Megavalanche 2020

PB Forum :: United Kingdom
Megavalanche 2020
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flag konabigshed
Posted: Jul 9, 2017 at 12:50 Quote
Travel66 wrote:
So am I understanding this right.....

There were 1,500 male entrants divided into 10 qualifying groups of 150 each...

Post qualification they were supposed to be allocated as follows....
350 Megavalanche (338 finishers)
350 Mega Challenger (305)
250 Mega Amateurs (187)
350 Affinity 1
200 Affinity 2

But there was no Affinity 2 meaning 550 were all lumped into Affinity
There were only 209 finishers in Affinity? presumably that was caused by the time limit?
I had two friends who didn't bother with affinity because it wasn't a mass start, maybe others felt the same.
flag mizzter-b
Posted: Jul 9, 2017 at 13:51 Quote
konabigshed wrote:
swight95 wrote:
Hey I"m a dad trying to find out how my kid did over in France
he's racing Enduro in the mega avalanche yesterday/today

where's the link to the results?
and or vid

thanks for your help
Look on the Megavalanche Web site and scroll down past registration and you'll see results.
You will need to know which group he raced in.

http://www.timingzone.com/megavalanche-alpe-dhuez-2017/#7_1D0E30
flag amonas
Posted: Jul 9, 2017 at 14:29 Quote
konabigshed wrote:
Travel66 wrote:
So am I understanding this right.....

There were 1,500 male entrants divided into 10 qualifying groups of 150 each...

Post qualification they were supposed to be allocated as follows....
350 Megavalanche (338 finishers)
350 Mega Challenger (305)
250 Mega Amateurs (187)
350 Affinity 1
200 Affinity 2

But there was no Affinity 2 meaning 550 were all lumped into Affinity
There were only 209 finishers in Affinity? presumably that was caused by the time limit?
I had two friends who didn't bother with affinity because it wasn't a mass start, maybe others felt the same.

I also want to ask about the timings in the big category.was the course changed due to some reason, or should I sell my bike and start playing badminton?...I cannot even imagine sb riding the whole course we did on Saturday in 23 mins.....
flag mizzter-b
Posted: Jul 9, 2017 at 21:03 Quote
konabigshed wrote:
Travel66 wrote:
So am I understanding this right.....

There were 1,500 male entrants divided into 10 qualifying groups of 150 each...

Post qualification they were supposed to be allocated as follows....
350 Megavalanche (338 finishers)
350 Mega Challenger (305)
250 Mega Amateurs (187)
350 Affinity 1
200 Affinity 2

But there was no Affinity 2 meaning 550 were all lumped into Affinity
There were only 209 finishers in Affinity? presumably that was caused by the time limit?
I had two friends who didn't bother with affinity because it wasn't a mass start, maybe others felt the same.

I assumed there would be various reasons for drop-outs (broken bikes/bodies) but it still seems very low...
There's no way I was skipping the full run after making the effort to travel and train. At the end of the day if I hadn't dinged a rim I would have made it into the mass start categories
flag mizzter-b
Posted: Jul 9, 2017 at 21:08 Quote
amonas wrote:
konabigshed wrote:
Travel66 wrote:
So am I understanding this right.....

There were 1,500 male entrants divided into 10 qualifying groups of 150 each...

Post qualification they were supposed to be allocated as follows....
350 Megavalanche (338 finishers)
350 Mega Challenger (305)
250 Mega Amateurs (187)
350 Affinity 1
200 Affinity 2

But there was no Affinity 2 meaning 550 were all lumped into Affinity
There were only 209 finishers in Affinity? presumably that was caused by the time limit?
I had two friends who didn't bother with affinity because it wasn't a mass start, maybe others felt the same.

I also want to ask about the timings in the big category.was the course changed due to some reason, or should I sell my bike and start playing badminton?...I cannot even imagine sb riding the whole course we did on Saturday in 23 mins.....

My understanding was that the weather forced a closure of the Pic Blanc lift so they had to start much lowe and effectively skipping the snow and gnarly rock sections.
Saying that the pros were openly questioning in the press conference the problem of thick slushy snow with rocks poking through...maybe it was deemed too dangerous....I can say the snow conditions were very different between Thursday and Saturday.
flag Foxy87
Posted: Jul 10, 2017 at 2:22 Quote
The main race started just a little bit above the first DMC station and then entering the Qualification track.
flag stuartpenney
Posted: Jul 10, 2017 at 5:02 Quote
Just home after Mega. Overall I had a great trip but also left feeling frustrated with the organisers about the way the proceedings went on Quali and Race Day (Challenger for me).

On quali day I was told to be at the bottom of the DMC for 10.00am for my race at 12.30. I got to the top and lined up with only 4-5 minutes to spare!

The same was true on race day, in fact worse. I got to the line with 60 seconds before the race started, if that!

I know things like the weather cannot be controlled but left yesterday feeling like the organisation of this event, after 20 years should be slick and polished. It felt anything but.

