Day 5: An Epic Day in Tignes

3 Jul 2011

Day 5: Thin air and sunshine in Tignes. I am sat having a beer in local hangout The Loop, which is definitely the place to do this sort of thing after a big day of riding. There are great views off the veranda of the shadows creeping over the lake and up to the Grande Motte Glacier as the sun sets in the valley behind. Whilst I discuss the trails with Jamie and Christian (the guys that run the Loop), Tim, Dan and Nick (also from the Loop) are doing another evening photo shoot on the bottom section of the ‘Black Metal’ trail over to my left. It has been an epic day!

We started it all by meeting up with the Canyon guys to sort out some test bikes – a big thanks to Mathieu (the local Tignes/Canyon rep) for making this happen. We spent the morning on a Torque FRX, Dropzone, and Playzone. We managed to cover a huge number of trails, starting with ‘Jump Around’ on the Palafour Mountain and then switching to Tovière where we spit up and covered ‘Kangooride’, ‘Gypsy’ and ‘Moustache’ in one uplift! The trails here are very loose, with a lot of gravel and stones in the berms. Speed is your friend here: we saw plenty of riders take hits as slow wheels got held up in the loose stuff. It was also nice to encounter some more natural off camber corners – not every turn needs a berm. After a quick break for lunch we met up for some riding with local rider Yannick, head of the Tignes based mountain bike club dtc73.com – they have a really cool club vibe here in Tignes. We first hit the ‘Tarte à Lognan’ trail for some pictures, and then headed up to the Freeride zone for some jumping action. Here are the best of the pics – as always check Facebook for the rest, or at least as many as Tim can ‘process’ in one evening…!

So finally, another evening photo shoot session but the pictures will have to follow on tomorrow as we’ve just got another pitcher of beer! The plan tomorrow is to hit the Enduro Trails ‘Rocky Trail’ and ‘Wonderboisses’ with Yannick and Max Higel, head of Bike Patrol in Tignes. These trails take you down into the valley at Tignes les Boisses, and then you catch the bus back up. The weather forecast for tomorrow is not brilliant so we will have to see what we can do. Otherwise it’s off to Alpe d’Huez and get settled there ahead of the Megavalanche at the end of the week.

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