Headshot Posted August 19, 2015 Posted August 19, 2015 I am flying out of here on Friday evening and starting the race on Sunday. Feeling plenty nervous but excited. I have some bruised ribs sustained in a late evening training ride last week, but other than that am fairly fit ( for me), and my ITB is a thing of the past, so the legs will handle it. I have raced many of the Cape Town Enduros since 2013 but I think that while that may have taught me the format, the high alpine steepness in France will be a very different experience. Most of my stuff is packed and the bike is in pieces - disks off the wheels, derailleur off, extra padding and cardboard sourced and ready for the final packing session. I have tried to keep the weight down so spares will be a minimum - spare hanger, spare derailleur ( only because the current one is dodgy) and a spare tyre that will work front or back. Bike is my newish 26" S Works Enduro - 160mm front and back. Feel far more confident on this bike than my old Reign. Riding kit will probably be a full face, goggles or glasses, body protection, knee guards and elbow guards. I want to to try and keep crash related injuries to a minimum so that I can complete the whole week, so plan on wearing all my armour from day one, especially until I get used to the terrain. A big concern is bike reliability too, so I will have to ride carefully. There is provision in the rules for a use once only "wild card" ie if your stage goes pear shaped you can have the time nullified and they calculate a revised time based on the days other stages. According to the article below they have introduced a mass start stage with 1500m of descending. That sounds like a mini-avalanche and should be huge crazy fun. I will try and do some updates here every few days but if that doesn't happen will post some pics and a report when I am back in front of a PC. http://www.pinkbike.com/news/trans-savoie-2015-starts-soon.html
jake the snake Posted August 20, 2015 Posted August 20, 2015 Enjoy, I checked out the video...looks awesome!
Nofearnofun Posted August 27, 2015 Posted August 27, 2015 Living my dream! I expect an in depth race report!
Captain Fastbastard Mayhem Posted August 27, 2015 Posted August 27, 2015 Tim managed well on day 1, coming 34th in his age group, but unfortunately on St1 of day 2 he suffered a bad knee sprain and is currently on pain killers and stuff. Walking, but not riding. Speaking to him yesterday, he hopes to be able to ride a little bit more, after he's strapped his knee properly and let the swelling go down, but it wasn't looking good...
Headshot Posted September 7, 2015 Author Posted September 7, 2015 As Myles said, I had some rather bad luck on day 2 of the TS. Here is a report on the event with my impressions and take on the whole Alpine enduro thing. First of all, if you are used to riding tech trails ( even DH trails) and steep stuff in SA, don't for a moment think this will prepare you for this event. Yes, there is plenty of relatively similar terrain but there is also miles and miles of stuff that you would not have even thought of riding here in SA because it is basically steep, narrow and rocky hiking footpath. Then there is the extreme length of the trails - how does 8km and 1400m descent sound. It sounds like fun, and it is up to a point, but easy it is not when much of it is comprisedthe footpaths I mentioned above. I have never had hand pump before - my bike as Shimano SLX brakes and 203/180 mm brakes - on this event I did - and on my right hand from the back brake which you will use extensively on these trails and not even to skid, just to slow down and take the pressure off the front brake for the corners - millions of switch backs and so on.. Many of the bikes had Saint/Zee and SRAM 4 psiton brakes. All the bikes were very #enduro SC Nomads, Canyon Strives, Capra's, Spaz Enduro's, Orange, a few new Reigns and so on. I think the Nomad was the most popular bike. I set my bike up with more air in the fork to keep the front as high as possible. This sacrificed comfort and was overkill I think and probably helped the hand pump and general fatigue on the descents. I should have softened the rear more to keep the front slack in retrospect. The next thing I discovered was that the claimed 1000m of climbing a day is bollocks. They make this event a bit more extreme every year so we had 6 stages a day most days and closer to 1500 - 2000 m of climbing per day. Its fine because you have the whole day to do the stages, but it is worth bearing in mind. For instance on day 3 or 4 ( I missed it) there was a brutal 800m climb of over 10 km plus many other shorter ones. Day 5 which i attempted after my injury had six stages with a 300 plus m climb between each one.That was 660 m