Atherton Bros turn out for the first time on their Commencal rides.

Global warming is really playing havoc with our weather system, only 2 weeks ago there was no snow in the French Alps and the Tignes Airwaves event looked unlikely to be going ahead. Luckily a dump of snow just after New Year changed the organiser's minds, so Dan, Gee and two brand new sparkling Commencals jumped on a plane and turned up at the resort to find all lifts running and plenty of snow on the ground. The 4X course looked awesome massive 60 ft fly off's, huge berms and 90 degree hips littered the icy track. Dan and Gee were chomping at the bit to try the new bikes out, however a combination of heavy snow the night before and a strangely hot day made the 4X event a no go. All credit has to go to the guys at Tignes to try and get the event to run but sloppy snow and bike tires just don't mix.



This didn't deter the boys, they were on a mission to ride there new machines, so off they went with shovels in hands. Snow unlike dirt is easy to dig but unlike dirt snow doesn't pack very well, it took us what seemed like hours of building various jumps before they finally got there chance to ride their new steed's. 360's, Flips and old school no hander's were just a few of the tricks coming out of the bag on the gaps and hips we'd built. Luckily Dirt magazines Victor Lucas was there to catch the magic on his trusty camera. Be sure to buy the next issue to see for yourself!

Here's what Gee had to say about his first outing on the Commencal Meta 4X "Tignes was the first chance to test the Meta 4X properly, But due to the race being cancelled, it wasn't the riding I expected I'd be doing. We rode a lot of big kickers, hips, gaps and other kinda freeride stuff. And the Meta 4X killed it. It handled perfectly, really light to throw around whilst doing tricks and whips, but still dead steady and well balanced when you're hitting fast turns and drifting through lose ground!"

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Press Releases First Rides Commencal