Champery & Val di Sole World Cups

Champery

After a month long break from World Cup racing the circus moved to Champery, Switzerland, only a hop skip and a jump from the RDR team base in Morzine.

The team arrived to a hot sunny day in the Alps and after the palaver of trying to find a place to set up the RDR pits it was off for a track walk. The track was like nothing either of the boys had ridden before with the gradient being very steep for the entire 4 minute track, throw in a few large jumps and you’ve got the sickest downhill course on the world cup circuit.

Practice day dawned bright and sunny, and the boys enjoyed a few good runs getting the jumps dialed in and having an all-round blast on the technical track. Shortly after practice however the skies opened up bringing rain which would last for the rest of the weekend.

After a soggy night spent in tents the riders woke to a very wet track. First impression were that the track wasn’t too bad but after a mornings practice axle deep ruts and bogs were forming everywhere. Qualifying proved to be very tough, with both riders having multiple falls on what was now basically a mud slide. James ended up 120th and Dan 122nd; both riders felt that without crashes a top 80 position would have been within their grasp.

Val di Sole

A wet weekend in Champery was contrasted by the hot hills of Italy, where mud bogs were replaced with dust bowls for the next round of the World Cup at Val di sole.

The team was greeted to a hot day and 5 star accommodation in a post modern hotel at the top of the DH course which rose spirits after the previous weekend spent in tents. Track walk yielded a steep, rough and dry track with heaps of natural sections keeping the riders smiling all weekend. After track walk it was back to the hotel pool where the team enjoyed some time relaxing and reminiscing on their primary school days my playing a game of whirlpool.

Practice day was thankfully dry and dusty and the riders seized the opportunity to get a few runs in, the track proved to be a blast and was a hit with all riders. As has become a habit at world cups it decided to rain just before top 80 practice making the course into an oil slick with roots catching riders out in the steep section at the top (See James getting wild here http://www.pinkbike.com/photo/5412770/). Thankfully however the track dried up perfectly for qualifying day.

Dry qualifying meant a tricky tire choice with both riders deciding to stay on spikes in the loamy conditions. Once again though qualifying didn’t go well for the RDR boys with both riders having multiple crashes meaning they would sit out Sundays final.

And that’s a wrap. The end of RDR's European race season. The team would like to thank its sponsors (check them out on the left) without which the team would not be possible. Thanks guys.

European Races - Argentera and Illmenau

Argentera

After a relaxing week at Chalet Elane in Morzine, the RDR team decided to miss the IXS race in Leogang and head through the Mont Blanc tunnel into Italy to the European Cup race in Argentera.

The team arrived late Friday night after the Navman said Argentera was an empty paddock in the middle of nowhere, 2 hours from our actual destination.

Saturday morning dawned sunny after substantial rain the night before. After a track walk the team as stoked to see an awesome loamy track with lots of tight wooded sections up top followed by fast grass turns to finish. A few pratice runs followed by another downpour saw the track dialled in with cut spikes being the choice of the day, the track was getting rough and was going to provide tough racing for the following day.

Race day came and yet another hot and fine with the track only a little slick from the downpour the day before, after a few more practice runs the team was ready for qualifying. Qualifying was up and down for the team with James qualifying 18^th and Dan 25^th both having multiple crashes in their runs.

A long wait til race runs the boys grabbed some food and chilled out. With the chairlift taking a good 30 minutes to get to the top followed by a short track to the start line the team decided to go up early. Unfortunately on arrival to the start line it appeared both riders had missed their race runs and with the Italian race officals understanding little English the only thing left to do was roll to the bottom disappointed with two DNS results. A definite lesson learnt by the RDR team.

Illmenau

RDR was a one man band for the IXS race in Illmenau, Germany as Dan came down with a cold so decided to stay in Morzine so it was just James and NZ junior Sam ‘Breaker’ Baker embarking on the 9 hour drive into Germany.

We arrived to blistering hot temperatures and a fresh dry track which was a nice change from the wet races previous. The track was short around the 2 min mark and relatively flat so carrying speed was going to be essential. After a few runs on Friday afternoon it was off to the local pools for a few ‘manus’ and hydroslide madness.

Saturday was qualifying day so James grabbed a few runs to get the now rough track dialled in, after which it was a long wait before qualifying so the decision was made to once again hit the pools as the temperatures soured into the high 30’s. As Germany was playing in the soccer world cup that afternoon the game was aired and the top and bottom of the hill with beers and bratwurst to keep the german punters happy.

Qualifying went well with James qualifying in the top 50 with an off track excursion in the lower part of the course, ending up 10 seconds off the leader.

Race day Sunday was another scorcher and with the track now completely blown out it was going to make for tough racing come race runs in the afternoon. After a few more practice runs and yet another long wait it was crunch time. James was able to take 6 seconds off his qualifier to place 35^th out of the staked 150 elite riders. Sam ‘Breaker’ Baker was also on a hot time until he hit a tree in the lower part of the course breaking his forks and yet again living up to his nickname.

The team now head to Alpe De Huez for the sprint avalanche only 2 days after Illmenau.

