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!
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