Mon 09 Nov 2009 |
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Flo's Alpine Mountain Unicycle Trip |
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I received a very lengthy and detailed trip report from Flo on his latest Mountain Uni ride he did with his brother Marc in the Alps. Included are some breathtaking photos. So here is the entire article done by Flo. I kept all the grammer and spelling as is because those who know Flo will appreciate it more. By the way for those that don't know, Flo is from France who came to Cape Town last year to study Engineering at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, and to learn to speak better english. He is an amazing rider and the smoothest rider I have seen. Enjoy....
Hi Amaonetya!
There is too much time I didn’t gave you news from France
So here I am !
First of all, let me inform you that this year, I’ve moved to Saint Etienne in order to follow a pure mechanical engineering formation in a better school. And I’m now 50 kms away from Lyon, a playground for numerous unicyclists, they’ve also got an excellent basketball team. I definitely need to go and meet them one of this week ends! Well, unfortunately I’m not riding a lot since September
That’s why I’ll speak you about an excellent week I’ve spent during my holidays in July:
There were times that my brother Marc and myself were dreaming about a long ride in mountain. The first point was to found a place for it, in the Alps of course but Alps are larges and varied. We found two interesting domains: Maurienne and Vanoise, Vanoise is a very cool nature reserve but the rules inside are so strict and we didn’t managed to obtain an authorization for ridding there.
So the place was fixed in Maurienne. It took us two days for finding an interesting route on the map afterwhile we called the refuges to book the nights, we were first thinking about spend the nights in a tent but the tent and the sleeping bags were too much heavy, with clothes and food, our bags were already weight 13kgs...
Departure
The 21st of July, Dad drove us to the place of departure which was located in south of Valloires, a ski resort. We started at 12 following a jeep track going through the mountain pastures. That was not so steep but we quickly get struggled because of the weight of our backpack so we did half of the way on foot up to the refuge.
There, we were really well welcomed by the walkers and the guardian, they were amazed by those crazy men riding on half a bike. We put of all our stuff on the dormitory, showed them some few tricks and leaved the refuge for a little off track ride up one of the peaks around. In fact, we did almost all of the way up on foot but once on the top, downhill was a pure pleasure, we were feeling so light after ridding with all this weight on the back!
When we came back, many people were out of the refuge and congratulate us. We learnt that they were watching us since the beginning of the downhill.
The day after, we leaved the stuff on the refuge as last afternoon and had two long rides around. That was excellent to warm up for the week by a day ride vacuous.
Marc crossing a torrent
Myself learning to use the brake
When we came back, it was time for dinner but as we weren’t eating the dinner sold by the refuge, we were unauthorized to dinner inside thus we eat on a table outside enjoying a wonderful sunset behind a crest!
For the third day, we had planned a long crossing up to an Italian refuge. The first part was a single-track going slightly up on the side of the mountain. We were a little afraid about the rideability of this path which finally appears not only rideable but incredibly pleasant!
As one goes along, we were forgetting the weight of our backpacks and managed both some beautiful gaps over obstacles. Following to this crossing, we started a consequent way going up on a valley (700m difference in high) and we attached the unis on the bags.
There was a lot of wind on the pass
When we reached the pass, we were in a hurry because the route was still long up to the refuge and it was close to 19h... So we did it as fast as possible and then arrived at 19h45, Ouf!
Thought we were dead tired, we accepted to show some few tricks to the son of the guardian and a group of English people tried to ride the unis. When someone tries a uni, it is always the same laughing episode and I would never grow tired of it!
This afternoon, the guardian offered us the dinner: Polenta, meat in sauce, and spaghettis bolo with bread and parmesan, Mmm! After three days of dried food, we were more than glad to eat those plates!
