OK, call me fickle, call me a fair-weather friend, but rock drops are now my new best friend...followed by berms and then switch backs...yes they have been relegated..well, at least until tomorrow..
Today we had more than six hours of riding, well I say RIDING, some of it was spent standing around talking, eating and watching Elena (Italian Ski Instructor on the course) falling off of her bike....
In her defense she had new clipless pedals so we'll let her off...Egg beaters, not SPD's my love!
So this is getting to sound a bit like a broken record....but today? Even more awesome riding, even more switchbacks (with heaps of berms this time) two massive 1 hour climbs, two 2 hour descents and OTC Pete teaching me how to ride rock drops...which I nailed after several false starts...and screaming like a bit of a girl...
This photo shows me assessing the payoff between an immediate adrenaline rush and the possibility of a visit to a French hospital.
The instant gratification option won out in the end.
This photo is deceiving, the rock isn't that high but the trail beneath it was another 2-3 feet lower than the rock (the landing is off camera) the approach was terrifying...well, to me it was anyway, to the 2 Pete's it was like riding over roadkill...
Once I'd got over the initial fear though I was dropping off of every rock I could find...and on the switchbacks I even managed to clean some rather impressive looking endo turns (although no-one actually saw them) ...
Of course the 2 Pete's continued to make it all look easy...
Even the camera couldn't move fast enough to capture Alpsun Pete in the air....
Tomorrow, we do the 51 switch backs....weather permitting....
So I'm off out now to find a small animal, I reckon the French sun god will appreciate a bit of fresh blood...whew! lucky I remembered to pack my sacrificial robe for this trip!
3 comments:
Hey Fungus, following your reports from the alps with great interest!! Looks pretty good... Well, if you want to continue your love affair with rock drops, you know where to come! North Vancouver, the real North Shore. Got hundreds of drops here waiting for you.....
Enough of the biking, hows your french coming along? Enough to order deux biere at least, I hope...
Having another look at the so called rock drops, and they look more like gravel drops really... If you want real rocks (i.e. Boulders), get your skinny backside over to Vancouver. Someone's gotta' teach those French dudes what a rock looks like!
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