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Day 56: Biovey and The Athertons

URT Day 56 Bardoneccia

Gee going past in the blink of an eye

Day 56: Big Biovey trails and chatting with the Athertons. Had a bit of luck today. Just as we were getting worried at the lack of riders to photograph on the trails, who should rock up (at high speed) but Rachel, Gee and the Animal-Commençal gang! Good job too otherwise you would have been stuck with just photos of me.

Today’s objective was to check out the trails on the other side of Bardonecchia. The Biovey gondola lift gives you access to 2 DH trails, ‘47D’ and ‘43D’, and they are both of similar style and standard to the ‘15D’ trail at Campo. The big difference is the height – these trails are much bigger with a 572m height drop compared to the 250m drop at Campo Smith. Not steep at the top with big sweeping corners and great views. Then the bottom third gets steeper, with dusty loose berms to make things a little trickier. And there are doubles and table tops throughout. The only trail factors that are missing are technical root and rock sections but for fun fast DH riding, intermediate standard riders included, they are great. The only real problem we encountered at Biovey was right at the very bottom of the trails just before dropping into the car park. I came out of the trees where the trail drops away, leaving you unsighted until you are already over the drop and on the steep section. Right at the bottom was an old fella and 4 kids taking a stroll. Fortunately I managed to avoid them by riding straight off the trail and into a bush – no damage done, but I was pretty pissed off. I rolled down the final 30m or so and had a look around for some sign posts, and in their defense there was nothing indicating that this was a bike trail and that hikers were not permitted. So a bit difficult to blame them really.

Just after lunch we had a quick chat with Gee and Rachel about how they were getting on with recovery from the brutal World Cup track at Va di Sole and preparing for the World Champs at Champéry next week. (Unfortunately Dan was in Sweden competing at the Maxi-avalanche event at Åre Bike Park so we missed him.) The team were taking a bit of time out in between the major UCI events, visiting Alpi Bike Resort and checking out the trails at Bardonecchia for the day. Given the standard of the course at the World Cup last week the trails here do not really pose any difficulty. But at least Gee admitted to working hard and getting a bit out of breath on the bottom section where things get steep and loose. Made me feel slightly better at feeling so battered if a DH World Champion can work up a sweat! We’ll see them again at the Worlds next week and get a few more pictures of the standard of riding that we all dream of reaching.

David on the 47D trail

Rachel hot on the heels of Gee

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