Everything's better when shared, especially racing stoke!
We’re two thirds in the 1000m descent, my right quad starts cramping up as I try my best to keep up with my race buddy while feeling a mix of joy and pain drenched in fatigue. It’s day one of Enduro2 and I’m having a blast.
For those that don’t know of the concept, it’s basically a multi day enduro race where you pair up with a buddy to race all the stages in a team of two. You start together and the chronometer only stops once the both of you have crossed the finish. Hosted in the French Alpine town of Meribel and its beautiful surroundings, all the right ingredients are there for an unforgettable weekend.
Partner choice
Choosing your riding partner is key for this event. Ideally you need someone with about the same pace as you, or maybe a little faster. That way you have a goal to try and keep up with, and hopefully it will inspire you to make you perform above your regular level. If you’re interested in any type of performance that is.
As with many enduro races, taking things seriously is highly optional. There’s a vast majority of riders that are just there for laughs and good trails, topped off with a beer at the end of the day. In that case, choose to team up with your best buddy and just count the ‘smilers per hour’ instead of the overall ranking.
As for my teammate of choice, I think I definitely should have chosen a slightly less talented and fit rider. I was hoping his career in dentistry with 50 hour work weeks had slowed Bas down a bit, but it was a leg and lung burning experience finding out he’s still on top of his game. Trying to stick to his rear wheel left me with lactic acid overflowing from the first stage till the last, but it was worth all the suffering to share some epic wild moments on the trails with him.
Kick off
Setting for this three day epic is Meribel. In summer a sleepy alpine ski town, but judging by the listings at the local real estate agents a High Society Jet Set ski town. In case you’re wondering, a one bedroom apartment goes for about 1M euros here and spending a night in the town's top hotel sets you back 1000 Euros a night between Christmas and New Years. Good thing that in summer pricing is a lot friendlier, and for those vanlifers out there, the organisation managed to get several parkings reserved for the weekend.
After checking in our hotel, we grab a pint at Jacks Bar, the hub for this weekend's activities and rider briefings. We’re just in time to hear organiser Ali’s last words at the pre-race briefing and catch up with a host of familiar faces that we didn’t expect. The atmosphere is filled with excitement and we can’t wait to kick things off.
Smooth and Rowdy
The format is easy to get your head around. Each day you kick off at the same time. Stop by the organisation, pick up your timing chip and grab the gondola up towards the first stage. From there it’s just follow the arrows, complete the stages, keep the rubber side down and make it back to Meribel in one piece. No stressing with specific start times, just roll up, catch your breath and drop in the stage whenever you feel ready.
The only thing you need to keep in check is the final cut off times for each stage. These are put in place as at the end of the day you need to catch the gondola back to Meribel, and missing this will leave you stuck in the valley with a taxi being the only option back up. Our start time is set fairly early at 8:40, so we’re not too stressed to make the cutoff. But even if you start later, there is plenty of time to go round the course.
As for the course itself there are two options available when booking. Either you go for the full course or you take it easy and do the ‘small loop’ which basically means you ride half the amount of stages and cut back to Meribel right after lunch, while the people that do the big loop do another couple of stages. The organisation made the trail choice quite clever too. In the morning you’d start with several ‘bikepark’ style stages, giving everyone the opportunity to warm up and get the juices flowing. After lunch things would get rowdy for the more experienced riders with steeper, longer and rougher stages on hiking trails. A perfect way to keep the event accessible as well as entertaining for all rider levels!
Day one
After a quick breakfast and bike check we head up towards stage number 1. Judging by the description it will be a gentle warm up on a blue bike park trail. Still, you never know what surprises you find in the French Alps. As we boost off, it’s clear my racing buddy means business. Full gaz straight out of the gate we speed down the first few turns. The surface is loose and gravelly, it doesn’t take long before we have our two wheel drifts and other scary moments.
As the stage progresses the lactic acid starts burning in my legs and lungs. I do my best to keep his wheel but as the tiredness sets in, each little mistake counts and by the time we reach the finish line I wish I did some more interval training this year. It’s going to be a tough event!
