The Reunion Islands…Indian Ocean…Megavalanche…sounds like heaven! And it normally is, but this year’s event saw some tough conditions come race time with rain and fog just making an already tough track even tougher.

Nicolas Lau was looking like a hot favourite to take the win after winning qualification the day before, and he managed to break into the lead during the early stages of the main race, but sadly for him he suffered some mechanical problems and ended up finishing down in 22nd. He won’t have been happy with that.

Enduro World Champ Jerome Clementz would have been looking to end his racing year off in style with yet another win, but this time it was not to be, and instead he was pipped to the post by the relatively unknown French BMC rider Francois Bailly-Maitre. Francois was the only rider to break the 45 minute barrier, just 11 seconds ahead of Jerome. Francois was also riding 29″ wheels.

Remy Absalon rounded out the top three in his last race for Commencal. It’s a pity he didn’t manage to take the win this weekend because that would have been the ultimate way to end the nine year partnership, but I bet Commencal weren’t too disappointed because their DH superstar Remi Thirion managed a very impressive 4th position. Fellow DH racer Florent Payet finished off the top five.

In the women’s race most of the big enduro names that we are used to seeing were missing, but Canyon’s Ines Thoma took the win ahead of Pauline Dieffenthaler and Nadine Sapin.

Here are the full results…

Mens:

Women’s: