Just back from the bike show and we’ve got plenty to chew over. Met some great people there (hello if you were one of them!). Just a shame we had to be stuck inside over such a lovely weekend.
Oh well - we’ll be making up for it in the coming weeks - take a look at the map below to see where we’re planing on going! It’s gonna be a busy couple of weeks!
Ryanair are flying to Perpignan airport for free on the weekends that our Perfect Pyrenees trips run this Autumn. The flight back is only 15 quid as well (or just £1 and no tax for the last weekend!).
How bloody good is that!
There’s obviously taxes to deal with and extra fees for bringing your bike etc. But you can’t complain about the initial price.
There’s plenty of stuff on web forums from both lovers and haters of Morzine. As we’re running a business here, we have a vested interest in the future of mountain biking in Morzine. We’re trying to encourage the tourist office & town hall to improve things for mountain bikers. It seems that they’re willing to listen to us outsiders, so whist the irons hot and all that…
I’ve created this here survey:
http://www.surveygizmo.com/s/62902/morzine-mountain-bike-trail-user-survey
I’d be most grateful if you’ve got 5 minutes to spare to let us know your thoughts.
Feel free to comment on this post as well, but the survey might have more influence and has some room for ranting!
Nice one
Guy
So it’s been about 2 weeks since I got back from Champery - about time I told you how we got on!
So being the inaugural freeride week, it was bound to be less than full, and so it proved: With 3 attendees, myself and our local Swiss-Canadian guide, Joel, our group was a speedy 5. Less hanging around for faffing, falling and punctures suited us just fine.
Josh and Guy on the Col de Coux singletrack
Day one: Champery
Day one saw us riding the local Champery trails, the Col de Coux was hiked up with big bikes in just under half an hour. Then the 700m descent back to Champery made full use of the 7 to 8 inches of travel we all had (except for Ryan, who braved it out most of the week on his Cove Stiffee SL). With that hike out of the way the rest of the day was spent riding downhill singletrack and the Swiss National course.
Day two: The Morgins trails.
Joel was dead excited to show us his (he’s a local trail builder) newest creation - latoboggane. It’s a fast, flowy, bermy, jumpy track they’ve built this year. And it was great. Super smooth berms, no braking bumps and a huge road gap that Joel was only too willing to demonstrate. The boy can fly.
Joel flys over the road gap
The afternoon was spent sessioning the new track as well as trying out the old blue run and the freeride black run (complete with ladder drops, jumps and some truly steeeep stuff indeed.
Chris rails a berm
Champery Jump park:
The boys were obviously not completely tired out when we got back to Champery that evening with a session on the Champery Jump park - right in town. Chris even managed to get to the 4th plank from the top of the wall ride on one attempt but admitted that it was getting a little scary when he started to see the road on the other side 
Chris styling it
Check back for part 2 of the round up soon (on the next Rainy day I suspect!)
The top two photos were taken by Chris. Cheers!
More pics in the gallery here
Once again we’ll be selling off our Santa Cruz hire fleet come September. If you are interested in grabbing a top of the range bike at a bargain price then here’s what we’ve got:
1 * Small Heckler, Blue, 1500 euros (from last year)
2 * Medium Hecklers, White, 2000 euros each (this years)
1 * Large Heckler, White, 2000 euros (this years)
1 * Medium VP-Free, Black, 1650 euros (last years)
1 * Small VP-Free, Green, 1750 euros (last years)
1 * Large Bullit, 1750 euros (last years)
Bikes all come with a 1 year frame warranty from Jungle (the UK importers)
For more details, specs and photos, please get in touch! mail me on guy@flowmtb.com
Here’s a video from freecaster.tv of the first slopestyle comp in Avoriaz:
And here’s some photos of mine from the event.
it was a good event - shame about the rain beforehand, but hey ho. The boy Sam Pilgrim (GBR) won it in some style!
Here’s one of the many photos I’ve taken at this years Mega - check em all out here.
Check out this snippet from the new Kranked movie - fast forward about 5 minutes into the video and check out Champery local Ben Walker riding some sweet singletrack around here. Makes me want to go and ride it again and again 
We’ll certainly be checking it out on our Swiss Freeride Week - and if Ben’s not too busy he may join us (fingers crossed!).
Today’s mission is to get the bikes all geared up for the Megavalanche - we’re leaving on Monday for the week and I can’t wait.There’s more snow than ever before - due in part to the fact that the race is being held 2 weeks earlier than usual plus the enormous quantities of snow we had in the Spring. It should make for a great race, and even the qualifyer is going to have some proper snow this time. I’ve just been checking out google maps to see that they’ve been taking their Street View camera cars around the tour de france route - which means L’Alpe d’Huez and means they’ve got a great shot of the flowmtb chalet.
See you there I hope!
Guy
This weekend saw the passportes event - with over 3,500 riders around the course it was easily the busiest weekend of the summer. The event marks the opening of the full area lift system, so now we can ride all the way to Morgins, Chatel and Champery without having to get over the giant mountain passes under our own steam.
With the main course being 75km, we didn’t stand a chance of completing it. We did get all the way from Morzine to Chatel, Morgins and Champery before returning to Morzine. The only bit we left out was the Les Gets loop.
Perhaps it was the call of Bar Robinson and Mutzig that stopped us crossing town to complete the loop.
Ah well, the trails are here all summer long, no rush!
Guy
