Chopper the ex Copper
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Re: The French Connection!
Sweet holiday. Enjoy!
Sweet holiday. Enjoy!
The French Connection! now with Alpe d'Huez pics and vid!
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We_are_Stevo
Old School Grand Master
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Re: The French Connection!
...though may be advisable to put the van through the car wash before some eagle-eyed Traffic Cop spots your bug-count when you're back this side of the water!
...though may be advisable to put the van through the car wash before some eagle-eyed Traffic Cop spots your bug-count when you're back this side of the water!
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Re: The French Connection!
day 2
today i got up and thought i'd try to find some for want of a better description 'off piste' stuff, didn't really happen but as a result i decided to use the ST4 which has only 4inch at the back and 5 1/2 inch at the front, that said i love the way this frame rides, just feels like it has more travel than that and climbs pretty well on technical stuff.
the route was similar to yesterday as i wanted to compare the ride from the Patriot i rode before, initially the ST4 was a winner, off the top of the super morzine lifts was faster, easier and just simply better, everyone else seemed slow around me but then it is gravel track initially then singletrack but all a bit up and down but peddally which suited the bike, then came the first actual descent, which is a bit of a means to an end to get to another lift, it's rocky, rooty but fun and surprisingly not that bad on the ST4, and again once on the pedally section it's a winner, this section is also sort of in 2 parts and the downhillers were again faffing like nobodies business, basically if you can imagine a trail centre were there is a natural stop in the trail, like the top of a climb when you wait for your mate or the bottom of a downhill when you wait for your mate or just randomly stop to adjust your camelback/helmet/tyre pressure/belt/helmet cam/seatpost height, you name it! if there was a option for stopping they did and its the main reason i was constantly overtaking downhillers, they keep stopping!! :roll: the good ones stay to the side of the trail though but the numpties spread out like some sort of trail rot! :facepalm:
when i got to the mossette lift there was a big queue, which is rare here so i just chilled out and waited for the queue to go down, at this point everything was perfectly sunny and dry, this was to change later i descend to morgins and the got a lift out of the valley towards champoussan but the trail was closed as they were doing some work on one of the lifts for the winter season so i had to pick up a track that took me way lower than i wanted to go meaning that i had to climb back up to where i needed to be to carry on the route, just aswel i was on the ST4 then! i got round to the next lift and was met with strange looks as i was basically an outcast for not being on a downhill bike! :| whatever!
the next bit of trail winds around the edge of a mountain pass towards croset and after a descent followed by another climb chucks me out down a four cross course but is realistically more of a short downhill course, i then had to get the lift back up to the mossette to meet up with Carl and Sian and their friend Robin for lunch, this meant hitting puncture alley like yesterday, the top section is wet and rocky with loose rocks all over, this is where i really missed the patriot! i downhiller overtook me like i was stood still!beaten i headed to Mamo's place in Linderet, it's cool, quality food and not daft money which is rare over here!
lunch eaten and the thunder and lightning started :shock: the lifts around us closed this meant that we could still get back to the chalet no problem but effectively cut us off from the trail we wanted to do, now what most people do out here when that happens is just head home, we decided to climb from linderet to avoriaz, only 6km on the road but a bit of a slog! i did most of it in mid ring 2/3/4 and wasn't too dead at the top at which point the heavens opened just as we crested the top, we took cover under some trees as the hail stones were beating us to bits, we waited for it to ease up then headed off initaillt down a trail which then picked up the road to morzine but then picked up a track called 'stingers' because you have to ride through some nettles to get to it, steep, wet rooty, off camber, the St4 was fine but the nobby nic tyres at this point were not fun to riding! managed to get down there ok though with only 3 dabs! we then rolled back to the chalet with the intention of getting cleaned up and hitting Bar Robinson for a Mutzig or 2 but the look on everyones face said, "i'm dead, perhaps not!"
next surprise was that Ffion Griffiths was having dinner with us, not to mention Emmeline Ragot, for those that don't know, Ffion is pretty handy on a bike to say the least and Emmeline is the french national DH champ and also the current DH World Champ! how awesome is that, both were top girls and happy to chat, not to mention Ffion's T5 van is way cooler than mine :x and it's running 20 inch wheels (something i want) and is the 174bhp (something i couldn't afford) and has a really cool finish on it which turns out that is what she's been up to, somewhere between paint and vinyl rap, wierd but cool and only £600 to do :twisted:
anyway, here's some pics from the day, hope you like them
day 2
today i got up and thought i'd try to find some for want of a better description 'off piste' stuff, didn't really happen but as a result i decided to use the ST4 which has only 4inch at the back and 5 1/2 inch at the front, that said i love the way this frame rides, just feels like it has more travel than that and climbs pretty well on technical stuff.
