It's a big weekend in Italy this week. Mass-start, marathon downhill has finally made it's way here. Apparently there's some kind of football game going on too, but we're the wrong people to ask about that... Supermountain was first trialled at the Enduro of Nations last year in Sauze d'Oulx, it went so well that the team behind Superenduro decided to run a three race series of it this year. To kick things off, they have descended on the south-western ski resort of Limone Piemonte. It's a town they like to come to when they want to launch big things - last year they had the first ever enduro National Champs here.
With a course covering 7km and going down 950 vertical metres, it's easy to see why they chose this spot. Starting in a high, alpine boulder field and finishing in the streets of the town below there's a bit of everything in there and it's going to be a technical and physical test for the riders. This isn't quite the same format as races like the Megavalanche - at the moment it's a new sport in Italy, so there aren't the thousands of entrants each year (yet) and to try and make the starts a little less intimidating they will begin with a climb to split the field slightly before the first bend. Today was an open qualifying session all day on a slightly shorter version of tomorrow's race track, with every run timed and the best ones giving riders their chance to pick their grid positions.
Ride on-board with Manuel for his run to take second in qualifying:
So there we are... Supermountain has started. Tomorrow morning is the big show though - 20 man, mass-starts into the tough boulder field higher up the mountain. Nobody knows quite how it's going to play out, but we're excited to find out. With a start that high, here's hoping the weather is on it's best behaviour too.
www.superenduromtb.com