Some great videos up on the Dirt site from the DH mountain bike World Cup in Champery:
Archive for July, 2010
I guess the obvious thing to do on saturday was to head to Champery to watch the Mountain Bike World Cup. It’s not often an event like that comes through so close to home!
After all the rain on Friday the track was in a pretty mashed up state. It’s known for being a tough gnarly ride anyway, and in the wet it’s super hard. I’d raced over after cleaning in the chalets and managed to get there just before the girls started setting off. I decided to hang out at the finish where I could watch the rest of the ride on the big screen and see everyone as they came in.
Right from the start it was clear riders were struggling in the mud, with crashes, tumbles and slides to a halt all over the place.
We were there rooting for Fionn Griffiths who’s been staying with flowmtb for the last month. Sadly the mud had won and thrown her off the bike twice. despite the crashes she rode well and came into ninth place in the time of 6.06. She spent a fair while sitting in the leader’s chair! You may not be able to make it out in the photos, but there’s a flowmtb logo on her jersey sleeve!
Then the real excitement came with Emmeline Ragot’s amazing run, finishing almost 5 seconds ahead of Sabrina Jonnier, giving her her first ever World Cup win!
Bernard Kerr (another flowmtb sponsored rider who’s benefitted from some recent training in morzine) also had a fantastic run finishing 21st despite a very sore and swollen finger.
One of the thing I love about mountain bikers is how friendly they are, without any pretensions. Fionn as always took lots of time out to chat with us, Em got her parents to look after my dog and take a photo of us. Bernard was hanging out in the tech area before his run in his flowmtb jersey and happily posed by the van for me!
And of course Jess, the ever smiling flowmtb cook!
flowmtb sponsored Bernard Kerr joined his team mate Fionn Griffiths at flowmtb for some training in Morzine before heading to Champery for the World Cup this weekend.
His few days riding in Morzine seem to have paid off well. Today he put in a storming performance in tough conditions to finish 19th.
Well done Bernard – we’ll be cheering for you tomorrow.
Emmeline Ragot and Fionn Griffiths left flowmtb on Tuesday to get to Champery for this weekend’s World Cup.
Qualifying today was in really tough conditions. The rain came down heavy last night and continued throughout most of the day. The Champery World Cup track is known for being tough in the best of conditions, when wet it’s super slippery.
Emmeline finished third just behind her compatriots Myriam Nicole and Sabrina Jonnier. flowmtb sponsored Fionn Griffiths finished 15th despite a massive crash that meant she had to head back up the hill for her bike.
Some photos of the Tour de France coming through Morzine. Thanks to Sian Hughes for the photos!
It’s a sad day today. 4X and DH star Fionn Griffiths and DH World Champ Emmeline Ragot have been staying at flowmtb, along with Fionn’s mechanic Dougie, for nearly a month now. European Junior DH champ Bernard Kerr joined them for the last few days. But today they packed up the van to head for the World Cup at Champery, then a crazy few weeks of flying over the world to races.
Good luck in Champery!
Just a few of the comments we’ve received via email in the last week or so:
Still on a massive high after our trip and we are all just itching to get back out there! don’t think I thanked you while we were there, but I just want to say thank you very much for such an amazing holiday! Everything was better than we expected jess and phil were great jess is an absolute jem! All of us still can’t stop going on about how good the trip was and we’ve had loads of people saying they will be heading out to stay with you guys!!
Just wanted to say a quick thanks for helping to make a really excellent week, it was a 40th birthday treat to myself!
Chalet Snion was excellent, everything was well organised and a great bunch of guests.
We’ll definitely be back and look to use FlowMTB again, either for PdS or more likely Mega next year!
Missing the riding already…
I would just like to say thanks for having us for the week. We all had a really great time and the newbies are wanting to come back already.
The chalet was really nice, the best i have ever stayed in. All the staff from flowmtb and torico were really friendly and made us feel welcome. Flowmtb will definitely be recommended to other bikers i know.
First of all I’ll like to say thanks for an awesome week in Alpe d’Huez. Would it be possible to put my name down for next year.
We’re all stoked to be receiving such great comments. Keep them coming 
After a crazy few days of Morzine being full of roadies and tourists watching the Tour, it’s all back to normal again. Yesterday morning the riders signed on to ride in Morzine centre then left by the Tourist Office and headed off through Les Gets. We watched them ride past the flowmtb chalet and start another gruelling day of riding.
It’s been fun seeing Morzine go through Tour fever, but now it’s back to the turn of mountain bikes to rule!
The flowmtb team have just returned to Morzine from the Alpe d’huez Megavalanche. We were lucky enough to have Emmeline Ragot, Fionn Griffiths and Petra Wiltshire with us for the week. And Dougie, Fionn’s mechanic to help out too!
DH World Champ Emmeline stormed the ladies race on Saturday speeding into second place just behind Anne-Caroline Chausson. Norco World Cup team rider (and flowmtb sponsored) Fionn made it into 9th, despite having to do the race on her DH bike – anyone who’s done it will know how tough that made the climbs! Petra made it up to race despite a big crash in qualifying leaving her far back in the starting grid and carrying an injured wrist, and rolled into 26th.
We’ve just heard that as the Tour de France riders passed the flowmtb chalet Eurosport picked it up!
