The Saab Salomon Avalanche Trophy - Megavalanche - The Qualifier 2009!

Jul 17, 2009
by Si Paton  
The greatest show on Earth? You bet! Don't call yourself a mountain biker unless you have heard the call and paid homage to Pic Blanc in the South of France in mid July along with 2,000 other racers from across the World. The Mega really is MEGA!

Leaving the center of Birmingham fashionably late after ramming the Descent-Gear Sprinter to the tilt, we wheelied down the M40 towards the big smoke and the M25 for what can only be described as week of carnage.. A Sea France ferry it was and the port of Dover via the diversion and Dartford Bridge meant we missed the boat literally.Never mind, only 90 minutes to wait and an extra ten spot to pay and we were onboard. How much? Well I booked my mate Steve Liggin’s on with his Vauxhall Astra for £80.00, with bikes on the roof (remember to tell them that). I booked the LWB Sprinter, stated it was a Motor Home and purposely forgot to tell them it was even longer with a Pendle bike rack welded to the ass. How much, a bargain £80.00 return!

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Map Reading at 110kmh, they even drive on the wrong side of the road in France.


Duty Free was invaded and copious amounts of Bulmer’s Cider was purchased for our holiday trip. 90 minutes and again we were on dry soil, driving on the wrong side of the road and the egg timers forwarded by one hour.

Just note to make sure your passports up to date. Not quite sure how they missed Dave Liggin’s was out of date even before we left. They did collar him on his return at Calais but that’s another story.

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Bombs away, no big white telephone at the services.


Toll roads it was and we hit the road with signs such as “Lyon 450kms” seeming an age way. Luckily in the U.K we are used to distance measured in miles. Therefore the digits were rapidly dropping. 110kmh was the max speed limit, dropping to 90kmh if it rains for the 600 mile journey ahead.

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This is how we rolled. Meanwhile I stayed at Chateau Le Merc, a 5 speed hotel. The Sprinter..


Not advised and highly illegal is free camping in France, especially at Motorway services. Though you know as well as I do they would all be talking German if it wasn’t for us so they at least owed us a night under the stars F.O.C (Free of charge dumbo).

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Daz loves the outdoors, he thinks he is Bear Grills, French Services 06:12


How much did it cost us on the tolls in the van? Around £150 each way. Next stop was Grenoble as Krien Dawson from Mountain Cycles offered us a free lunch and you know hand on heart it would have been rude, immoral and expensive to have turned down a free lunch!

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Krien Dawson


Little did he know Tiny was in tow, 6ft 7ins and almost 20 stone it was a good job Krien and Co laid on a spread fit for a king and his troops. A BBQ feast awaited us along with an outside cool box the size of a coffin filled with cold cans. As the ribs smoked away Dave Whittington caught little lizards scampering around on the sun baked walls whilst the rest of us jet started our sunburn status.

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Old Skool

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New Skool

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You don't get more trick or older than this..


After 10 hours of topping up the tan on my right arm we landed at Allemont, which is the finish village of the Megavalanche. Top tip, stop off at the Carrefour Supermarket prior to Allemont to stock up as the local Spar is sparse to say the least as well as expensive. That said there is an awesome campsite with all the mod cons and next door is a huge outdoor and free climbing structure, tennis courts, swimming pool and mini skate park, trick! Over the road is the best bakery in the World serving up warm “Pan au Chocolat” ace!
Just note you can only wear Speedos, no baggy shorts in the swimming pools in France..

Up the road and 10 hours in the hot seat coupled with the only air conditioning being that of an open window and the meat and two veg downstairs were in desperate need of an airing and a splash of the Brut 33. As we drove past the reservoir at the top of Allemont on the way to Oz De Oisans we spotted the opportunity of a life time. Freezing cold blue glacier water beckoned and the thought of wading in up to your waist was terrifying. Only one thing for it, JUMP! We then dripped dry in the still warm sunshine whilst admiring the breath taking scenery.

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The best bath in the World?


The next day we turned up Alp D’Huez after tackling that road! Over 20 hair pin turns the trusty Sprinter struggled, five up, fully loaded, even at night in the cool air, internal heaters on full she temp gauge was on red the whole way! Parking up in town in the main square we set up ready for Wednesday and some serious practice.

With qualifying on Friday we planned the following knowing that to ride the snow at the top you must get up there early, after 10:30a.m and it turns to a slushy mess that is almost unrideable. Taking it EASY with multiple rests and little pedaling we took over two hours to negotiate our way down, spotting a few cheeky lines all the way to the bottom to Allemont. Then make your way to the coaches and trailers that will take you back up to Oz to the bun fight that was the uplift. Why can’t you Euros queue politely instead of it turning into World War III?

