2017 French Enduro Series Round 3, Val d'Allos - Preview

Welcome to the beautiful Val d'Allos for the Round 3 of the 2017 French Enduro Series by Parts 8.3 and the Trophée VTT AE 2017 by Alltricks. This weekend we are seeing the third and last round of 2017 of the e-bike French Enduro Series, while the non-electrified series will attack two more rounds in July, Samoëns and Les Orres.

Allos and its ski station, La Foux d'Allos, are situated in the Southern Alps. We are back in the Mercantour National Park, after paying it a visit back in September 2016 for the EWS Valberg. This time we are facing a different soil though. The weather has had mercy over the last few days, and riders will navigate on trails with a pretty good grip. We are praying for an accurate weather forecast, which announces no rain for the weekend and the thermometers marking the highest slightly under 30ºC.

It's mandatory to mention that this weekend's race is nothing but the 15th edition of the Tribe 10,000 enduro race here in Val d'Allos. Although the 'Tribe 10,000' name is officially not used anymore for the French Enduro Series, it was the origin of the enduro series in this country and it's still very present in people's hearts. The 10,000 originally made reference to the cumulated descent in meters that every rider had to achieve in the race weekend. Fred Glo (Tribe Events), the promoter and driver of the series over all of these years, is here in Val d'Allos to celebrate it and he will be part of the race in a way that we'll find out tomorrow.

For Saturday, the menu includes two stages: firstly Stage 1 will be ridden in once as a practice run and then twice in a timed run, continuing with the practice run of Stage 2 and then one timed run on the two, to complete the journey. On Sunday riders will face two new stages with the same practice timed runs as on the previous day.

Being just a few days ahead of the EWS Millau, some of the best French pro riders are racing in Val d'Allos this weekend. To name a few: Florian Nicolai (Rocky Mountain – Urge BP), Seb Claquin (Rocky Mountain – Urge BP), Alex Cure (BH Miranda) and Dimitri Tordo (BH Miranda). The Portuguese rider José Borges (BH Miranda) is racing here too.

A village full of flowers.

Friday was kind of warm in Val d'Allos.

There's nothing like refreshing water coming from the high mountains.

When in France... we can't resist!

Walking through the Allos narrow streets you get mountain views every few minutes, or even seconds...

Pure Mercantour essence.

Classic joy tools for the wintertime.

It happens almost anywhere in France that you can find local craft beer, and we like that.

Welcome to Allos.

Water supplies for the weekend.

Looking forward to some "lightbro" tomorrow.

It seems like there's a bike race here this weekend.

There is for sure a bike race here.

Signs like these all over the place.

We were here before... We rode it, we shot photos, we loved it and now we're back for the same menu.

Bienvenue to the Upper Verdon region. Fancy a ride today?

Because France wouldn't be France without le petanque.

Who's in the line?

This is the t-shirt that every rider gets to celebrate the 15th edition of Val d'Allos Tribe 10,000.

Flo Nicolai looking stoked with his plate number.

Technology and a vintage style for the timing stuff.

Baptiste Gaillot is sitting 6th in the overall. Will he close some of the points gap to the podium?

Fresh new plate numbers for every race.

Not a familiar face over here. This guy is Matt Lombardi, a privateer rider from South Africa who has signed in for Val d'Allos and EWS Millau.

Seb Claquin is up for a bike change this weekend.

The houses mosaic spread over the hill. Would you choose any of them?

You can attack a few high summits over here, thus some high trails too.

These cars are not going anywhere this weekend. No lift provided for the riders, just pedaling up the liaisons.

Both French Series and EWS familiar faces. Karim Amour and Jose Borges are racing this weekend with different sort of bikes.

Seb Claquin making his Powerplay to levitate.

Chloe Gallean chats with some fellow riders. After taking the win in Raon l'Etape, she is just a few points behind Sabrina Jonnier in the series overall. Who will take the overall home?

Part of the Tribe Events crew. Alex, the usual race opener rider at the series, has a broken finger and he's looking for a substitute. Maks, Tribe Sport filmmaker, is not really sure of taking the challenge.

The Val d'Allos podium is already waiting for his guests.

MENTIONS: @kabelleira

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Racing and Events French Enduro Series

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kabelleira
Member since Jul 20, 2016
34 articles