Photos courtesy of Pat Fitzpatrick and me
Well I’ve made it. I’m here in the village of Champéry, Switzerland nestled in the Swiss Alps near the French border. It’s an absolutely stunning area with no shortage of whichever flavor of riding you want to sink your teeth into. I’m here with my good mate Pat (of Ride International) who invited me to come to Europe early so we could ride the Pass’Portes du Soleil together. What is the Pass’Portes du Soleil you ask? It is a 75km mountain bike event that traverses 13th lifts throughout 6 ski resorts in both France and Switzerland with 6500m of decending. It’s not a race, but when was the last time thousands of cyclists got together where a race didn’t break out?
When Pat told me that this mountain bike event was about 75km long and we were using over a dozen ski lifts I have to admit I thought it would be a piece of cake. How hard could it be? As an arrogant roadie I brushed it off as being a punk mountain biker’s interpretation of a ‘challenge’. I’ve ridden many races over 250km where I had to pedal the whole way. All we had to do was hop on a bunch of chairlifts and bomb down to the next rest stop, guzzle a beer and a sausage roll, then ride the lift up to the top of the next mountain. Easy.
It started out easy. It took 5 minutes to cover over 1000m elevation in the téléphérique (a massive gondola). We made our way across spectacular singletrack ridges, groomed downhill runs and ripping fast fire roads. As soon as we ran out of gravity there was another chairlift waiting for us to grant us another 1000m of easy elevation. Every resort we stopped at hosted a sensational feast of food and drinks to stuff our faces with. I was in heaven.
As the day drew to a close I was overwhelmed with a total body exhaustion that I was completely unfamiliar with. Even though there was only some pedaling involved, my leg were nearly cramping they were so fatigued. My back, my arms, my chest were complete jelly. I couldn’t believe what I was experiencing. Have you ever heard of arm pump? It’s horribly painful. Sure we went hard and were riding on the edge for a total of 87km, but it was almost all downhill. How could this be possible?
Between Pat and I we descended nearly 6000m, punctured 5 times, ate 9 baguette sandwiches, a kilo of the best chocolate I’ve ever tasted, 3 litres of Rivella (awesome Swiss drink), multiple sausage rolls and countless other bits and bites. We didn’t even finish the whole course because the lifts shut down at 6pm and we spent too much time messing around taking photos and stuffing our faces with all the wonderful food provided.
We ended up getting home at 8pm and both crashed harder than after any of the 200+ km road races I’ve done. It doesn’t make mountain bikers anymore civilized, but I have to give them a bit more credit than I did going into this. I had the time of my life, was incredibly challenged, and participated in the only event of its kind in the world. If you ever get a chance, try out the Pass’Portes du Soleil MTB. I’ve never done anything so amazing on a mountain bike before!
Thank you to BMC for lining up the perfect mountain bikes for us to use for this event. They started out brand spankin’ new, but they’re well and surely used-goods now.
The route. 13 chair lifts through 6 ski resorts and 9 towns through the French and Swiss Alps
Pat in the workshop setting up the BMC Super Trail's
How good is this???
MTB'rs of all types. Full-on downhillers, cross country nuts, and everything in-between
There were countless groomed bermed runs like this. So fast, so much fun
What's a day of mountain biking without a few battle scars?
If you ever need mountain bike skills coaching, Pat is the man!
Six 'ravitaillement' stops along the way with some of the best spreads of food I've ever laid eyes on
Wacky Euro entertainment at its finest
This dude was seriously intense with his bongos
Have you ever seen a trillion calories all at once? Check out all that cheese
The hills are alive with the sound of music
Berm Heaven!
Over 3500 mountain bikers dotted all over the massive area called Pass'Portes du Soleil
The TdF will be starting and finishing in Morzine on stages 8 and 9. Very cool little town
One of the many awesome singletrack ridges
C'est moi!
C'est moi fixing my 3rd puncture of the day
These guys sure know how to throw a party. When is the last time you had chocolate fondue at a mtb event?
Nothing was keeping this guy from riding his bike today
Paul from BMC was one of the good blokes who took great care of us
The Bike Exposition in Chatel
More singletrack heaven
The last traverse
On the home run
No one was in any real rush to do anything but take in the views
Soaking my limbs in the ice cold glacier water. Arm pump - excruciating...
{ 37 comments }
Wow, makes the Gateway Bridge “Billion Dollar Views” look positively lame!!
AWESOME!
