(lightning crack)
- Oh my goodness, me.
There's a cliff up there.
Welcome to Champery everyone.
Is this the hardest downhill World Cup track
that the world has ever seen?
I don't know, and I'm here to find out.
Oh man, oh wow.
Ugh, oooh.
(goats bleeting)
Oh my frickin' gnarly, dude.
Nearly bends it.
Looks gnarly.
(goats bleating)
Lay off the brakes, Blake.
The whip!
Oh, I'm so scared.
Whoo-whee.
I am no downhill rider.
I've never ridden a World Cup downhill track in my life.
But I found myself in the Swiss Alps, Champery.
One of the world's craziest, hardest downhill tracks
that the world's ever seen.
Like if Danny Hart and Sam Hill can get down it in the wet,
surely I can get down in the dry.
It doesn't look too steep from here.
But I think it gets steeper further down.
I'm scared, man.
Let's see how hard it is.
Let's see, ooh, I, just, anyway, let's go.
Alright, up.
(high intensity rock music)
Oh my goodness, me.
Alright, I'm not hittin' that, I'm not hittin' that.
I'm so scared (laughter).
That's the first bit.
Judge me all you like, but it's my life
and I quite enjoy it and I don't want to jump that.
I'm gonna carry on down, see how steep it really gets.
Oh-oh.
Oh my (beep).
(high intensity rock music)
Oh my goodness me.
Oh that's a steep turn.
These are alright, actually.
A bit rocky.
Oh, this could be slippery in the wet,
I can tell you for sure.
Oh man.
Oh, this is nice.
Oh yeah.
Yep.
Oh my gosh, that's scary.
Fast section.
Oh man.
Whoo.
This is literally the side of a mountain
and you're comin' down it so fast.
Like, I've just ridden this section here.
Look at that.
You're comin' so fast through here.
Duh-duh-duh, duh-duh-duh, duh-duh-duh.
And then you gotta kinda slam on your anchors
but still keep your speed, maintaining it.
Into this little berm, then you just gotta commit off that.
Bunny hop this, land there, you lily pad the next one,
duh-duh, on the brakes quite hard,
into another left hander, right hander, left hander,
and then I'm guessing it just gets steeper and steeper
the further we get down.
But so far this section through the woods,
yeah, pretty cool.
(high intensity rock music)
Oh wow.
Just gets steeper and steeper.
Oh no, look at this.
Oh, oh, (laughs).
Oh, that was slippery, that was slippery.
Oh, finally.
Oh.
(high intensity rock music)
A little history lesson on this track.
There's been so many amazing track lap times,
wins, everything, we've got Danny Hart
in a crazy wet condition and then you've got this one
which is kinda forgotten,
it's the legendary second place by Sam Hill.
Well, Matti Lehikoinen, Finnish rider,
knew that at two o'clock in the daytime
it would dump with rain so the track would get
super slippery so what he did, it was pretty clever,
he put in a slow qualifying time,
which made him set down the list,
droppin' in first, you know,
kinda right at the beginning on a dry track.
He put in an insane run, put him in the hot seat,
he did take the win but when Sam Hill
dropped in on an extremely, extremely wet track
he came into this exact corner,
a big slab corner like this,
wet, he slid out, he slipped, he crashed down there.
He got back on his bike, he completed his run,
and ended up in second place.
That is probably the most legendary second places
ever in Downhill World Cup.
I've got goosebumps thinkin' about it
'cause he, man, it was insane,
'cause all of the media are all on him and not Matti.
He was like, come on, man, I won.
But Sam, he was like, aaah, he crashed,
he got up, he got second.
Let's hope I don't slip out, this is a dry day.
I'm gonna take the highline and go down it, scary.
(high intensity rock music)
Ho-ho, oh my goodness me, that was frikkin' gnarly dude.
Wow, alright.
Well this, I feel like, the track
went a little different here.
It went, oh, did I through there,
or around through the trees that way?
They kinda made it a little bit easier now.
This was a few years ago so they made it easier.
Still looks steep, that bit there looks gnarly.
You snake your way down through there which looks gnarly.
This stuff's so steep you can't, you can't even get up it.
I'm gonna ride down this stuff.
(high intensity rock music)
Oh wow.
(high intensity rock music)
Ooooooh, lay off the brakes, Blake.
Oh, nice.
Okay, droppin' in.
This looks, oh my goodness me, look at the state of that.
(high intensity rock music)
Oh-ho, wow.
Oh this bit's finally gotten (inaudible)
Oh, what's down here?
Right, fact time on this course.
And it's this step down.
Look how big it is, it goes all the way down there.
And the first person, person, and it wasn't a male,
it was a female, and it was Tahnee Seagrave.
She was the first person to jump this step down
all the way down to there.
She crashed, she got back up, she pushed up to the top,
she dropped in, she jumped it, she cleared her.
She was the first person and she was only 15 years old.
I'm 33, hopefully I don't crash but I'm gonna jump it.
(high intensity rock music)
Holy moly (inaudible).
Tahnee, you freakin' lunatic.
(high intensity rock music)
Ho, ho, ho, ho, wow!
The top top, steep section done.
Now to ride the next bit blind,
all the way down to the lift.
Alright, droppin' in.
Well this bit hardly gets ridden.
Brakes overheatin', overheatin' brakes, brakes overheatin',
what's down there?
It goes down there, man.
Oh my gosh, look at that.
What you don't know is I don't
have a backpack carrying a huge camera.
Tom, on the other hand, he hasn't got it easy.
I'm sorry Tom, it gets bad.
(goats bleeting)
(bike tires riding over rocky terrain)
Oh my flippin', I gotta go up there.
The last straight of steep bit.
It's not straight, it's kind of, it zig-zags.
It traverses across like that, like that, like that.
Man, you gotta be committed in the turn.
You gotta believe in the grip you've got.
(high intensity rock music)
Oh this corner's real hard 'cause you got these roots.
(high intensity rock music)
He nearly bends it, I swear he did it,
this famous, Danny Hart did, oh I felt like Danny.
Oh (beep) what's gonna on here?
Oh my goodness me, that was close.
Look at the whip.
And Danny Hart comes soarin' out of the woods
to take his win but he's not there 'cause it could go wrong.
And to be honest, this was a landing.
It's a bit overgrown and further on down here,
if I can make it down here, is another one.
The other gap.
The double, he has the take off, there's the landing,
and we're nearly there.
I'll see you at the bottom.
So glad that's over, that's for sure.
Ha-ha-ha, yeah!
I'm alive, I'm alive, and it's good to be alive.
That has changed since 2011.
Seven years ago this Champrey World Cup was here.
Danny Hart took the win in the absolute wet.
Right, is Champrey the hardest track
in the World Cup since then?
Well, to be honest, I kinda think it is.
It's really steep in situations.
Real tech, you're goin' down at race speed.
You gotta be at the top of your game,
you gotta be focused, can make or break a rider.
Oh man, I'm just so happy to come out of that.
Like, in some of those sections I was so scared.
It was scary.
But you know what's missin' out of the World Cup
is a track like this 'cause it brings
a good racing, it just makes good racing to be honest.
You get the good riders comin' up on top.
It's just insane, I get goosebumps 'cause
of riding a World Cup, I'm a bit over the moon, really.
Conquering my fear on such a big track like that.
But if you want to see Champrey back in the World Cup
definitely give this video a thumbs up like,
and finally I can kinda sit down 'cause
I haven't got balls that big.