Passportes 2010

Wahoo! Registration for this year's Passportes du Soleil on 26 and 27 June opens on 10 February. Proper nice event, mainly because you get to eat and drink beer every 15km. Or so. The 75km route is taking in nine resorts this year as opposed to seven with the MTB fair rocking Chatel. Passportes may be in and around Morzine but do yourself a favour and leave the DH bike in the chalet.

Did I complete it last year? Did I hell. I got sucked into a pothole near Chatel (Question: why has Fionn stopped on that berm? Answer: to point out the massive hole in the trail I've just nosedived into.)But after the ensuing paddy, I did still manage to drink beer and eat every 15 minutes. I mean kilometres.

In 2009 800 people registered on the first day and entries are limited to 4,000. Tie it into a week in Morzine and then on to Mega Avalanche which kicks off 5 July and you're laughing.

Mega results

Voila! Le male nutjobs in their top 10 glory:

1 ABSALON Remy PRIO COMMENCAL ( France) 0:49:28. 210
2 WILDHABER Rene PRIO TREK ( Suisse) 0:49:44,120
3 VOUILLOZ Nicolas PRIO LAPIERRE ( France) 0:51:36,160
4 BAREL Fabien PRIO SUBARU MTB PRO TEAM ( France) 0:53:30,390
5 PAROLIN Franck PRIO RIVIERABIKE.COM ( France) 0:53:41,840
6 BALAUD Alexandre PRIO TRIBE SPORT GROUP ( France) 0:53:55,930
7 VAZQUEZ LOPEZ David PRIO LAPIERRE SAAB SALOMON ( Espagne) 0:54:11,070
8 DOUCENDE Gregory PRIO LAPIERRE SAAB SALOMON ( France) 0:54:11,930
9 CLEMENTZ Jerome PRIO CANNONDALE - KENNY ( France) 0:54:12,790
10 NAVARRO Olivier EXTREME BIKE BANDOL COMMENCAL 0:55:10,560

Who won the women's? Who do you think: AnneCaro Chausson. If she wasn't so freakin' fab that would be booooooooring. Pauline Dieffenthaler was second

MegaAvalanche 2009 - men's sprint DH

So the race is really getting going for top women's DH MegaAvalanche legend status as I type this. Tracy Moseley isn't competing this year so who will it be? No results in for that yet - and the lads get going tomorrow (12 July) at 9am. But just to keep you in the mood, here are some shots by Tom, who is out in Alpe d'Huez shooting and riding, of the men's Sprint DH Super Cup which took place on Wednesday (so yeah, not exactly hot off the press but quality is worth the wait ... )

Fabien Barel on his way to a storming second place: photo Tom Humpage

Results:
1) KOVARIK Chris; Chain Reaction/Intense, Austrailia 4:01.72
2) BAREL Fabien; Subaru MTB Pro team/ Mondraker, France 4:03.91
3) RANKIN Nathan; 2 Stage bikes, New Zealand 4:06.28
4) SPAGNOLO Damien; Subaru MTB Pro team/ Mondraker, France 4:06.91
5) SCOLES Matthew; Open Wide/ Animal, New Zealand 4:07.27




Trek rider Matthieu Carnino going flat out: photo Tom Humpage

Mega Avalanche went off!

It looked like Mega Avalanche was going to be a huge washout after a week of rad build-up. Storms, thunder and lightening lashed Alpe D'Huez, France on Friday night meaning the race didn't start on the glacier this year.

But it was still a fab event with Rene Wildhaber on Scott winning it for the boys and Ophelie David taking the girl's title.

Check out this link for a results run down and this link for some crazy video action from last year. Honestly. Screw. Freakin'. Loose.