stacks! For every 30mins sessioning a drop there is prob 5 hours of trail riding behind it.

Thanks for the feedback guys, really appreciated, gives me confidence it may be a goer.

Will get some riding in and go from there !

I would love to get on a trip in august, week or long weekend.

My best mate rode the Morzine and Les Gets tracks on a Giant Reign with 140mm Pikes and a busted back break. He's not very good either.

Had a cracking time - absolutely no reason why you can't have fun there without 'sending it' off every feature.

Ok so how about this -

Location: Morzine - super keen to see if anyone has any other places they know will work, as somewhere new would be cool. I might also look into Andorra which was mentioned last night. Morzine does have the following going for it which are super helpful for weekend trips...

- we know it, so no faffing around find stuff in the town or the trails
- v close to geneva so we can get a full afternoon in on the friday
- still a fair amount of stuff we haven't ridden over mogins way
- Matt can get there in his motor

Timing: Weekend - August seems to be the time most people can come. So how about the weekend of the 21st August. Friday to Monday.

Flights transfers : Joel mentioned that it might be expensive due to holidays, which is a fair point, but at the moment BA are doing Geneva on those dates for £114 return which is about as cheap as it gets. Usually they are the best option as they are bike friendly ish - strikes allowing. Transfers usually add maximum £60 to the price

To make this work on the transfers and accommodation from we kinda need a bunch of definates at some point. Those who are already a yes are

- Karve
- Tranny
- Gladdice
- Cheshmatt ( I would have thought)
- Kiwi - 1 at least

That's a good turn out already

The longer we leave it the less options and more expensive it will be for those already with their names down. So lets have a definite cut off date of the 13th of June for yays or nays, as it will take a couple of weeks to organise after that. Any later and it will be tricky getting half descent accommodation.

Plenty of time to discuss alternatives on location and date before then.

Thoughts

That sounds pretty good

I have an old copy of dirt somewhere with the 50 best places to go, maybe that can help us

21st August works for me if you dont mind an Alp newbie along