MEGA race in France

I have been waiting patiently for the most exciting event in my race calendar to come along again, this event was slightly different to what I am used to doing, this was the Megavalanche.

Monday morning and I was on my way to Liverpool airport, with it raining I was glad to be leaving it behind. Signing on for the race wasn't until Wednesday so I had a couple of days to get acclimatised and ready. Excitement hit me as I was finally on the lift making my way up to the summit of Pic Blanc. Maybe I should have eased myself into riding a few trails before heading straight to the summit and tackling the snow which is possibly one of the most daunting aspects of the race. I thought my technique of sliding on my back steering with my feet worked well, it got me down that glacier at speed! We all decided as a group to practice the whole mega track first thing Wednesday so we could then play on the quali track for the next couple of days.

Quali didn't quite start off how id hoped, with 2 riders ploughing into the side of me getting caught up in my bars and dragging me down. I escaped and got back on only to have it happen again a few corners later. Finally I settled in and enjoyed the fantastic track that made its way through Alpe D’Huez with lots of spectators all the way down to Village Huez. I qualified to get onto the second row of the main race.

My downhill bike was perfect for the qualifying track as it was rocky and all downhill but it was a bit of a tank to ride it on the mega track.

Saturday morning and I was wide awake before my alarm went off. A mixture of nerves and excitement woke me up, after a bowl of cereal and a banana I was on my way to the lift station. Fion was very supportive. As a last minute decision she put an adjustable seat post on my heavy machine. I was thankful for that while riding the flat sapping parts of the course and the cheeky ascents that were thrown in. My Marmot Zion jacket was perfect for the delayed start on the summit. It was cold, toes and fingers were starting to go numb. I finished in 49th out of 78 with a time of 1 hour 28 mins. It was the best race I've done this year and I cant wait to go back again.