Here is a new movie by Klawitter from Peyragudes.
Speedoff has also shared his thoughts about our stay at Peyragudes down below
Let’s get international! We start from the end on the final destination of our (the Martins) eurotour which was the Peyragudes ski resort in the French Pyrenees.
This was the place where the World Cup competition ”Peyragudes Never Dies” was held 9-12th of August. Funny enough the name comes that part of the James Bond-film ”Tomorrow Never Dies” was shot at the airfield next to the hill.
The first thing that struck us as we arrived in Peyragudes was clearly the amazing views. The smaller mountains looked very unique. They were very flowy in a strange way, like sort of rounded off. Also they were totally covered in supergreen grass, and totally lacked of trees.
From the ski-resort you also had a great panorama-view of massive mountain ranges, where some of the peaks still were covered with snow. Astonished by the nature, we were not less taken by the race hill. It was extreme and had everything!
Soon after we had arrived in Peyragudes it was time for ”security check”. This means that all riders get their equipment checked closely, and get signed up for the competition. It was the very first race for me where to take part you had to have a ”medical certificate” – an approval from a doctor that you were in good physical shape. As I mentioned earlier. The hill was extreme. With everything in order for the race we took it chill and had a couple brews in the official party tent. We needed all the energy we could get for the next day and
went to bed fairly early. Klawitter won rock-paper-scissors and claimed the double bed.
The first day as all about getting comfortable in such a fast track. The actual slope began with a technical section with slides in both directions at perhaps 50 km/h, which then turned into a couple of sweepers which made you gather momentum and pretty soon you were charging at around 80km/h into a additional technical section. First a left hairpin, then a right you could almost grip. All this on fairly rough asphalt. Then it was all about tucking for a good while. Eventually, you were going at about 100km/h on new black asphalt facing two right sweepers after another. Ssshhwwooshh!! And then – finish!!
Another very spectacular thing with the track in Peyragudes was that you had a panoramic view of the epic landscape for almost the whole ride. The skating on the first day went really well for all of us and after 10-15 runs we were ready for the next day’s time-trial.
On Friday we got up early. At 5 AM!!! On Erik Lundberg’s initiative the entire Sector 9-gang were going to meet up and have an awesome photoshoot in the sunset! But first, it was breakfast time! I (Speedoff) had some sandwiches and yogurt in usual breakfast tradition. Klawitter who doesn’t like yogurt decided to make popcorn. Said and done. Obviosly he forgot all about the popcorn as he was in the bathroom doing his morning routine – brushing his teeth before eating. Crazy dude I say! So naturally the popcorn had a meltdown in the microwave, causing a severe smell. I could seriously smell it from the bottom floor – and we stayed 3 floors up. Another dude who felt the smell pretty bad was our traveling partner Kim, whose bed was standing 3 feet away rom the microwave haha!!
With the breakfast incident in the past, we went to wake Erik and Pilloni up. But none of them were keen on joining in any more. Once up we thought that we couldn’t bang the photoshoot now. So we took our gear and went down to the airfield where the French dudes from Sector 9 were sleeping under open sky. We pulled them out of their sleeping bags and had an epic photo-sesh in the runrise together. Thanks guys!!
Friday was also the day of time-trial. This means that each rider gets to take a run alone in the hill to achieve the fastest possible time – and thus get a good starting position for the race. Personally, I am always nervous when it comes to time-trial. Thinking of all sorts of crap that can go wrong and fighting my inner demons. But this time it went surprisingly well.
Results Time-trial:
1 Persson Adam GBR 2:24.600
2 Kevin Reimer CAN 2:24.840
3 Kelly James United 2:25.140
4 Lessa Thiago Gomes 2:25.990
5 Tongue Alex USA 2:26.150
6 Stephen Dillon CAN 2:26.270
7 Edoff Martin GBR 2:26.490
Mischo Erban 8 CZE/CAN 2:26.530
9 Patrick Switzer CAN 2:26.830
10 Konigshausen Ramon SUI 2:26.940
11 Pilloni Louis USA 2:27.230
12 Silva Douglas (Dalua) 2:27.650
13 Maytum Zacchary USA 2:27.830
46 Klawitter Martin GBR 2:31.870
114 Kim Nilsson SWE 2:41.530
On Saturday it was time for the ”race to qualify.” It really means that the 128 riders with the fastest times will compete in a full fledged race, but again only to make up the qualifying places. The ”Race To Qualify” also halfed the line-up of riders. Meaning that it was only the 64 best who had to go through to Sunday – the actual race day.
Our final qualifying places were:
34 Edoff Martin
46 Martin Klawitter
113 Kim Nilsson
Sunday came and the real race day was probably the most protracted race day ever for many of us. It was foggy, damp and the hill was wet. After many ifs and buts organizers decided it was too dangerous to finish the race and it was cancelled. In many ways bad, but also kind of good. Now we didn’t have to take unnecessary risks during unstable conditions on our euro tours very last day riding. Instead we could concentrate on partying!
Tired and somewhat chemical imbalanced we spent Monday morning to make our apartment nice and tidy. Afterwards we said goodbye to Kim who went on to Slovenia to ride more sick hills. Then we got a ride to Toulouse from where we started our journey back home to Sweden.
by Martin Edoff
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