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IT’S THE MTB NEWS
EDR HAUTE-SAVOIE: Great news as the Haute-Savoie Enduro World Cup is confirmed as being in Combloux, a resort that shares the same mountains as Megève, validating the rumours we recently reported of the EDR being co-hosted by MB Race. In announcing the event, we also get the first hint at a new structure for 2024 enduro events, with the EDR on Friday and E-EDR on Sunday. Practice for both is on a single day – Thursday – and we know the organisers want to help (or encourage) more racers into the e-bike race (just 7 women and 38 men raced the final E-EDR of 2023 in Châtel), so will racers be allowed to compete in both regular and assisted categories then, and, if yes, how will the organiser ensure fairness if both races use some of or all the same trails?
Anyway, we’re based not far from Combloux and have spent some classic summer evenings on the excellent pumptrack there (almost definitely the most scenic in the world with its backdrop of Mont Blanc). Surprisingly, we had never heard of any mountain biking in the small resort, and its website only mentions fireroads, grassy pastures and a single lift.
After a minor panic, we gave local guide and walking trail map Graham Pinkerton of the excellent Chamonix Bike Blog a shout to see if he knew anything about Combloux’s trails. Pinkerton reassured us that everything is going to be OK, noting that Combloux and Megève share a hill, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see the race stages taking in some fresh, loamy stuff on the Megève side, some revived tracks on a currently defunct bike park that existed a decade ago, and some flowy, flatter singletrack that links from Megève to Combloux. (Everything here is completely speculative – Pinkerton has no links to the event organiser or inside knowledge of planned trails. But read his post from 2012 for an idea of the terrain.)
Whatever the case, as Pinkerton puts it, ‘Combloux’s a bit of a hidden gem. And if you want fair racing with minimal practice, why wouldn’t you want to go somewhere off the radar with fresh loam and sick views?’ Quite.
Final bit of EDR Haute-Savoie info: the MB Enduro is cancelled to make way for the EDR, but its amateur racers will instead get the chance to compete in the EDR Open Enduro, with more info coming soon.
EVENTS: Riders pinballed down the streets of Guanajuato in Mexico at last weekend’s Red Bull Cerro Abajo, with Juanfer Velez taking the win. Watch the wallrides, power sprints and massive jumps in the replay here. But what town will host the Italian round in October? Our money is on Genoa (conveniently just down the road from our office). There’s a UK deep scene revival planned for this 13-14 July with the Retro Quarry Run at legendary venue Nantmawr Quarry. Remind yourself (or discover) what 1998 UK DH looked like in this Mountain Bike Britain episode from Nantmawr posted by Rob Warner (was he even there?). Junior phenomenon Asa Vermette, who is set to race his first season of World Cups this year, crashed out at the Tennessee National at Windrock Bike Park last weekend while schooling the pros in his race run. Vermette fractured his hip but is upbeat and young and we hope to see him tearing it up at a World Cup soon. The first Women in the Bike Industry summit took place recently with over 40 – Wideopen Mag reported from it here.
TECH: Have you seen Bimotal’s removable e-bike motor that gives you power through your disc brake and clips on and off in seconds? Who’s pre-ordered? Fox drops a new BOA version of its Union flat shoe. Deviate adds a mullet to its lineup with the 29/27.5 Claymore MX. iXS goes X-Treme with its great looking new Trigger X and a pretty out there launch campaign. Last week we noted Push Industries’ upside-down trail fork; this week Formula counters with its new dual-crown Belva. We’ve all heard about the industry-wide stock overload issue, but which companies have literally tens of thousands too many of certain bike models? Misspent Summers has ample storage space for free bikes if any brands need our help – just saying.
LOGS: Data acquisition has long been an integral part of downhill racing and, with tracking, monitoring and logging devices becoming smaller and easier to take on and off, more recently it has become a mainstay of enduro racing too. Measuring suspension and component performance and using that intel to set a bike up for a specific race is now common across top-level World Cup racing. BYB’s recently launched Chrono unit, with GPS, speed sensor and a trigger for starting and stopping the clock, might help racers take things to yet another level as they gain accurate on-trail data to help them understand exactly where and how they are gaining and losing speed during a run. It isn’t the first of its kind, but it is proof that more racers are looking for an edge through precise data. Could 2024 be mountain biking’s fastest year ever?