Fort William Race Report from D thorn

Baker Breaker and I headed north after the IXS race in Innerleithen to pick up Team Manager Sara Good from Edinburgh and continue through to Fort William for our first world cup. The Peugot sexpert performed admirably on the Scottish roads with the only hiccup occurring during a passing manoeuvre in which the rear doors blew open as we overtook the Monster Energy Specialised team truck. Gutted. We arrived at No Fuss event head-quarters and pitched the tents on an elevated patch overlooking the famous Aonach Moor. We had been warned about the midgies but the sun was out and looking like it was going to stay, 11pm and still light as day we hit the sack ready for track walk the following day.

The track walk was long, and the top didn’t appear as rough as everyone on the movies had made out but it was clear the track would be physical and longer than anything we have ever ridden. We returned back to home base eagerly anticipating practise the following day. Unfortunately “non-dark” sleeping conditions weren’t the best, but temperatures were good and the Scottish hospitality was amazing, haggis and whiskey, good days.
Practise kicked off on the Saturday and the first impression was that the track was loose and crazy fast. The gravel straights were very hard packed and steeper than they looked, as soon as the brakes were off, the bike would accelerate heaps faster than on typical dirt based tracks. It wasn’t too rough, but it was really long and it was hard to keep focused and remember all the lines. On my third run I hit the final chute without braking and over-jumped the ‘step up’ into the finish arena to flat. Luckily the bike ate it up and I rode away unharmed, but closer to the end of the day I drifted wide on one of the flat loose turns at the top of the track and got out in the ‘pebbles’. I ended up losing the front end and going down hard hurting my hand and munching my forearm up. Not fun. Other than that I didn’t feel bad on the track and could remember all my lines by the end of the day. The bike was handling the rough stuff well, but I felt like I didn’t have enough time to work on the shock setup and traction was not as good as it could be at the top of the track. Unfortunately at the world cups you have limited time to get everything sorted before qualifying, so I have learnt some valuable lessons about preparation for next time!

Qualifying day kicked off and for the first time I got to run the team bike with our white Sun Ringle race wheelset. The bike looked amazing and the wheels were lighter and faster than my practise set which was sweet. I managed to get 2 practise runs in and then had the long wait until qualifying in the afternoon. Thankfully the weather was great and the crowds were massive! The atmosphere at the bottom of the track was amazing and during my ride back to the team van a local Scottish news presenter nabbed me and I did an interview with him for the local news station. This ended up adding to the nerves a bit! Next thing I know I am in the start hut and the 10 second count has begun. I had forgotten what it is like to be racing a world cup and I was feeling the nerves big time. 5 seconds, I took off and attacked the first turn and over the hip jump. Jumped a bit far, lost time going wide a dabbing on turn two. Too early to be making mistakes I said to myself, settle down and find some flow. Turns out I settled down a bit much and crossed the first split in 140 something position! Not a great start!
The nerves seemed to leave me in the rough, rocky middle section and I was much more at home hitting my lines and keeping things tidy. After a few minutes of abuse on both the bikes and my body I got through the rocks and entered the first tight section in the woods. I backed off a fair bit and hit my lines, exiting fast. A bit too fast it seems, next thing I was too inside to take a loose left turn and the front was washing. I was down and instantly knew that was qualifying done for me. I hoped on the bike as fast as I could and continued down the track trying to regain composure and attack the remaining sections. I finished well, crossing the line in 80th position beating 20 of the people ranked higher than me. I was disappointed but felt I had been taught a good lesson in race prep and couldn’t help but look forward to the next race in Austria.
The next day fellow kiwi Cam Cole did the business and finished second behind Gee Atherton, giving all the kiwis a performance to strive to for at the next races. Following the race we loaded up the freshly stickered team van and headed for home base in Morzine, France 26 hours away.
I would like to thank Spook and Mo for having us (check out No Fuss events) and Sara for all her hard work behind the scenes. I would also like to thank Clayton from HBG for helping us with the new wheels, bars and brakes.

Red Dog IS international - officially

Hello fellow mountain bikers and general good folk,

I am currently sitting in the living room of the Brycelands house in Poynton, Stockport United Kingdom. Josh's mum has just made an amazingly good smelling chicken curry and we are about to get stuck in, so this is just a brief update.

Firstly, I wanted to STRESS the amount of STRESS involved with travelling to the north to race mountain bikes. This was our schedule:

4 hours to Brisbane
2 hours wait
14 hours to Dubai
3 hours wait
7 hours to Heathrow
2 hours organising a rental
4 hours driving
Arrived.

Total = 36 hours, maybe 6 hours sleep and its light until 10pm at night, GREAT!.

So for anyone out there thinking about coming over and racing your bike on this side of the globe, it requires patience, lots of hydration, a level of commitment that is 'up there' and most of all some form of inner excitation that allows you to keep positive during the epic journey over here. That is all.

Once you are here it is sick. Sam, Sara and me have recently made a few great necessary purchases. We now have a van, the 'Sexpert' which will get us all to the races and to home base in the French Alps. We also have some swanky new tents that appear as though they would fit in nicely in the year 2014 and that pop up in 2 seconds flat. Impressive to say the least. This afternoon we went for a spin up through a national park. I got to ride a carbon blur xc and Sam got to ride the new APP carbon 29er. Syndicate watch out!
We also got to do some DH runs up the road at a quarry, short and rocky but super fun and good to blow out some travel cob webs!

Anyways, off to dinner and will add some photos tomorrow!

Dan