The Course Whisperer - Vallnord, Andorra Course Walk
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Hopefully that's built up some mystique... In the meantime welcome to this fantastical World Cup Round 3 track walk from the giddy heights of Vallnord, Andorra.
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 After a flawless start to the world cup series the weather finally got angry in a big way. Yesterday we were welcomed with some of the heaviest rain possible and then marble-sized hail stones for afters. |
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| Still, it's safe indoors.... 'Nice things' is a nice way to describe what you can buy in Andorra. Literally every luxury item under the sun can be had in the shops in this wee little country. It's a bit more high end than your typical ski mecca. |
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| Get your most lavish items at, ahem, affordable prices. Rolex, anyone? Maybe bottle of 500 euro perfume? Fresh seafood? Or maybe a bit of banking? Or how about a 1000 euro bottle of Scotch Whiskey, complete with it's own imitation Faberge egg case? |
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| Ferrari bike check. Keep an eye out for this 400HP gun coming to a ripping DH course near you.... |
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| Up, up and away... Connor Fearon waiting his turn to head up top where the pits are located and check out this weeks course. |
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| Thankfully it rained itself dry yesterday and today was a lot about the sunny times. Marco Aurelio Fontana talking with the Syndicate about all the benefits of racing XCO in baggies, while Bryceland considers where to draw the line on workplace harassment. |
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| Wheel size haters take note: proof that the 650b or 27.5 wheel change--whatever you want to call it--is coming sooner rather than later. The fork on the left is for Patrick Thome's Scott Gambler 650b--a fork that was notably not on that bike back at Val di Sole or Fort William (spikes were definitely NOT an option for Thome on those tracks as clearance was very, very snug). Both forks are suspended from the work order rack in the Fox Racing Shox pits by their thru axles, with the difference in the fork lowers length clearly visible. |
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| Just the brim. There's some weird man love happenings going on in the SRAM pits with Boris and Evan Warner. Something about matching hats really makes things special.. |
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| Although she already won two world champion titles, a Junior and a U23 in the past, not many expected Tanja Zakelj to be on top of the women's XCO field this year already. She's got a nice present from Trek this evening, a custom painted Superfly frame to immortalize her wins in Nove Mesto and Val di Sole. |
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| Ok we'll do what you say young lady...even without the threat of that wrench. Unior Tools downhill riders are a mix of Brit with Ruaridh Cunningham and Jess Stone and Slovenian with Ziga Pandur and Jure Zabjaek. |
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| During the long six weeks between Val di Sole and Vallnord, there were many chances to keep the adrenalin flowing anyway: National series, national champs, Enduro World Series,... |
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| Stay classy San Diego.... Rob Warner keeping the class in the pits while XC hardman Bart Brentjens looks on. |
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| The Marae, home to our friendly neighborhood Kiwi privateers, parked up in another cosy forest pitch. |
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| Once the wheels start turning off the roll in, there won't be much to stop them from what's to come. |
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| Greg Minnaar mobilized all the available SC forces, to help him solve the mysteries of the new track here in Andorra. |
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| The new track starts out flat, but like a schoolyard bully in nice clothes, it quickly becomes a mean mother that clearly intends to do you harm. First it rolls into sections of off camber madness. |
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| All the weather was just water off an Andorran duck's back...tacky, but you wouldn't call it real mud at all for most of the course. Up top especially, the floor's all shaley...a lot like this. |
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| After the pedally section, and a wee bit past the part where it off camber, the track starts rolling into steep and steeper terrain. Sam Dale scratching the gray matter in disbelief after the track gets steeper yet again. |
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| Bubba Warren comparing routes into the chunder of the upper section of the track. As the track goes on, it gets steeper, and steeper... |
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 | It's a brand new track and its looking pretty amazing so far. It's technical and steep, how a downhill track should be. Looking forward to getting on a bike tomorrow and seeing how it rides. The boys (CRC teammates) were saying how dusty it was before, but now we're looking at quite a few slippery sections, but overall the dirt's looking pretty good for soaking up the water and most parts look grippy.- Sam Hill, Team CRC / Nukeproof |
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| Brook Mac...fully fledged and certified man of the woods. |
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| On the hoof, trotting the 'mane' trail. Horses for courses etc etc. |
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| Who knew that Colin had the gift? We don't know whether the inside info he got from these native ponies was photographer or rider based wisdom, but we can guess it was the full scoop for both. Having gotten snared between the race tape, the Pinkbike photog-extraordinaire ushered the wild beasts to safety after they almost contemplated airing the first gap. Ridiculous title... Aha! Please keep reading. |