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If you are going to let someone else change your tyres for you, best make sure it's twice UCI World Champion Fabien Barel.


The course itself is best suited to the far end of an all mountain rig though as light yet as strong as possible. No huge drops or jumps, just never ending descents means 203mm rotors are essential with masses of singletrack and plenty of uphill slogs and out of the saddle climbs.

Hit the Spar in town right next to the square and make your own fresh baguettes, with Jambon and Fromage. Then p.m it’s time for a blast down the Qualifier course which you should aim to do in less than 30minutes. Many concentrate on this part of the race as the better you qualify the closer you get to the front rows of the main event. The qualifier is better practised and raced on your DH bike, though somewhere in the rules it states you must only race one bike. That said your average Joe like you and me is never going to get pulled up. Perhaps a different story for anyone in that top 20?

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The Spar Supermarket was doing a roaring trade in broken bikes


Repeat the above again on Thursday then prepare for the Qualifier on Friday 09:00 onwards. Racing starts 2/3rds up Pic Blanc with 9 heats of over 200 riders roughly consisting of 8 rows of 27 riders. To qualify this is how it works:

Megavalanche (The A Final) you must finish 1-46th.
Mega Promo (The B Final) you must finish 47-90th.
Mega Affinity (The C Final) you must finish 91-145th.
Mega Affinity 1 (The D Final) you must finish 146-200th.

Now here is a question: Some top riders punctured like Danny Hart and pulled out and then the likes of Brendan Fairclough never even qualified, he was in Morzine. Yet both appeared on row D of the Megavalanche. Should some of the Pro’s get a free pass into the main event? That’s what happens at the World Cups with the top 20, offer your thoughts below please!

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You don't get pits like this every weekend


I was in the third qualifying heat with a 10:40 start so leaving base camp Friday a.m at 08:40 I thought plenty of time as I rode the 60secs to the uplift. BLINK. Sh1t the bed! The queue was about a mile long as there are now less gondola pods on the wire. Apologies to say a cheeky smile and a quick push in was the only way as there were many well early in the queue, or so I thought! Now the nightmare, take the gamble and roll or get the cable down to Oz, zero pedalling and straight on to the gondola to the top. But a serious chance of a massive queue? Or walk, push and ride the 30minute ride around the mountain, nice warm up but knackering, I took the latter. How did that fair? A few of my original gondola group met up at the same time as us, cooler with fresh legs but not warmed up, you decide.
A word of thought? Maybe worth having an uplift marshal like we do at the NPS, ensuring the early numbers are called up first. Or should everyone just get there earlier?

After pushing two queues, again apologies, I landed at the top as they were already calling my heat meant I had to push through several rows to get into my line next to the cow man. A quick race chat from Olly (fat bald bloke) the European Hope distributor telling us to go easy on each other and to have a good race. Then the Euro Trash record plays and 30 seconds is called, then 5 seconds, as I mentally started the countdown in my head I swear I got to 3 and then got rear ended by the weapon behind me. Everyone just went early that was at the back of the heat, the first five lines have course tape draped across their bars. Then like speedway it’s lifted allowing us to go. How many had this wrapped under their chin and peaks as we were forced to go early? I was one of many..

A quick start is essential and several gravely corners with loose rocks everywhere. 200plus hammering it down, no tactics just stay on and treat it like a 40 second BMX race, elbows high.

Getting caught mid pack was a disaster, the previous two years i've been on the front row and got a clean start into the first corner. This was absolute carnage, with dusty bellowing up and zero visibility it was honestly like running in the middle of a pack of stampeding buffalo.

2 minutes later and it’s almost down to single file as you cross the ice and snow before hitting the fire road. Full tilt here for another 2 minutes before hitting the DH single track and minimum chance of overtaking anyone, though it can be done with a little vocal persuasion.

Plenty of new berms and a few short cuts made life very interesting before we hit the flat sections and then that climb. Less than two minutes long it feels like a lifetime out of the saddle, even with the Gravity Dropper. The only tactic is to stay in front of those behind you and catch whoever you can as the last part of the course is amazing, fast, swooping single track that could be a DH National in any country across the World. Only problem? Even less chance of overtaking.. The finish was a hundred times better than the previous years, instead of finishing on a fire road dead end with no arena or atmosphere we finished in the arena at Oz! The crowds were huge, going mental and Eric was updating us and keeping us entertained on the microphone.