the route was similar to yesterday as i wanted to compare the ride from the Patriot i rode before, initially the ST4 was a winner, off the top of the super morzine lifts was faster, easier and just simply better, everyone else seemed slow around me but then it is gravel track initially then singletrack but all a bit up and down but peddally which suited the bike, then came the first actual descent, which is a bit of a means to an end to get to another lift, it's rocky, rooty but fun and surprisingly not that bad on the ST4, and again once on the pedally section it's a winner, this section is also sort of in 2 parts and the downhillers were again faffing like nobodies business, basically if you can imagine a trail centre were there is a natural stop in the trail, like the top of a climb when you wait for your mate or the bottom of a downhill when you wait for your mate or just randomly stop to adjust your camelback/helmet/tyre pressure/belt/helmet cam/seatpost height, you name it! if there was a option for stopping they did and its the main reason i was constantly overtaking downhillers, they keep stopping!! :roll: the good ones stay to the side of the trail though but the numpties spread out like some sort of trail rot! :facepalm:
when i got to the mossette lift there was a big queue, which is rare here so i just chilled out and waited for the queue to go down, at this point everything was perfectly sunny and dry, this was to change later
i descend to morgins and the got a lift out of the valley towards champoussan but the trail was closed as they were doing some work on one of the lifts for the winter season so i had to pick up a track that took me way lower than i wanted to go meaning that i had to climb back up to where i needed to be to carry on the route, just aswel i was on the ST4 then! i got round to the next lift and was met with strange looks as i was basically an outcast for not being on a downhill bike! :| whatever!the next bit of trail winds around the edge of a mountain pass towards croset and after a descent followed by another climb chucks me out down a four cross course but is realistically more of a short downhill course, i then had to get the lift back up to the mossette to meet up with Carl and Sian and their friend Robin for lunch, this meant hitting puncture alley like yesterday, the top section is wet and rocky with loose rocks all over, this is where i really missed the patriot! i downhiller overtook me like i was stood still!beaten i headed to Mamo's place in Linderet, it's cool, quality food and not daft money which is rare over here!
lunch eaten and the thunder and lightning started :shock: the lifts around us closed
this meant that we could still get back to the chalet no problem but effectively cut us off from the trail we wanted to do, now what most people do out here when that happens is just head home, we decided to climb from linderet to avoriaz, only 6km on the road but a bit of a slog! i did most of it in mid ring 2/3/4 and wasn't too dead at the top at which point the heavens opened just as we crested the top, we took cover under some trees as the hail stones were beating us to bits, we waited for it to ease up then headed off initaillt down a trail which then picked up the road to morzine but then picked up a track called 'stingers' because you have to ride through some nettles to get to it, steep, wet rooty, off camber, the St4 was fine but the nobby nic tyres at this point were not fun to riding! managed to get down there ok though with only 3 dabs! we then rolled back to the chalet with the intention of getting cleaned up and hitting Bar Robinson for a Mutzig or 2 but the look on everyones face said, "i'm dead, perhaps not!"next surprise was that Ffion Griffiths was having dinner with us, not to mention Emmeline Ragot, for those that don't know, Ffion is pretty handy on a bike to say the least and Emmeline is the french national DH champ and also the current DH World Champ! how awesome is that, both were top girls and happy to chat, not to mention Ffion's T5 van is way cooler than mine :x and it's running 20 inch wheels (something i want) and is the 174bhp (something i couldn't afford) and has a really cool finish on it which turns out that is what she's been up to, somewhere between paint and vinyl rap, wierd but cool and only £600 to do :twisted:
anyway, here's some pics from the day, hope you like them
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Re: The French Connection!
arghh forgot about the description for those pics!! :facepalm:
the bikes might not have been retro but the music was!! JBJ slippery when wet, class 80's! . . . . :facepalm:
also the pic with the hilux truck, behind it was a guy in a neck brace etc, his bike is to the right of the truck (it had been picked up after he crashed) he was riding a retro bike, not of any note but it was a large frame with abasic suspension fork with canti brakes, a dangerous combination for these trails, and that was just 200metres from getting off the lift still on a gravel road.
retro has a time and place and morzine is neither.
arghh forgot about the description for those pics!! :facepalm:
the bikes might not have been retro but the music was!!
