(energetic electronic music)
- I'm nervous.
Alright I'm out here at Alpe D'Huez to take part
in something that I want to tick off on my bucket list
and that is entering the Megavalanche.
(energetic electronic music)
It's a downhill race.
It's a marathon, really.
It starts at 3,330 metres
and drops down to 720 down Allemond Valley.
This is unbelievable, man.
Aahh!
And I do not know what to expect.
First off I need to go and find out
where I need to sign up, get a number board,
and get this whole thing kicked off.
Right, just arrived.
I'm gonna sign up, get my race board.
Super nervous.
Ratboy and the crew are in front of me.
(exhales)
I've just seen a map of the whole thing.
I'm going to have to show you. It's massive.
- Thank you. - Thank you very much.
Yes!
Ha!
Right I've just signed up to this Megavalanche.
One of the bucket list things that I've always wanted to do
since I've started mountain biking.
I've never raced downhill.
I've never done an endura-race.
Never done it, but I wanted to do this.
And I've signed it up. I got my board.
I'm pretty low, I'm pretty low number,
which is a pretty good number.
But all I now need is a mountain bike,
which I didn't bring with me,
but I've heard there's a surprise in my hotel room
for this to go onto it.
Let's go and find a look.
Let's go look at it. Let's go find it.
Ha!
Well, for a start, this is the Nukeproof Mega,
and what better way to ride my first ever Megavalanche
than on a frame that was specifically designed for all this.
The Nukeproof Mega. I can't wait.
I'm going to stick my number board on here.
Going to have a little ride on the street
just to see what this big wheel stuff is all about.
Aaah!
That was,
yeah, I didn't even feel that.
Wow, it's fast, dude!
- Wonder what it's like climbing
with 29-inch wheels.
Okay, maybe I can get used to 29-inch wheels.
(energetic electronic music)
Dammit!
And like, I gashed off this sweetness rock,
didn't see what was on the other side,
and I landed directly on the sharpest rock
that this whole mountain has to offer.
Change it up. Keep shredding.
Well, we've caught the lift up,
but we got told to get off at first station
because we're on the last one.
We couldn't get all the way to top,
and I'm still stoked on shredding my Nukeproof, yeah.
I'm gonna shred this thing, dude.
Get some turns.
Just have fun.
Snap some Instabangers.
Get some air.
Have fun all the way to the bottom
to the hotel, grab a beer,
celebrate first day shredding this bike, man.
(energetic electronic music)
Haha!
Right, some of you probably don't know
what the Megavalanche is all about.
So I'm going to give a little bit of a lowdown
on what this event is all about.
Basically it starts right at the top
of this huge mountain, or Pic Blanc, 3,330 metres
and it starts on a glacier,
so you start on snow right at the top,
which is gnarly, and it drops down.
It's 30 kilometres long, and it ends up
in the meadows of Allemond,
which is 720 metres down in the valley
just on my left right over there,
and it is a gruelling race.
It's not easy. It's hard.
Right, this is a three day event
with qualifying on a Friday.
There's different categories.
There's a female category.
There's kids' category.
And then there's a big category
where all the men get to ride,
and there's an invite category.
So you get given your number.
You get put in a group of 200 riders
in your starting gate.
And it doesn't matter you could be racing
if you're a super beginner guy,
you could be racing against Sam Hill.
As long as you try and get in the top 35
you can get put in the main event on a Sunday.
But, if you didn't make the top 35, you still get to race.
That's on a Saturday.
But at the end of the day, every single dude that races
in qualifying gets to have the go to race from
the right at the top to come all the way down
to complete the Mega.
Most people come out, like, three or four days
before the whole event
just to get to ride the track
because it is technical.
And you don't want to go off the wrong cliff
into this trail because it can go super wrong.
And also, who rides in snow every day?
And the main event starts in the snow,
and it's quite gnarly
because it's quite fast, quite slippery.
Anything can go wrong.
So you gotta practise all this before you start to race.
Okay so the qualifying track is a totally different track
to the Megavalanche main track.
It starts in a different part of the mountain,
and it descends down.
It's about 18 to 30 minutes long,
depending on how fast you ride this whole track.
It's gruelling. It's technical.
It's fast. There's not much of a climb in it.