for the 2 stages I managed to complete... Expect to fall off a lot and get injured. Every rider from pro level on down came short repeatedly. Nico Lau who won was sporting a large bruise on his hip. There were several broken bones - wrists, ribs, pelvis, ankle and a spiral leg fracture that required an op. By the end most people had grazes and many had bandaged limbs. This in a field of only 130 odd. Comparatively speaking i got off lightly but was unlucky on Stage 1 of day 2 when I tried to unclip in a tech section and my shoe stayed on the bike while I toppled down a slope - I felt my ligament give but tried to ride on only to have my knee collapse repeatedly when I tried to unclip or put a foot out resulting in 2 more tumbled off the bike. I was forced to walk off the stage for 30 mins or so. Hindsight is a bitch, but after day 1 I should have loosened up my pedals significantly which would probably have prevented my injury. Flat pedals were very much in evidence on this race and if you are used to them, I'd say they are the answer for the slippery tech stuff especially in the rain, which we had for the first 2 days... The stages were rated by the TS according to either their own or some French system. A grade 4 trail was quite ridable by SA standards but when you giot to 5 or even 6 and 6 plus, you could expect even the pro's to be off the bike a bit. The video below is the winner, Nico Lau on stage 5 of day 1. This trail was one of the easier ones that day, but by SA standards it is long steep and very tricky. Compared to the really tech trails earlier in the day it was great to get onto something with a bit of speed. Note how Lau passes about 6 riders as if they are walking...I am not sure what they graded this stage as but it was probably a 4plus or a 5 ( just) I'll add some pics tomorrow. Feel free to ask me anything. Thinking of getting onto the Jonkers trail builders and demanding some double black tech single track there - ie some footpath with millions of steep switchbacks :-)
Captain Fastbastard Mayhem Posted September 7, 2015 Posted September 7, 2015 I'll add some pics tomorrow. Feel free to ask me anything. Thinking of getting onto the Jonkers trail builders and demanding some double black tech single track there - ie some footpath with millions of steep switchbacks :-)As I said to you before, dude - gutted you didn't get to ride more than you did, but I'm sure every bit of riding you did was fantastic, and eye opening. Re the bold bit - Bennett will love you for it. We NEED it here.
BaltazarMarques Posted September 9, 2015 Posted September 9, 2015 As Myles said, I had some rather bad luck on day 2 of the TS. Here is a report on the event with my impressions and take on the whole Alpine enduro thing. First of all, if you are used to riding tech trails ( even DH trails) and steep stuff in SA, don't for a moment think this will prepare you for this event. Yes, there is plenty of relatively similar terrain but there is also miles and miles of stuff that you would not have even thought of riding here in SA because it is basically steep, narrow and rocky hiking footpath. Then there is the extreme length of the trails - how does 8km and 1400m descent sound. It sounds like fun, and it is up to a point, but easy it is not when much of it is comprisedthe footpaths I mentioned above. I have never had hand pump before - my bike as Shimano SLX brakes and 203/180 mm brakes - on this event I did - and on my right hand from the back brake which you will use extensively on these trails and not even to skid, just to slow down and take the pressure off the front brake for the corners - millions of switch backs and so on.. Many of the bikes had Saint/Zee and SRAM 4 psiton brakes. All the bikes were very #enduro SC Nomads, Canyon Strives, Capra's, Spaz Enduro's, Orange, a few new Reigns and so on. I think the Nomad was the most popular bike. I set my bike up with more air in the fork to keep the front as high as possible. This sacrificed comfort and was overkill I think and probably helped the hand pump and general fatigue on the descents. I should have softened the rear more to keep the front slack in retrospect. The next thing I discovered was that the claimed 1000m of climbing a day is bollocks. They make this event a bit more extreme every year so we had 6 stages a day most days and closer to 1500 - 2000 m of climbing per day. Its fine because you have the whole day to do the stages, but it is worth bearing in mind. For instance on day 3 or 4 ( I missed it) there was a brutal 800m climb of over 10 km plus many other shorter ones. Day 5 which i attempted after my injury had six stages with a 300 plus m climb between each one.That was 660 m for the 2 stages I managed to complete... Expect to fall