In Part 1 of our Preparing for the Megavalanche, MTB Strength Factory’s Ben Plenge ran through the best ways to prepare your body for the race ahead.
In this article, web editor Pete Scullion gives his advice on how best to approach the race itself. Both the qualifier and the main event are two very different beasts, and ultimately require very different approaches.
Photo courtesy of Nukeproof/Laurence Crossman-Ems.
The Megavalanche, simply known as ‘The Mega’, is as iconic a race as any in the world, attracting hundreds of riders every year to race down the glacier and deep into the alpine valleys below.
Based around the French town of Alpe d’Huez it offers a unique challenge to any mountain biker, with high speed snow and ice sections, tight woodland singletrack and rugged lunar landscapes.
It is physically demanding and if you are not properly prepared then you will know about it. The Mega is totally brutal and each year it breaks dozens of bikes and bodies. So, if you are heading out to do the Mega this year then how should you prepare?
Qualifier.
Qualifying for one of the many guys’ races is a complex affair. I put a lot of pressure on myself to make the main event in 2015 (top 35 per heat made the cut) and spent far more time preparing my plan for this race than for the main event. For simplicity, let’s say everyone is aiming to get to that race on the Sunday.
Regardless of where you’re placed in your particular qualifying heat, there are two crucial places where you can gain major ground. The first access track switchbacks will be utter carnage, so focus on just getting around these without being dead.
Photo by Cyril Charpin.
The key is to hit the first patch of snow without the sheep mentality. Everyone will aim for the single rut in the snow that is down to rock, ignoring the masses of room either side. You are guaranteed to be killed by a lycra-clad Frenchman or have all of the important components of your bike destroyed here if you follow the pack. Go wide. Even if the snow is soft, you will be quicker than those in the rut. If your heat is early, the snow will be firm and you can pedal your ringer off into the distance.
Shortly after this section is the next crux. A tall outcrop stops with a sheer cliff. The top boys will launch the 12 feet to flat and be long gone. Everyone else, unsurprisingly, will aim for the cut in the rock that offers the easiest way out. Again, death by Frenchman is a real risk here, so take your time to look out lines in practice. I fell off on the second of a double drop on the far left and still made places. A risky choice maybe, but you’re away from the traffic.
By now, you’ll be ahead of the rut traffic and away from the pile-up at the drop and can settle into it. From here it’s about keeping a decent pace on the technical downhill sections, then just keeping the pedals turning on the long slog across the piste.
Just keep pushing, you’ll have a day off to eat chips if you make the main event!
Main Event.
Everyone deals with their race day daemons in a different way and there are many tall tales told of the psychological battle leading up to what is likely the maddest race any of us gravity enthusiasts will take on. There are, as ever, keys to success for even the lowliest Row J starter (me).
Take a primaloft jacket to the top. It’s surprisingly not that warm at 3.3km above the sea. Hopefully, like me, you won’t need it, but if you don’t trust the staff to take it back to the registration hall, then they’re small enough to jam in your bag.
The well-documented queue for the toilets is only for the sit-down bogs. If you need a leak, just strut on past, knowing you’re in control of your bowels at this crucial moment.
Race start. After pouring over countless hours of Megavalanche start footage, glean one thing from it. The piste cambers to the left, so stay right. Ever wondered why there’s always a massive pile up at the start of the Mega? That’s why. Once you’re off the first pitch, there’s still 37km to go. Get off the snow and start your race from there.
The second steep bit of snow is unfathomably steep, long and genuinely terrifying. Unless your name ends with Vouilloz, Absalon or Clementz, you will likely arrive to it looking like a plough has been down it. Everyone must tackle this in their own way, but I found bum-sliding with my bike upright, using the brakes to manage my speed actually worked well and I was gaining ground.
Megavalanche 2016 Powered by Bluegrass from Bluegrass on Vimeo.
Attack the climbs. You will have plenty of long, uninterrupted singletrack descent, and with that, plenty time for your legs to recover. I couldn’t believe the amount of people that sat down and spun the climbs. Overtaking on the singletrack is hard. Make sure you look ahead and plan an overtake just after the start of a climb.
Enjoy it. It’s easy to get hung up on being stuck behind someone slower than you. Enjoy the fact that they will be getting out of shape, buckarooing about as they attempt to keep you behind them. Enjoy that you’ve just ridden two black ski runs and a glacier. If you’ve managed to survive to this point, you might even be granted some clear trail to ride like you had planned.
As the old saying goes, “No one is your friend at the Mega, until you finish”.