JBJ slippery when wet, class 80's! . . . . :facepalm: also the pic with the hilux truck, behind it was a guy in a neck brace etc, his bike is to the right of the truck (it had been picked up after he crashed) he was riding a retro bike, not of any note but it was a large frame with abasic suspension fork with canti brakes, a dangerous combination for these trails, and that was just 200metres from getting off the lift still on a gravel road.
retro has a time and place and morzine is neither.
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Re: The French Connection!
day 3
today i felt a bit crap, mainly just a bit achey, getting old i guess! so i figured today was the day to get the road bike out. i decided i was gonna climb the Col de Joux Plane, i have climbed this years ago but starting directly from Morzine which is considered the easier side to climb, today i was doing it the hard way, the same way the Tour went up it when Landis wiped the floor with everybody after cracking the day before on alpe d'huez, and was then found to be drugged up to the eyeballs!!
so i headed out of Morzine towards Les Gets, not a particularly hard climb as such but then it goes down out of town in a nice little downhill section at which point i took the quieter option for the rest of the descent into Taninges just to avoid the main road with all the traffic, next i tured on to the main road at the bottom of the valley and headed towards Samoens, initially i was surprised at my speed as i thought this road was a slight incline but i was spinning along on the top ring in 3/4/5 at the back quite happily, when i got to Samoens i decided to have coffee before the big climb.
then the pain started, 1st gear for about 12KM, steep to start with then it slightly eases then gets harder then the last 2KM is not too bad, i have recorded this on Strava and i will post the link so you can see how slow i was! that said the Strava KOM is held by team Garmin at 35mins, i took nearly 2 hours!!! that said the weird thing is that i don't feel that bad, a bit of muscle ache but no bad back or neck which frankly really surprised at but also really happy about.
towards the top i started chatting with a guy called Rob and rode the last few KM with him, he was riding an Orange C16R but set up for the road, slicks etc, top bloke so we had a drink at the top in the cafe before i then left him as i wanted to give it the beans on the descent which seemed over way to quickly!
http://www.strava.com/activities/66068080
i checked the details on Strava, the hardest gradient was 26% :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:
anyway here are some pics
day 3
today i felt a bit crap, mainly just a bit achey, getting old i guess! so i figured today was the day to get the road bike out. i decided i was gonna climb the Col de Joux Plane, i have climbed this years ago but starting directly from Morzine which is considered the easier side to climb, today i was doing it the hard way, the same way the Tour went up it when Landis wiped the floor with everybody after cracking the day before on alpe d'huez, and was then found to be drugged up to the eyeballs!!
so i headed out of Morzine towards Les Gets, not a particularly hard climb as such but then it goes down out of town in a nice little downhill section at which point i took the quieter option for the rest of the descent into Taninges just to avoid the main road with all the traffic, next i tured on to the main road at the bottom of the valley and headed towards Samoens, initially i was surprised at my speed as i thought this road was a slight incline but i was spinning along on the top ring in 3/4/5 at the back quite happily, when i got to Samoens i decided to have coffee before the big climb.
then the pain started, 1st gear for about 12KM, steep to start with then it slightly eases then gets harder then the last 2KM is not too bad, i have recorded this on Strava and i will post the link so you can see how slow i was!
that said the Strava KOM is held by team Garmin at 35mins, i took nearly 2 hours!!! that said the weird thing is that i don't feel that bad, a bit of muscle ache but no bad back or neck which frankly really surprised at but also really happy about.towards the top i started chatting with a guy called Rob and rode the last few KM with him, he was riding an Orange C16R
but set up for the road, slicks etc, top bloke so we had a drink at the top in the cafe before i then left him as i wanted to give it the beans on the descent which seemed over way to quickly! http://www.strava.com/activities/66068080
i checked the details on Strava, the hardest gradient was 26% :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:
anyway here are some pics
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Re: The French Connection!
the guy who is second on Strava is registered on here ( Sylvain ) . He came to several meets a few years ago . Used to live in Croydon , but now lives in France .
the guy who is second on Strava is registered on here ( Sylvain ) . He came to several meets a few years ago . Used to live in Croydon , but now lives in France .
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Re: The French Connection!
wow, he did it in 45 mins! :shock: never in my dreams could i do that!
wow, he did it in 45 mins! :shock: never in my dreams could i do that!
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