The following day was also a big one, we wanted to reach the top of biggest mountain of the landscape called "mont Thabor" (3200m). From the refuge, it was possible to see it up to the valley: a gigantic black mountain with some remaining traces of snow... We get up at 5 then leaved the refuge early and started to ride until the beginning of the real uphill where we decided to push the unis then to attach them on our backpack. As we were well trained by the days before, we didn’t feel any pain to cross up the 1500m high going to the summit.
The Thabor
On The top, we did a long break for chatting with others walkers and cooking the lunch. As you can see on the picture below, a little church has been built there. Unfortunately, it was closed and we were unable to visit it...
No! We don’t have teddy bears anymore, those are just pets.
Myself on the upper point of the Thabor
We started the downhill at 12 and everybody was amazed to see us ridding on this really steep part, an old man (but definitely young in his mind!) told me that he should try that in order to keep healf and started to run behind us, that was so funny!
The descent, few MTBers told us they were unable to ride it on two wheels.
In the middle of the downhill, we turned to the east, in the direction of the last refuge: "les Marches".
This day was the better of our week. We were at the top of our abilities and enjoyed a full afternoon of downhill riding! We arrived to the refuge at 18h30 and had a very interesting talk with the guardian about his job (he his volunteer for keeping the refuge and earns money only with the meals, definitely, we weren’t good clients!), his cow and his mule before taking advantage of the hot (and free) showers and the beds.
The following day, we had all the morning of easy downhill... (Easy?? we even manage to lost our way and ride off track during more than hour before to recognize a place on the map but it doesn’t matter..)
But... were is the path???
We finally arrived to Valmenier1800, another ski resort. Following to some few shopping, we took the road to join Valloire, were a friend was keeping us a tent and some few stuff for a bivouac.
Valmenier1800
We took the stuff and walk few meters up to the village to find a place for planting the tent and there... SURPRISE! We missed to bring the pipes of the tent! And we didn’t just missed those at our friend’s home but in Annecy when preparing the journey!
So we didn’t had the choice and slept on the tent material, fortunately, the weather was really clement and we managed to have an excellent night.
For the last day, We had planned to climb the "col du Galibier" on the road, a pass well known for cyclist competitions like "tour de France". What we finally managed easily, biting by the way many riders on race bikes, we were so proud of us!
It took us the morning to ride it. We also did a break because of a lot of consecutive punctures on Marc’s uni. The tape rolled inside the rim was dead and the tube has been cut by the holes drilled on the rim. The solution was to roll paper toilet between the rim and the tube.
Once to the top, we took some tracks going back to Valloires where out mother picked us by car. That was the end of our trip!
On the car, we were already guessing what will be the further one...
Hope you’ve enjoyed my article (did I managed to be clear in English?)
Cheers,
Flo
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 08 December 2009 09:50 )
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Mon 12 Oct 2009 |
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The Action Cycling Red Bull Urban Assault, Cape Town 2009 |
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(Photo courtesy of Andrew Haylett)
The annual Red Bull Urban Assault had it’s first unicycle entry this year. Well, in Cape Town at least. Johnny Cronje from the AmaOneTya group heard about the downhill bike race from the slopes of signal hill and through the steep streets and steps of the Bo-Kaap and was excited at the prospect of doing the race. While being rather intimidated by the event he decided to go for it anyway.
After a registration at Action Cycling Johnny caught the shuttle up to the start along with a large group of Downhill riders, who were very supportive and intrigued and as Johnny said, "Without perpetuating any stereotypes, DH'ers are definitely the most supportive group of non-unicyclists I have ridden with!". The first half of the route took you on a scree-gravel jeep track where the bikers were hitting over 60km/h. The 2nd half of the route was the fun part. About 50m of undulating single-track, followed by the first obstacle of 2 built up log and rock ramps with a small drop off. The next object was a short but steep downhill of about 3 meters, the tricky part being that it was made up of jagged rocks varying in size from gravel to very sharp rugby balls. Then came a few more short but steep dips/hills in the single-track before opening onto a 50m stretch of jeep track. This took you up to a scaffold-supported bridge over the Vista School fence, with a drop off of about 1m onto the grass on the other side. The route then winds through outside corridors, lots of stairs, rooty drops and non-concrete walking paths before ending on sloped bank of rock leading into a small parking lot. A really pleasant route that was technically challenging but manageable.
