Maxiavalanche 2011 Andorra: the race

Date of ride: June 9th to 12th, 2011; Bike used: Commencal Supreme; No. of persons: Multiple; Weather: Cloudy with rain, drying out with sun on last two days; Ground conditions: Muddy, drying out after rain stopped

Blogger’s note: The following is an amalgamation of my three runs, qualifying and the two finals. I took the best bits of all and wrote them into one run. I hope you don’t mind.

Another group lines up at the start

I’m standing at the top of a mountain in the middle of the Pyrenees with 200 other riders. We are all shepherded into ten rows of about twenty riders, crammed together between lines of orange plastic catch-netting, but it’s so chaotic I’m unsure of the exact numbers. I have my pushbike next to me and George Edwards, the organiser of the Maxiavalanche series is standing before the mob, giving a final briefing in French. I understand none of it.

George holds up a board that says 1 minute to go on it and the adrenaline starts to course through my veins. I’d seen the start of one of these from various places, but now I was actually here to race. The first time I’d seen the spectacle was, as always, the most memorable. On my way up to the start I’d been at the top of the second chairlift and at the end of the first stage of the race when we heard a roar from the top of the mountain maybe a mile and half away, and looked to the summit. A stream of mountain-bikers were scything across the hill like a giant multicoloured caterpillar. Seeing hundreds of bikers coming over the ridge was an unforgettable sight, and excited me to my very core and it was to become one of my most amazing experiences in life.

George shows the number board with 30 seconds to go on it and the riders start shouting “Allez” and “Venga”, I’m thinking these people are turning into a baying mob, charged and pumped up to get the race on. People are jumping up and down on their bikes, stamping the pedals and roaring now as George shows the 5 second board. All of a sudden the start tape flies up and the race is on. I pedal about 10 metres and there are bikes and bodies on the ground in front of me, I manouever around them and  through my body armour, sense bikers barging into me from the right and left. Somehow I stay on my bike to get around the chicaned start and the course opens out. Now I’m flying down the mountain over rocks and gorse with riders all threading lines inches from my own. It’s not just the terrain I need to worry about, it’s the other riders too. Where will they go? What line will they take? The track thins out and the riders converge again, tyres throwing up rocks and debris all around. Sometimes the field spreads out and I can get some speed up, smashing through rocks and bushes with my bike and then there’s a hold up. I must jam the brakes on and hope I don’t crash into the back of the rider in front. It opens out again and we’re off at speed once more. I round a corner to see a rider down. No time to think, just react and I make it away in one piece and no crashing. Riders are taking crazy lines down the mountain. I’d practiced the track but there are ways down this mountain I’d not thought of. Riders are crashing through bushes and riding down amazingly steep chutes to overtake where possible. We’re back onto a man-made track and a tabletop jump looms into view. I hit it at a speed I’ve never experienced before and I sail over the landing spot, a racing huck to flat, suspension working hard. Through some bermed corners then it’s seat up and pedal, pedal up a short uphill piste to the top of the second chairlift where I’d been earlier watching another quali. My bike is heavy on the flats and uphill and riders start to pass me as I reach the top of the incline, then it’s seat down, gears still low to on a tricky section.

We scratch and scrabble over loose shale and up around a gantry for the chairlift then drop straight down a loose chute where there is a very tight right turn to take, up and around another gantry. Lots of riders bin it here but I’ve been practising this section and power up the incline, at the top gearing up for the sprint that takes me into a lazy, loose right-hander, sprinting up to one of the best jumps I’ve ever come across. It’s a step-up, so called because the take-off is lower than the landing. I fly over this jump and land way past the landing transition, too fast for the jump and loving every second as my suspension softens the flat landing. All of a sudden a rider is very close. I hear his breathing and a French voice challenging me. As quick as he comes into my consciousness he’s gone. A bang and a cry and he’s not there anymore. Crashed I can only presume. Oh well. At least it wasn’t me I think. Serves him right for trying to over take me.

I drop down into big bermed corners that remind me of Cwm Carn DH track, all G-outs and compressed suspension, another jump comes into view. Just as I hit it the guy in front, not 10 metres away pin balls into a tree, his bike careering one way, he cartwheeling the other, both somehow landing in the track. I dive my bike into the bushes and somehow I’ve made it though. Lucky. A rider takes a sneaky inside line around a berm and I’ve lost another place. I’m panting like a dog at the beach and probably just as drooly. Feeling like I want to vomit. The adrenaline is keeping me lifted but it’s hard to find the power in the pedals now. Just as I reach another slow pedally section. That’s all I need. A technical thread through trees and over inclines and rocky boulders, slippery roots. Difficult to do after a rest, nigh on impossible after twenty minutes of race mode. I make it through however with not too many mishaps and only the curses of the French riders behind me ringing in my ears.