Shoot me for the moan but just wanted to see what others felt.
flag Foxy87
Posted: Jul 10, 2017 at 5:31 Quote
Exact same feeling here. French organisation is a joke. Unbelievable that they are not able to do this right after 20 years.

Even the tracks are not clearly marked and if you are there for the first time, its just frustrating. Even to get to the qualistarting point for the first time was a pain in the ass...
flag gpaevo
Posted: Jul 10, 2017 at 11:50 Quote
stuartpenney wrote:
Just home after Mega. Overall I had a great trip but also left feeling frustrated with the organisers about the way the proceedings went on Quali and Race Day (Challenger for me).

On quali day I was told to be at the bottom of the DMC for 10.00am for my race at 12.30. I got to the top and lined up with only 4-5 minutes to spare!

The same was true on race day, in fact worse. I got to the line with 60 seconds before the race started, if that!

I know things like the weather cannot be controlled but left yesterday feeling like the organisation of this event, after 20 years should be slick and polished. It felt anything but.

Shoot me for the moan but just wanted to see what others felt.

I understand where your coming from having raced the mega past 9 years. However, you need to look at everyone's number board and walk down the queue until you find someone in your heat.

You will always find the queue full of d@*kheads trying to get up the lifts hours and hours before their start time so just bunk in front of them. They are mostly to blame.
flag mizzter-b
Posted: Jul 10, 2017 at 14:35 Quote
Organisation was a joke.....first time for me and a mate and think we both felt unsure what was going on half the time despite asking for more info....some better basic written information would have gone a long way... it made practice difficult and I ended up more anxious about getting to the start than the actual racing.

I only made my quali heat by pushing to the front of the lift... I destroyed a rim and ended up in Affinity which was a total joke. Don't understand why they can't mass start that category as well. There were loads of guys with cracking quali times in Affinity.

The OZ enduro was even worse... half the competitors went the wrong way on stage 1...the course marking was shocking....such a shame as the stages were mostly fantastic (save the silly steep fresh cut grass bits).

Saying all that I loved it and will find it hard not to go back now I have a clue how it works!
flag Foxy87
Posted: Jul 10, 2017 at 15:13 Quote
+1

You wont believe they are doing it for 20 years...
flag konabigshed
Posted: Jul 11, 2017 at 0:26 Quote
Sorry to say that I and my mates would agree with all the above, however we loved it.
flag Jamesoz
Posted: Jul 11, 2017 at 0:30 Quote
Usual standard. However as said, you have to sort yourselves out into number order in the queue. You have to be prepared to push past the moaning pricks who like a good queue and don't understand they are causing the problem.
There was a marshal for the challengers turnining away the early guys.

The worst bit for me aside from cocking up qualli was one marshal pulling a row forward and the other pushing a row back. It ended up with the row behind mixed together with ours, I didn't even have room to get on the bike and ended up with somebody's chainring in my shin at the start and nearly last.
However after a bit of a sit down I had a fun race over the rocks and through the woods, loads of overtaking and avoiding others crashed,
flag stuartpenney
Posted: Jul 11, 2017 at 1:33 Quote
Jamesoz wrote:
Usual standard. However as said, you have to sort yourselves out into number order in the queue. You have to be prepared to push past the moaning pricks who like a good queue and don't understand they are causing the problem.
There was a marshal for the challengers turnining away the early guys.

The worst bit for me aside from cocking up qualli was one marshal pulling a row forward and the other pushing a row back. It ended up with the row behind mixed together with ours, I didn't even have room to get on the bike and ended up with somebody's chainring in my shin at the start and nearly last.
However after a bit of a sit down I had a fun race over the rocks and through the woods, loads of overtaking and avoiding others crashed,

They needed more marshalls at the lifts, not just at the bottom of the DMC calling letters and numbers. "Sorting yourself out" when there are hundreds of other riders in front and when you arrived at the correct time asked by the organisers surely tells you that the organisation is poor.
flag kopaczus
Posted: Jul 11, 2017 at 3:45 Quote
Travel66 wrote:
The OZ enduro was even worse... half the competitors went the wrong way on stage 1...the course marking was shocking....such a shame as the stages were mostly fantastic (save the silly steep fresh cut grass bits).

Saying all that I loved it and will find it hard not to go back now I have a clue how it works!

Yeah, that sucked. I got lost right at the start, as did everyone else. The lady at the finish line said we'd get to see our stage 1 results and sure enough, those are nowhere to be found.

At the start of the Oz race, I've been at the bottom around 9am and my start was at 9:59. So I'm asking the organizer guy, do I need to be here at 9:59, or should I already take the gondola and head to the start of stage 1, and he's like yeah sure, go ahead. So I did. The guys at the top tell me no, you need to be there at 9:59 to have your name read and all that. So I went down again, just to head back up moments later. What a mess.

But all in all, it was pretty nice to spend that week in the Alps. 8/10 would ride again.

 


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