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| Luke Strobel just rolled over from the NW, the track is looking like what he's used to over in the wet, steep and rooty Northwest. Proudly rocking his Team Robot shirt, the only news source with the best B-Grade, 3 week late updates in the MTB industry. |
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| Build a bridge... Get over it. |
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| The wooden bridge across the road is there to stay. Quite some craftsmanship.... It even impressed Mr Hill - 'They put some time in on those!' |
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| Signature shoe, guess who? |
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| Simmonds absorbing some of Hill's on foot line wisdom. |
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| The track's awesome... It's long - taken us an hour and a half to walk down so far and I think it's around 4.30 in the dry on the bike. It'll be hard on the arms because mostly it's steep, but I don't think it's that rough. The dirt's soft really so that could save the arms a little bit. The short flat at the start could be a good chance to get into your rhythm before getting tipped into the steep stuff.- Mick Hannah, Team Hutchinson UR |
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| The upper part of the course won't be running as slow as you might think at first glimpse. Similar to Pietermaritzburg's first part perhaps. |
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| 90% of the course is deep in beautiful woods. |
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| Troy dreaming of tearing it up on the Demo. |
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| There's only really one section where you could pick up a tan and that's going to be short lived because it looks flat out. Very scenic though... |
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| Aaron-less track walk for the Specialized DH program this time. |
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| Let's hope those dark clouds will stay away for the next couple of days, otherwise we are all in big trouble. |
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| How bad could it get? Well when it rains, it pours here in Andorra and has done daily since Sunday. The morning is clear skies and the weather tends to turn around 2pm about everyday. Finals is looking good for the rain at least. |
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| A full-on Lambo... halfway through the descent. |
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| From flat and narrow off-cambers, to steep, rooty walls. WAGs on track. |
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| There's a notably mean steep chute/drop at the halfway point. Currently unrutted, but it's so soft the chances are it will only be looking gnarlier come the weekend. |
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| The mid points of the track is littered with bomb holes, ruts, and badly eroded sections of track; it's been raining nearly every day for a week--some of it quite heavy. Expect riders to be fiddling a fair amount with this nob on their rear shocks. Hell, expect a lot of knob twiddling in general to be happening as riders prepare to tame this bomb hole filled greased piggy of a track. |
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| The royal family of mountain biking...paparazzi in tow. Fresh off the back of double British national wins, the duo will be reminiscing about the triple they did here with brother Dan the last time they raced here in 2008. |
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| Here's Rachel looking bright eyed and bushy tailed at the prospect of a track that 'ain't for the weak'. |
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| No, no, and no again. Don't even think about hucking that inside line. |
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| Not too many line options here. Straight shot and hold on.. |
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| Eddy masters and crew are gradually adapting the professional decorum required to reach top flight racing. Really gradually. |
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| Steep and deep. It's truly hard to show in any photo how steep this track really is unless you're sliding down nearly half of it during the track walk. |
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| In the vein of steep, there can be no doubt that brakes will all be featuring 203 rotors front and rear with whatever sponsor correct 4 piston brakes can be found. Yes, it is that bloody damn steep. |
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| Even more vertically challenging glop.The entire bottom half of the track will see riders fighting arm pump from constantly riding the brakes on the steepest track seen since Champery. |
| It's definitely gonna be a physical one. Quite flat at the start - it's short, but it's at altitude so it gets the lungs going, then it just keeps on getting steeper. It's looking mint, I'm excited to ride it, but it is going to be physically demanding that's for sure.- Josh Bryceland, Team Santa Cruz Syndicate |
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| Grease graces the lower slopes in abundance. |
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| We can only imagine Gee sees the terrain a little bit like the T800. A head-up display shows the whole course in blood-red, his targets are highlighted as he approaches and he's simply instructed to terminate. Basic Atherton programming. |
| It's my first time seeing the track...it's absolutely nuts. Long, fast, steep it's got a bit of everything really, so definitely gonna push the riders to their absolute limits. The length of it is gonna be the first challenge because it's gonna be tough to remember it. There doesn't seem like there's much let up, just intense the whole way down. I'm looking forward to it, but it's gonna be a heavy weekend. |
...Hasta la vista, baby.
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| And the end of the line, some 600 meters lower down... with a bit of a step down for a punctuation mark. |
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Member since Jul 19, 2007
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Gee's freaking expression hahahaa, going down mofo's
www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsQy706Hy-k
Erm, stubble?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaczE_shh50