The final section begins. The steepest part of the track but also the hardest due to a couple of devastating flat sections. More riders pass me on the flat section and I’m really struggling coming into the next technical climb. Down a steep chute and round a couple more bends, some quite quick and rooty, then it’s a small, welcome queue for a drop down onto and across the road. There’s a hold up because the track takes a tight left hand turn down the drop and most riders need to line their bike up before tackling this loose, steep feature. Over the road and straight on the gas, dropping in once more to sublime singletrack. I pop and weave my way down the track, using rocks and roots to launch off, flying over bigger rocks and roots in my path, to the cheers of the spectators. A tight right hander and it’s more pedalling until we reach the freshly cut steep chute, shooting straight down the mountain for roughly 200m in a small clearing for the electricity pylons climbing up the hill. It’s very steep here and it’s a case of arse over the back wheel, brakes on and steer with my body. I make it through with no mishaps but this video shows the carnage occurring. Some nutter overtook me here though. On to the last pedally section and my choice of bike is ruining me now. The heavy Supreme won’t maintain any momentum on the flat and uphill sections and every fibre of my body is screaming. I want to puke. Straining against the pedals I eventually make it to a steep rock face that everyone must carry their bike up. It means the last section of pure downhill gnar. But I’m so exhausted I must stop if only for a moment to catch my breath and I won’t be able to hang on or control the bike for the best bit. And the most dangerous. As I’m catching my breath I recognise a rider pass me. A mate I’m travelling with, Chris Lewis, if he beats me I’ll never hear the last of it. Now it’s game on. I’m chasing him down the singetrack, sometimes just on his wheel, the next I’m stalling in a corner, having overcooked my speed. The track here is fast and rough, but with wide open berms and roots and rocks to launch off. Here I choose a sneaky line and get ahead of Chris. It starts to steepen and slow, a new, freshly cut section, and it’s another case of bum over the back wheel and guide the bike around the tight twisty corners. I’d experienced a strange, slow-motion over-the-bars crash here on a previous run but this time I cleared it. It gets dark and the forest closes in. I round another super tight corner and as I’m trying to manouever around a fallen rider I’m over the bars, crashing into a tree. Chris rides past. Then Chris stalls and I somehow gain the lead again and it continues like this all the way to the finish, like cat and mouse. Then I throw it away, coming round a bend far too hot and sliding down the hill away off the track. One rider waits for me to get back up. Not Chris, he goes past again.

The final technical DH section is awesome. Two steep drop-chutes, on jagged terrain that look like a thousand shark fins all sticking out of the waves of the sea, and just as dangerous to fallen onto. Reminding me of Rockadillo track in Spain I smash my forks through the unforgiving landscape and then it’s on the gas over a nice little rocky section that is cool to double up. Another rock garden looms round the lefthand bend. I hear the shouts of encouragement from Kat who is spectating here and it spurs me on, launching over the first of the rocks in my path, still going. This track seems never ending. A couple more bends, some quite tight and there it is, the final drop into the carpark and we’re done. Final run I come in 44th behind Chris’s 40th position. Because I did a better first run than him I end up 28th in the Amateur Masters category with 140 points and Chris in 33rd with 116 points.  He will point out he had some mechanicals in the first race however, but hey, that’s racing. Out of 170 riders though, we’re both pleased with our performances today.

Final podium positions:

Parolin, Lau, Amour, Misser and Beeli

Franck PAROLIN (Giant Vertical Bike) won the Maxiavalanche 2011 Andorra with Nicolas LAU (Cube Bike) in 2nd and Karim AMOUR (Kona) in 3rd. Spanish Tomas MISSER (Guak Scott) and Armin BEELI (Trek) from Switzerland finish 4th and 5th respectively. Brit Alex STOCK grabbed 7th

Chausson, Such, Hassenfratz, Saugy and Petit

Anne Caroline CHAUSSON  (Ibis) wins the womens category with  Morgane SUCH 
(Massilia Bike System) 2nd,  Claire HASSENFRATZ (VCA / Labyrinth) in 3rd, Myriam SAUGY (BMC Trail Crew) in 4th and  Pauline PETIT (Team Pro Bike shop) in 5th

Great news for UK, Tom HICK (Merida) gets a podium in the Senior Challengers category, 3rd place behind  Antonin GOURGIN (Labyrinth Shiman Racing), 1st and  Cedric LACASTE (ACCOUSVTT / Kona) in 2nd.

The official Maxiavalanche video can be viewed here. I’m in it at 07:06, shame I’m not so pinned, as I’m the one pushing back onto the track!