Johnny's comentary on his ride, "I did my first of my 2 official timed runs at the beginning of the 2nd set of timed runs. The leaders had finished the course in about 2min50s. I had been given a 10 minute head start. So, after kitting up with head, wrist, hand, elbow, forearm, shin, knee and eye protection (It may have been overkill, but I felt like a bouncy-ball). Off I went with a countdown from the organisers and good wishes from the bikers. The gravel half of the race was quite lonely, with no spectators on this dull but fast stretch. I pedalled harder than I did the previous day during the practice, but was careful to not go full speed due to the really loose gravel and sand that had been torn up even more by the bikers. Hitting the speed trap, I clocked a humble 16.7km/h (fastest biker was 64km/h). Then it was onto the single-track. I was tired. I had taken that downhill too fast for too long, and was not as fit as I remembered! Whilst the terrain of the single-track slowed me down a little, it was not as much (relatively) as the bikers. As I approached the corner that would turn me down the main spectator point on the route, the double-log-ramp-followed-by-jagged-scree-slope, I heard people. Lots of people. This was the area that I couldn’t clear during yesterdays practice runs. With fingers crossed and eyes on the trail, I headed into the section slightly slower than the previous. People started screaming. I felt like screaming. But the logs passed by with 2 hops and a split second stillstand. Not quite the monster-truck effect I was going for, but down the slope I sailed with cheers in the background. I felt great! It was exhilarating! I was tired! I then I bailed. Not deliberately, but a rice-grain sized rock through me off the uni with no breathe to curse properly. Thankfully, there were no spectators on this part of the route. I took a few moments to catch my breathe before mounting and promptly falling again. The problem dawned on me immediately ... I had an acute attack of jelly-legs! The only treatment is rest. A few more moments of breathing, and a mount with more concentration got me to a wobbling start, which was soon smoothed out with momentum. I now approached the 2 slightly longer, steeper downhill sections, another spectator point. No bails here, but the sense of mutiny was rising from my legs. The short jeep track section up to the ramp over the school fence was taken at a very average pace, preparing for the burst of energy that would take me up the relatively steep scaffolding. I had just enough steam to pass over the top and onto the grass, with cameras flashing and people cheering as I landed and smoothly rolled away. Now my lungs were joining my legs in their uprising. But I had to clear the schoolyard first. The stairs, which had worried me after some painful lessons on Jammie’s wide-ass trappe, were a breeze, while the rooty sections appeared rather meek compared to Tokai’s lizard trail. The last jump from the stair case to the sloped wall ended without the anticipated pedal-clip, and I rode under the inflated Red Bull arch to applause, cheers, and general feelings of accomplishment."
Johnny's second run down the course resulted in a slightly faster speed over the speed trap of 17km/h, but an overall run time of 5 seconds slower than the first. It was 3 times slower than the fastest biker, but for a 1 wheeled, hardtail, breakless fixie it was an amazing accomplishment. Well done to Johnny for competing in the event and lifting the status of Mountain Unicycling within the cycling fraternity.
Some last words from Johnny, "I had a 5-star time at this event, and cannot wait for next year to ride it again. The idea of having a unicycle category was well received by the crowd and the interviewer, so lets make it happen! A big thanks to Action Cycling for letting me take part in the event, Justin for telling me about it, Andrew for putting up with lots of phone calls trying to find my way around and also for taking some cool photos, and all the bikers and spectators for their interest and encouragements along the way!
Johnny"
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Last Updated ( Monday, 09 November 2009 13:47 )
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in Rides by Brent, 08-02-10 12:39
