I think given that Anka and Sven Martin have lived here for about a year now we can call them Kiwis. Anyhow as we posted up on the Spoke Magazine Facebook page the other day Anka came third at the Megavalanche behind probably the only two mountain mountain bikers in the world she would be happy beating her: former DH World Champion Anne-Caroline Chausson and Anka’s Cape Epic teammate and also a former DH World Champion Tracy Moseley. The big surprise though was Rosara Jospeh taking the fourth spot ahead of some heavy hitting Euro locals.
The following day the men’s event was a bit of a different story with around 1900 more racers than the women’s race. A huge crash up top right in the start switched things up a bit taking Kiwis Sven Martin and Jamie Nicoll down along with legends Ross Schnell and Jerome Clementz. Nico Vouilloz, Dan Atherton and Remy Absalon and a few others made the break while around fifty riders streamed passed the fallen pack.
Nico went on to lose a tyre and pull out of the race (not a good two weeks for him) and have Dan Atherton take the lead, only to lose it on the pedally uphill sections. Remy took the win with fellow countryman Nicolas Lau in second and Dan Atherton in third in only his first year racing enduro. “Thanks to all the Brits who were giving their support. A solid race for third, but I won’t be happy until I take the win.”
With the help of some nice riders Jerome clawed his way back to sixth place, one shy of the podium. “Crashed after 50m, ended up on the glacier around 40th and had a unexpected comeback.Thanks for the fair play of all the riders who let me pass and congratulations to Remy Absalon for his win.”
Cam Cole placed highest of the Kiwi men in 13th, Jamie Nicoll in 32nd, Sven Martin in 56th, Jeremy Blake 122nd, Blenki 136th (he flatted) and Mike the Hippy rounded out the Kiwis in 218th. Considering there were 2000 riders on the glacier that’s a pretty damn good result for little old New Zealand. You can download the full results here.
Oh it turns out all Adam Craig’s smack talk came to fruition finishing two places ahead of Ross Schnell in 16th on a fricken Giant 29er!!!
Heres a POV view from the women’s finals. Just add 1900 more riders…
http://youtu.be/41pTA6nrW7E
Jamie’s story from the Megavalanche.”I came in 32nd over 30km and 2550m of descent.
I was on the front “A” row looking down a potluck gauntlet of a start, it was a very tight section of snow/ ice and within 50m it funneled down to something even tighter and well, someone probably had to crash in these conditions and yes a rider went down in front of Sam and I plowed into him, then it was the feeling of being run into by multiple bikes, it wasn’t as bad as I thought but was only the first of these pile ups I was to be in. Getting off the glacier and into the single track and stuck behind many slower riders I went to sit down only to find my seat was gone, yes this has happened before in my first race in France – something’s up with this new post as this doesn’t normally happen.
Anyway the rest of the race was sometimes behind slower riders, sometimes cutting past them, sometimes passing riders on the climbs but always standing up and doing the best I could.
I could gently sit on the bare seat post on a couple of sealed sections of road, I think only thanks to my thick canvas shorts, cheers Cactus Equipment.
I won my Qualifer heat which put me 13 fastest overall and on row A, so I was hoping for top 10 in the final as there was even more climbing which suits some of the DH riders less. But you never know.”
Dam that sucks about the seat! 32nd is not tope ten but still pretty dam awesome.