off a lot and get injured. Every rider from pro level on down came short repeatedly. Nico Lau who won was sporting a large bruise on his hip. There were several broken bones - wrists, ribs, pelvis, ankle and a spiral leg fracture that required an op. By the end most people had grazes and many had bandaged limbs. This in a field of only 130 odd. Comparatively speaking i got off lightly but was unlucky on Stage 1 of day 2 when I tried to unclip in a tech section and my shoe stayed on the bike while I toppled down a slope - I felt my ligament give but tried to ride on only to have my knee collapse repeatedly when I tried to unclip or put a foot out resulting in 2 more tumbled off the bike. I was forced to walk off the stage for 30 mins or so. Hindsight is a bitch, but after day 1 I should have loosened up my pedals significantly which would probably have prevented my injury. Flat pedals were very much in evidence on this race and if you are used to them, I'd say they are the answer for the slippery tech stuff especially in the rain, which we had for the first 2 days... The stages were rated by the TS according to either their own or some French system. A grade 4 trail was quite ridable by SA standards but when you giot to 5 or even 6 and 6 plus, you could expect even the pro's to be off the bike a bit. The video below is the winner, Nico Lau on stage 5 of day 1. This trail was one of the easier ones that day, but by SA standards it is long steep and very tricky. Compared to the really tech trails earlier in the day it was great to get onto something with a bit of speed. Note how Lau passes about 6 riders as if they are walking...I am not sure what they graded this stage as but it was probably a 4plus or a 5 ( just) I'll add some pics tomorrow. Feel free to ask me anything. Thinking of getting onto the Jonkers trail builders and demanding some double black tech single track there - ie some footpath with millions of steep switchbacks :-) Sounds like an incredible experience and obviously one you need to be a bit prepared for - Must have been crazy to be thrown into all that compared to what we have here in SA. Fitness I assume would be your best friend on a race/ride like this - Just to have anything left for the actual timed stages after all the liaisons - 1500 to 2000m climbing per day!!!! Madness, seriously doubt I'd be able to complete it to be honest, well not with all the belly fat I lug around... Thanks for the update and info and well done Dude. Hope your knee is back to strength soon.
Headshot Posted September 9, 2015 Author Posted September 9, 2015 The doctor has diagnosed an MCL ligament tear and I am back in a large articulated leg brace for a while. Still to confirm whether there is any other damage requiring an MRI or surgery. I am hoping it will come right with the brace and I'll be riding again in 6 weeks or less. We shall see. Here are a few pics off my phone taken in the Alps. I have more on my Gopro and may add a few more later:
Hairy Posted September 9, 2015 Posted September 9, 2015 The doctor has diagnosed an MCL ligament tear and I am back in a large articulated leg brace for a while. Still to confirm whether there is any other damage requiring an MRI or surgery. I am hoping it will come right with the brace and I'll be riding again in 6 weeks or less. We shall see. Here are a few pics off my phone taken in the Alps. I have more on my Gopro and may add a few more later:Heal well, heal soon!
Headshot Posted September 25, 2015 Author Posted September 25, 2015 Doctor seems relatively happy with my knee - I will start physio next week and should be able to ride again this time next month. No MRI needed or an op. My brace now allows me 90 deg of bend instead of 70 which makes driving and walking a lot easier... Despite many crashes, I have never been injured to this extent before. Being off my bike for so long is seriously getting me down. Only positive is I am getting more stuff done around the house...
Captain Fastbastard Mayhem Posted September 25, 2015 Posted September 25, 2015 Doctor seems relatively happy with my knee - I will start physio next week and should be able to ride again this time next month. No MRI needed or an op. My brace now allows me 90 deg of bend instead of 70 which makes driving and walking a lot easier... Despite many crashes, I have never been injured to this extent before. Being off my bike for so long is seriously getting me down. Only positive is I am getting more stuff done around the house...Flats.... Remember Harry's episode? But on the above - great news, Tim. Keep on with the recovery. It's long and arduous, and it won't ever be fully healed (damn knees) but it gets better with time and exercise.
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