And it ends up in the Alpe D'Huez village
right behind me, outside the sports hall,
where you get through, you get your time
and you get your position.
You don't have to be the fastest rider out there
to win this event, but it all comes down
to how you're going to race it
because it's such a long event.
It's a marathon at the end of the day.
It's a downhill marathon.
And if you come up with a bit of a technical issue
at the front of the pack, so hard to continue
to race after that, because it's all based on time.
So, if you're in the front and you get a problem,
that's game over.
You could end your whole race right there.
This is the lift to the top.
I haven't even ridden the top bit, actually.
I'm super scared.
But it's fine.
I'll just follow someone through,
and I'll be alright.
As long as I get down to the section where I know
the whole thing, I'll be alright.
Ten seconds, the first drop in of qualifying.
I'm so nervous, dude.
So nervous.
Oh my!
Wow.
Wow, look at that.
Right. It's all kicked in.
I'm nervous. I'm super nervous now.
Not gonna lie.
Just the last dude getting in there.
Sorry? English, yeah.
- [Woman] You're very late.
Now we are at 468.
- Push through, yeah?
Man, front row. Third group.
I can't wait.
Super nervous, though. Look.
(energetic music)
(shouting)
Yeah.
How you doing?
To your right!
Sorry, dude.
One big massive crash,
a puncture,
and I still love it.
I'm absolutely knackered, dead.
I'm in the Mega, and the Mega is twice as long as that.
I can't, can't wait to do another one.
Haha! Look at this.
Day three, and I'm practising the Megavalanche track.
I haven't quite done that bit over there,
but this is putting it into a huge perspective
because I can't even see the top of that mountain.
It's so far away.
And you've gotta go around that thing.
And this is the last,
well this is the next bit of this track
where it gets technical.
It's single track. It's gnarly.
We're at 2,000 metres right now,
and it goes all along this, traverses along,
like this guy is doing right here
and it goes all the way around and down into Allemond.
It is mind-blowing.
I am super nervous, because that is very high up.
And this...
And there's another 1,330 metres to go.
(sighs)
(energetic electronic music)
Oh my God,
this is frickin' gnarly, dude.
Yoo!
Ah, this is it!
Is this the finish? And I'm the only one here.
Does that mean I won?
(laughing)
Jokes.
That was insane.
Absolutely insane.
I loved it.
The top section, rocks,
not so keen on them.
This bit here through the woods,
I'm super keen on that.
But it's actually started to rain
as we've just got to the bottom of this valley.
We need to be on that side of the mountain,
and hopefully the lifts are running.
But tomorrow is the day.
I can't wait.
(laughing)
I'm nervous.
Oh man, just queueing up to get to the top.
It's started to rain.
I'm not nervous yet until I get up there.
Then I'm like, nervous kicking in.
(electronic music)
This is it. Five minutes to kick-off.
I'm with the Nukeproof crew
and we're going to have a battle
slash have rad times
slash heckle slash just get down to the bottom.
- Pretty much. - Pretty much.
There you go. Megavalanche.
Another completed one. And how.
Oh man, what an epic event.
I've loved it.
But I've just half-ticked the box
because as you see we've started lower.
We didn't stop from right at the top on the glacier
where it was all supposed to kick off from,
the classic Megavalanche, which I haven't done,
so it's like half-ticked on my bucket list,
but that means I'm coming back next year
to take on the Megavalanche yet again,
because I want the full tick, man.
I want to go from the top.
I want to start off in the snow.
But, result wise, so I had some super technical issues
in qualifying which set me way down.
So I managed to get in on the back of the main event
right at the back.
It was two groups at go. It was 338 riders.
I was 338.
I ended up overtaking 141 riders
when I ended up in 197 position
which was amazing because the best thing
about the whole event was overtaking people,
doing the crazy climb.
It was insane. I loved it.
I absolutely loved it.
I'm dying right now because of tiredness, but
I'm so happy I did it,
and thanks to you for following the whole thing.
But if you want to see more videos,
click just over here for Enduro versus Downhill.
That's a rad edit.
And over here on my road to whip-off,
where I did the Les Gets Crankworx
which was sick.
Don't forget to click this rad little globe right here.
You won't miss another video just like this one.
If you loved it, definitely give it a thumbs-up like.