Werner van der Merwe is an accomplished and experience Marathon and Stage Racer. In his quest to do something each year that puts him well outside his comfort zone, he entered the Mega Avalanche. Next stop, Breck Epic, Colorado. You can see his previous posts here.
Sunday –Mega Avalanche race day. Once again I find myself staring at the 10 minute to go board held up high by the French organiser. As before the qualifying race I’m slightly shaking but this is because I’m freezing my butt off. We’re a bit higher up this time at 3,300m on Pic Blanc and the start is covered in snow. This morning started off really early with my alarm going off at 5:00. In the original program Artho and I were supposed to be at the ski lift at 6:10 for our trip to the start. Upon arrival at the lift we were told that the whole program has moved an hour forward so our group would only be allowed on the lift at 7:10. Luckily one of the cafes were open as I wasn’t really looking forward to cycling down the hill just to return again a bit later.
After a nice cup of tea (my girlfriend thinks it sounds very suspect, but I have to remind her that I’m doing a DH endurance race) we caught our ski lift with the whole ride up spent in silence. Once out of the lift we had to line up in a very slow queue to get on the gondola that would take us to the top. It was overcast and windy which meant that we were freezing after 5 minutes. The cold would have been fine but we had to wait in the queue for over an hour and a half. Even though we were freezing it turned out to be a blessing as it meant less time up at the top in the snow where it was 2⁰C. As with the qualifyer it almost felt as if we were on our way to a funeral with nobody in the mood for small talk apart from captain Chatty behind us who started to irritate Artho. I had my helmet on because of the cold so luckily I couldn’t hear most of it.
Once we got to the top there was not that much time left to line up. Some guys had to lift our bikes over some pipes. Glad I didn’t have their job as lifting 250 DH bikes couldn’t have been a walk in the park. So here I find myself doing my mental checklist. Padding – check, neck-brace – check, bike – check, travel insurance – check, courage – missing. Well no more time for introspection as the music just started and the 1 minute board is up. Off we go. Carnage again but this time we are sliding all over the snow. Some people are trying to ride in the snow but decide it is quicker to run with the bike (not that easy with XC clipless shoes). We were told that there isn’t that much snow compared to previous years so the run through the first snow section doesn’t last that long. Out of the snow it is back on the bike trying to ride through the loose rocks. The came another snow section and back to running. We hit the ice field and some guys have the balls to go for it full speed (actually quite grippy) but I end up walking most of it. At last we out of the snow and ice and I haven’t come off once but that is more due to my lack of courage to go for it full speed. I’ve stopped counting the number of crashes I’ve seen so far and we are only into the first 10 minutes of the race. Into the rocky singletrack and once again I get off at certain sections and run it while some other guys ride down. I see one guy come off quite hard at exactly the same spot I crashed during our practice run.
I’m almost out of the top section with all the rocky single track. One last time to run down a rocky section. I jump on the bike and try and clip in but cannot. As I look down to see what is happening I find that I no longer have a left pedal. Luckily I find that the pedal unscrewed itself and is stuck to my shoes. I get off the track and start looking for my multi tool to attach the pedal again. Now the problem with riding with a DH camelbak is that you end up putting too much stuff in the bag and it takes me ages to find my tool. At last I find it after a lot of swearing. I put the tool down to turn the bike over and the search for the damn thing starts all over again. More swearing follows but at last I find it and attach the pedal. By now loads of guys have passed me but there is nothing to do but to try and chase them down on the flat section between the top half and bottom half of the course that runs by Alp’ d Huez. Being on an all mountain bike helps a lot and I start picking off the guys on their heavier bikes. On the small ‘climb’ (climb in DH terms as people are pushing but really a small rise in XC terms) I pass Artho but I’m unable to give him a shout as the altitude is taking it out of me. Afterwards he told me I looked like I was on a mission as I weaved through the people.
The bottom section is more suited to my riding style and it helps that we have practiced a couple of times. Managing to pick off few more people, I manage to only slide out onto my side in two muddy corners. It is crazy as I keep on seeing people crashing off the course at regular intervals. I’m really enjoying myself now on the fast dusty sections and it is all too soon that we are out of the last singletrack section. One last sprint to gain one position and I’m over the line. 1:11 and I’m 72nd out of the 221 finishers in the C. I’m just glad I’m alive with no injuries (or so I thought)! Artho however ran into some difficulties – broke his front brake in a crash and a puncture.
A bus ride and 2 lifts and we are back at the top of Alp’ d Huez. Now that the adrenalin has worn off the run down into town is murder on my finger. The plan was to do some riding in the afternoon but given my broken finger I decide to jump in the car and make a run for the Eurotunnel train. 9 hour drive with very load music and I find myself at Calais at 23:30. Next train is only at 01:50 so I get my computer out and watch some of our riding clips. I don’t want to fall asleep now as the next train is only at 04:00.
Luckily I stayed awake and got home at 03:00 in the morning. Common sense prevailed and I decided to have my finger checked out at A&E but find the queues far too long (and the people waiting were kind of scary –some looked like they just came from a roller skating party). I found out later that I actually broke my pinky on that first day – that explains why it was hurting most of the week.
My tips for Mega Avalanche? Never buy white cycling shorts. They may look very nice on the first day but you will never get them white again! Great experience that really took me out of my comfort zone.