Hi Wade,
Sensational Pic's – the Alps are seriously such a special place!
As a general rule, MTB doesn't interest me in the slightest – I officially change my mind after this!
Envy!
Yes…it was the food that won me over! The singletrack was pretty good too ;-)
Absolutely sensational!!!! the Swiss Alps would make me want to ride a MTB too! Good to see you kept the Capo's on! Awesome stuff
Looks like Paul had a helmet cam on – any footage?
Yes, we got some excellent footage. I'll hopefully post it sometime this week. There's hours of it to sort through and edit.
unreal – so much better than another lap of a cold and damp Beach Road…
Jealous…
I'm a MTBer first… reluctant Roadie (because it is sooo fricken hard to get on the MTB in Sydney)!
Wow! This is simply sensational scenery. Some very good photographs and they make you want to go riding MTB all day!
Nice work Wados & Pat!!
Absolutely racked with envy. Just got into MTB'ing this year, and yes I've seen you flying around Kurrajong Plantation ;-) . Seems I'm now going to have to pack mtb'ing gear for that elusive European cycling holiday.
WOW
words are not enough
The last photo is pure gold. What an amazing day.
If you're a roadie and haven't had a roll on a MTB, I hope you use Wade's photos as motivation and give it a go. I guarantee it'll give you a big grin.
Most of my MTB mates also ride road bikes but it doesn't always go the other way. :(
OMG. Nearly having a fit @ work right now…
Fantastic photos. Maybe someone needs to organise a 100th year TdF package that includes this “race” for three years time. Pick Me. I'll come. Two experiences of a lifetime in one package. Hands up anyone keen. [sticks hand up in the air]
some of the greatest looking trails I've seen, even on the internet! Pat will up your skills Wade.
Total awesome, that is why i love MTBing.
Look forward to the footage as well
So jealous! Pat is a master teacher. Wade, you really need to change the name to CyclingtRips. And what's with the bagging out MTB'ers… hate to tell you, but you ARE one!
Come on you hard core Roadies – head over to the 'dark side'. MTB can be very civilised.
Hmm, photo with you soaking your feet so presumably shoes off…yet you have your helmet on still?? Afraid you might slip in the water and hit your head ;)
Or are the 'looking PRO' rules different for MTB!!
Have a ball mate
Simo
the you yangs is a great mtb facility down the road, CT rd trip?
I'm so giving up road now hahaha
Great riding only 11hour from my home? I must go there this summer.
BTW. next time ask for tubeless wheels (no snake bite punctures) and on the last pic it looks that your tire is in the wrong direction. :-)
You've done well to get to that part of the world. I worked near Mt Eiger years ago for a winter. Didn't get to ride but did loads of skiing and hiking. It's amazing how beautiful a group of mountains can be.
hey all you Roadie who want to try out mtbing. go too http://www.gmbc.com.au Geelong mountain bike club is running a night series at the you yangs on friday nights. you will need lights but all welcome. A B C grade.
Ditto tubeless on the mtb Wade – if you get out again. Zero punctures in 3 years once went tubeless with bit of sealant. God's gift to mtbing that one.
Nice work boys xx
Mr Fritz hitting the Choc fondue, are we surprised. Looks awesome… now I wish we could have added that to the Rome, Venice, Amalfi, Stockholm, UK… Team McSlade Trip
We did invite you ;-)
In the winter you can put your bags on the train and ski to the next village where your bags will meet you at the next hotel. You could do this for weeks never skiing the same valley twice. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to do that during the summer on a bike???
If there is one place in the world you must visit before you hang up your wheels, it's the Porte du Soleil. We visited that region for 10 days of MTBing in 04 and it was superb. I'm no expert at MTBing but you will the best fun off or on road ever. Either ride your MTB (preferably as Wade's photos attest to the glorious riding trails) or take your roadie, it is simply the best combined riding and scenery I've ever done in my life. Buy a lift pass while you're there and either do the full on downhills or ride the single track, you will live on the memories for years! Wish I was there this year for the TdF stage.
Stayed at Champéry and skiied Portes du Soleil with my wife on our honeymoon a few years ago. We talked about it being a TDF venue and wondered if we might go back to see it and ride a bit. Envious – Enjoy!
Love that you called out Rivella, great stuff. Bet ya didn't know it is milk based . . . sure doesn't taste like it.
I had no idea. Just looked at the ingredients and it says “serum de lait”. Who knew!?
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