Trans savoie 2014
After leaving Val d’Isere on day one, the Trans Savoie has trucked on through the French Alps, making its way slowly (and occasionally very, very fast) towards the final destination of Chamonix.
A tough day on the Trans-Savoie All Mountain Race brought relentless technical, rocky descending in the first half of the day’s stages, followed by some faster flowing balcony-style trails in the afternoon. The 1,000m plus Stage One with extended steep rock gardens took its toll – taking UK SPS enduro racer (and one of the overall race favourites) Neil Donoghue out of the event and causing major and minor injuries to various other racers.
The steep, twisty trails around Les Arcs after lunch were the perfect stage for seasoned EWS racers to take advantage, and Polygon/Hutchinson rider Jamie Nicoll started to find his flow, finishing the day with the fastest overall time and taking over the race lead. Second and third overall goinf into Day Three are Gary Forrest (WTB/Lapierre) and Dan Wolfe (Specialized).
Day two’s action is documented above, and here are the results:
Day three
The third day of the six-day Trans-Savoie enduro was hit hard by inclement Alpine weather. Racers woke to heavy rain and the trails and lifts were affected by continuous precipitation and freezing temperatures on the mountainside, forcing the organisers to make the difficult decision to take the days racing off the clock to ensure the safety of competitors.
Racers instead rode the timed stages as an extended group ride (or slid down crazy steep trails like ‘Spider Monkey’) in extremely muddy conditions and arrived in Bozel filthy dirty, but grinning from ear to ear with stories of huge trains through technical woodland singletrack and multiple crashes.
The results therefore remain unchanged from Monday – Polygon’s Jamie Nicoll leads Scottish ripper Gary Forrest (WTB) and Dan Wolfe lies in third place. In the women’s competition Lisa Curry (Gallatin Alpine Sports) heads the field.
Tomorrow racers head into the Three Valleys for some amazing descending across Courcheval and Meribel with one of the rider’s favourite stages from last year’s race to attack – the aptly named ‘Loony Tunes’ – stages which will involve around 30mins of pure descending for most riders.
The Trans Savoie will continue (weather willing) moving through the Alps for the rest of the week, so stay tuned!
