“Today was the Sprint Avalanche cup race in Lyon France, the format was 2 Qualifying runs on Sat and 2 DH runs on Sunday with the fastest time being the winner. With the first World cup coming up next week a few of the big hitters decided to race this event, among them were Greg Minnaar, Cedric Gracia, Fabien Barel,Mickael Deldycke, Filip Polc, Matt Simmonds, Karim Amour.

Saturday went OK for me, it was a short coarse, just 1 1/2 mins long with quite a few nice sized jumps and lots of turns to sprint out of which made it physical. I road this race 6 years ago and knew what it was like so I opted to ride my Santa Cruz 4X Blur bike, the choice was a good one with the conditions. I managed to get a sixth in the first run and a third in the second.It rained lots so tyre choice was crutial.

Sunday turned out better as it was sunny when we woke up and time to stick my Semi Slick Kenda tyres back on, good choice again as i got third in the first final run then stepped it up in the second to Win the overall, top 4 guys were on the same second. On the podium with me were Karim, Saladini, Deldycke, Gracia. I got pounded with Champagne so hard by Cedric that I dropped my bottle and couldn’t get the guys back. I was tired from all the sprinting on this course but there was one final race to do.

The top 32 men from DH qualified for the 4X race at the end of the day. The organizer changed the track up a little to make for better passing and racing. My rounds went OK but I got knocked out in semi, Literally knocked out some BMX guy thought he was cool and slammed me, reminds me why I don’t race 4X anymore. I had to go and do the losers final so made my mark and won it from the gate.I think the podium was as follows, Romain Saladini, Fabien Cousinie, Greg Minnaar, Deldycke, Myself.

All in all it was a wicked weekend and the organizers but an amazing race on, the atmosphere was realy good around the race and the growds went wild, Thanks to Olivia,George,Kathy and the rest of the Mega Avalanche crew for making this a nice race to be at.

Vigo is next.

Cheers……………………..Steve

You can get full results here, I think? www.avalanchetrophy.com

Steve Peat.
www.stevepeat.com
Santa Cruz Syndicate.