21 October 2005
And another season is over... The big season final at the Roc d'azur was even bigger this year. Entries closed 2 weeks before as they passed the 10,000 limit. The spectator/show turnout was said to be over 100,000! With perfect weather we rode our last race with many of the worlds best. It wasn't to be my day, and I took my vacation about 1hr too early. Susi showed the world he's da man, and kicked ass. My preparation was anything but ideal, with team negotiations going strong all the previous week. Eventually its worked out really well and I'm very happy with the result... an update will follow shortly!
Actually the past few weeks were pretty hard for the head and I have not done any formal training at all. Instead I went with Susi and Freddy on an awesome free ride mission in some swiss mountains of the Valais area. It turned out to be one of the coolest experiences. The idea was to make a big loop over some big mountain passes, ride all day, but have a heap of fun, and at night find a nice hotel, drink some beers and eat well. What a luxury!
The first day was just a short one.. we were joined by 4 other swiss riders we rode from Kandersteg over a big pass to Leukerbad. The final decent was down a huge cliff face.. the track was 1m wide with a drop of 100m at the edge. I'm not usually one to wimp out, but this time I decided to take the gondola down! Needless to say, vertical heights don't do it for me! That night we ate pizza and took a relaxed in the thermal pools.
Susi had the route all planed out, so looking at the map for day 2 we had 2 major mountain passes to concour. We discovered an awesome walking track where we could keep the speed, yet the non-stop obstacles gave us constant entertainment. All the while with a panaramic view of the Mont Blanc mountain range in all its beauty. Arriving into the heights above the ski village of La Grand Montana, we found a ready built free-ride down hill course fully marked out. Racing down at full speed we suddenly realised that Freddy was not following. After 10m waiting a rather annoyed looking Kessiakof arrived with bad news... his 140 aluminium disk (which we use for racing, and he had been too lazy to change!) had melted completely! After a coffee and cake brake we went searching for parts, but the small shops had nothing to help... luckily we were not too far from his car, so he could bail out and go home. It wasn't dark yet, so Susi and I did one last valley with another wicked descent before climbing up to Anzere. With 7-8hrs in the saddle, I was feeling pretty blown, and then after 2 beers.. pretty darn drunk!
Day 3, we had big ambitions to make it back to base.. looking at the map I was seriously not sure, but hey, Susi does this all the time.. he should know.. right!?
We started off with an incredible and for me, scary, ridge descent.. then a 2.5hr road climb up to Col de Sanetsch. There we found the most gorgeous mountain restaurant, which would only serve wild game meat.. so we ended up just eating the apple cake! Quickly back on the bikes we hit 2 more big descents and climbs. With darkness approaching and after another 8hrs in the saddle, we were still 2 mountains away from home... oh well... another nice hotel and awesome meal coming up! Finally we finished off the expedition with a nice 4hr ride with some of the best single tracks of the whole tour.. which just made me want to do it all again.
I think I'll be doing some more of this in the future!!!
Actually the past few weeks were pretty hard for the head and I have not done any formal training at all. Instead I went with Susi and Freddy on an awesome free ride mission in some swiss mountains of the Valais area. It turned out to be one of the coolest experiences. The idea was to make a big loop over some big mountain passes, ride all day, but have a heap of fun, and at night find a nice hotel, drink some beers and eat well. What a luxury!
The first day was just a short one.. we were joined by 4 other swiss riders we rode from Kandersteg over a big pass to Leukerbad. The final decent was down a huge cliff face.. the track was 1m wide with a drop of 100m at the edge. I'm not usually one to wimp out, but this time I decided to take the gondola down! Needless to say, vertical heights don't do it for me! That night we ate pizza and took a relaxed in the thermal pools.
Susi had the route all planed out, so looking at the map for day 2 we had 2 major mountain passes to concour. We discovered an awesome walking track where we could keep the speed, yet the non-stop obstacles gave us constant entertainment. All the while with a panaramic view of the Mont Blanc mountain range in all its beauty. Arriving into the heights above the ski village of La Grand Montana, we found a ready built free-ride down hill course fully marked out. Racing down at full speed we suddenly realised that Freddy was not following. After 10m waiting a rather annoyed looking Kessiakof arrived with bad news... his 140 aluminium disk (which we use for racing, and he had been too lazy to change!) had melted completely! After a coffee and cake brake we went searching for parts, but the small shops had nothing to help... luckily we were not too far from his car, so he could bail out and go home. It wasn't dark yet, so Susi and I did one last valley with another wicked descent before climbing up to Anzere. With 7-8hrs in the saddle, I was feeling pretty blown, and then after 2 beers.. pretty darn drunk!
Day 3, we had big ambitions to make it back to base.. looking at the map I was seriously not sure, but hey, Susi does this all the time.. he should know.. right!?
We started off with an incredible and for me, scary, ridge descent.. then a 2.5hr road climb up to Col de Sanetsch. There we found the most gorgeous mountain restaurant, which would only serve wild game meat.. so we ended up just eating the apple cake! Quickly back on the bikes we hit 2 more big descents and climbs. With darkness approaching and after another 8hrs in the saddle, we were still 2 mountains away from home... oh well... another nice hotel and awesome meal coming up! Finally we finished off the expedition with a nice 4hr ride with some of the best single tracks of the whole tour.. which just made me want to do it all again.
I think I'll be doing some more of this in the future!!!