As previously said it’s all about going as fast as you can in qualifying and a bit of lady luck. What was interesting was to see out of the 9 groups what time would make you qualify? The fastest 46th place was 30:13, slowest was 31:36, that is an 86 seconds difference. Remember you are racing the riders in your group for position at this stage. The time clocked will count for where you are called on you start line for the main event.

Group 1 - 46 0:31:09,770 SIMONNET Franck
Group 2 - 46 0:30:13,070 BUISSON Martin
Group 3 - 46 0:30:40,880 BEGHELLI Patrick
Group 4 - 46 0:31:36,350 LEUENBERGER Martin
Group 5 - 46 0:30:22,240 ANDRIEU Clement
Group 6 - 46 0:31:20,220 GARIN Diego
Group 7 - 46 0:30:44,840 LEVY Peter MSA
Group 8 - 46 0:31:21,220 MAY Simon
Group 9 - 46 0:31:33,570 PERRET Arnaud

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Alp D-Huez in the background

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Fancy seeing you here! Previous NPS Masters DH Champion RJ and the Faze 7 BMX Trick Team from 1984 rocked up next to us on the way to the Mega.

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Hope France and U.K were there.

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My Mega Bike: 2Stage Zed 8


Kitted out with Mega essentials:


Gravity Dropper Seatpost.
Front Tyre: Maxxis High Roller 2.5 Dual Ply SuperTacky 42a at 30psi.
Rear Tyre: Maxxis Minion 2.35 Dual Ply MaxxPro 60a at 40psi.
Rear Cassette: 12-32
Grips: Sunline Half Waffles
Pedals: Flats of course - Funn Soljam Vipers

How did I finish off? 27th in qualifying in group 3 meant row I in the main event, the Megavalanche! To see how that went keep it locked to Pinkbike.com.

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DMC Lift up from Alp D'Huez

Think thats the top? Think again. When you pass that gondola station in the main event you are still not half way down.

Forgot to say, Thursday morning and it was the speed race for the top flight, invitation only.
Now I consider myself a confident and competant bike rider and to say I was impressed at this is an understatement. I got down safe and sound, back brake locked and using the old trusty tri-pod foot out ski trick. My top speed was probably about 25kmh and I soiled my pants there and then. How these guys stood up and pedalled I will never know. Think it's steep, think again this was ridiculous.

1 821 SCHNEIDER Franck 96,532
2 1401 BAREL Fabien 94,749
3 1223 PRIJKEL Daniel 94,624
4 675 TAILLEFER Antoine 93,759
5 828 HOLLYMAN Adam 92,910
6 806 BENEKE Jurgen 92,076
7 1414 CARR Robert 91,724
8 781 CLARKSON Lloyd 90,339
9 1 WILDHABER René 89,887
10 211 PAULS Eddy 88,776
11 1204 PANTLING Tobias 87,372

More results and info from the weeks carnage

Stay Unclipped Forever.
Si Paton
Descent-Gear.com
Free U.K Postage on Everything!

Author Info:
si-paton avatar

Member since Jul 26, 2006
361 articles

13 Comments
  • 5 0
 Sickest event ever.... Good luck on the race! You'll need it Big Grin
  • 7 0
 yeahyeah 10.place - Eddy Pauls, hes actually Edijs Pauls, i know him, LAtvian mate, yees. Bring on the negative props
  • 3 1
 Nothing wrong with latvians...
  • 3 0
 Frank Schneider really dominated the glacier. No holds barred, no fingers near the brakes. The sound of him passing the speed check was awesome... *BBRRRRRAAAAAAAP* sad that needles and kovarik missed that event.
  • 2 0
 yeah i know nothing wrong, im latvian as well jsut living inn uk andi know him very well
  • 2 0
 Had to laugh a the Lift Queue Line ! I've lived in Germany for 15 Years and it still makes me crazy getting on the Bus ! Even the old Grannies will stamp over your toes ! Cool Article !
  • 2 0
 last year i was here. its awsome adventure, i think if you like the downhill, you'll must go here just once in a life. never forget this feeling!
  • 3 0
 ANDRIEU Clement It's meeee !!!!!! Razz

My name in Pinkbike. the class
  • 2 0
 Yea Jurgen, East Coast represent!
  • 1 0
 this article has pretty just summed up my dream. only 15 so i'll probably do it in a few years. until then good luck.
  • 1 0
 yes i was ther and it was amazing :o i wil be back next year
  • 1 0
 most amazing ride of my life doubt ill do it again..... till next year!!
  • 1 0
 cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!







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