Sven and I have just survived another Mega Avalanche out here in Alpe d'Huez, France and I feel as if I got hit by a bus today. So stiff and sore from crashing, riding, and running down glaciers, rocks and steep mountain slopes! We were up here with the Rockshox/Sram guys testing out some new BlackBox products. We had a great week of riding and hanging out with these guys, testing out parts and my bike getting the royal treatment of getting cleaned and worked on 24/7. What a treat and what a difference it makes to have such support. It really makes all the difference when you are at an event like this. This was also the first week of riding my new and much loved Carbon Nomad - thanks to Santa Cruz. Man, what a bike. We really hammered these bikes and parts and they felt amazing. You cannot begin to describe what you put your bike, equipment and your body through in a week of riding out here. Pure abuse.
What an amazing event once again, such a blast to ride out here all week. We qualified on Friday on a completely different quali track, super technical, rocky track way more suited for a full on DH bike than a trail bike, but what an awesome trail. I managed to get a 6th place and front row start after a crazy mass start on really loose rocky fire road. Sven had a great run too, securing him a good spot in 2nd row for the race line up of 2000 racers.
For the final the weather was really hot, so that made the glacier a bit softer than usual and we had to run in the snow on the flat bottom and uphill sections, which was incredibly hard and just drained all your energy. I had a great race though, it took me 1h18 min, to complete the 32km downhill track with almost 10 000ft of vertical and put me in 4th place overall. It was a really stacked field with 3 x DH World Champions as well as a World Cup overall champion and some of the best riders in the world all out here battling for the win. Anne Caroline Chausson took the win, current World DH champ Emmeline Ragot was 2nd, me in 4th and Tracey Moseley in 5th place. I was super STOKED. Never thought I'd stand on the box with these girls. Also managed to be the first old lady! LOL, winning masters women! The whole crew finished up really well and we all survived the week.
Needless to say, I don't want to see my bike for a few days - only a few though, because we are about to head across the valley to another glacier at Les Deaux Alpes for the Mountain of Hell race. I'm a sucker for pain, what can I say.
Thank you to everyone for all your wonderful support.
Check out some photo's below.
Peace out
Anka