We set a good pace though and maintained the fun in stage two, three and four before arriving at the lunch spot. Temperatures are well above 25 degrees and as we chow down some well earned pasta we chat with the other riders to hear about their close calls and adventures. The atmosphere is chill and everyone is having a good time.
After lunch it’s time to get serious. The trails are rocky, rowdy and fast. We both love a bit of technical riding so every now and then we catch up and overtake some riders. Especially on the longer stages it’s easy to make up for some time. Overtaking isn’t always easy, especially when you’re with two riders overtaking two riders, but most people are respectful and find a good spot to stop when you give a yell or two.
The final stage of the day is a true leg burner. With more than 1000m of descending on the clock, you’re in for a dose of arm pump, leg pump and your lungs turning inside out. According to the briefing we’d do about 800m of climbing today, so nothing extreme. It is however a totally different game in 30 degree heat, doing 6 times specials chasing a guy who is consistently faster than you.
The trail is absolutely amazing. Starting on a ridgeline high above Meribel you have some breathtaking views on the Savoie region. First few metres are dusty, rocky and fast before diving into the forest. We overtake our first riders as we balance on the limit of control and the trail seems to never end. I hit the rock section so hard, I’m convinced I flattened my rim and lost some air. I slow down to check, but after a proper look it actually seems in perfect working order so off we go again, razzing towards the finish line.
As we enter the lower section, the hairpins get tighter and tighter (I love that stuff) and we manage to catch up with another team in front of us. Overtaking is tricky, but with a wild manoeuvre through some shrub we managed to pass without being too much of a trouble. At this point my racing buddy starts pulling away from me as fatigue sets in after 9 minutes of timed stage. As I do my best to keep the pace, I hear Matthew Fairbrother and Youtuber McTrailRider slowly creep closer and closer.
In a desperate attempt to keep ahead of them, I push extra hard on the next pedally bit. Wrong move! After a day of not hydrating enough the cramps set in and I’m left limping to the finish line. Wow. What a descent! We managed just over 15 minutes at race pace. Crazy long! I’ve ridden many good trails in my life but this definitely hits the top 3. Can’t wait to do it again, perhaps next time without cramps!
The day is finished off with the world's longest gondola ride taking you back from Brides les Bains up to Meribel for a debrief, live band and apres bike beers to rehydrate. Most people kept it quiet though, with their focus on recovering for day two and three.
Hit the repeat button
Day two started with an extra slice of toast and a triple espresso to get the engine fired up for another day of riding and racing. The program was roughly the same as on day one. Pick up the timing chip, grab the gondola to the top of the mountain and cruise over to the first stage of the day.
Thankfully the organisers put a little less climbing in for day 2, but judging by the altitude profile map there was still plenty of pedalling involved, especially if you wanted to put in a good result. It’s good to note here that organiser Ali loves long stages.
Besides some more hydration the tactics remained the same. Sprint out of the start gate, hang on to my buddies rear wheel as long as I can and try to limit the damage once I get dropped. This worked like a charm and we kept a good pace while staying rubber side down on all stages, until that one moment.
My buddy Bas took a silly tumble on the second to last stage of the day. Not a big deal as we had a gap in between us already, but he managed to snap off his front brake lever. Riding these trails is challenging enough, and adding the extra handicap of no braking power cost us a lot of time.
At the bottom of the stage we weighed our options. Either race the final stage with just the rear brake? Do a bodge fix? Find a replacement? The tricky part was, we were on the opposite valley of Meribel and there was no bike shop in sight either.
Our only valid option was to take two chairs up, to descend back in the chairlift down to Meribel, pick up the spare brake we brought from the hotel (thank god for that decision when packing) and to then take two more chairlifts back up to 2200m altitude to do the last stage. It took some commitment, speedy mechanicing and quick descending to the final stage, but we managed to make it there before the cut off time. Yay!
Happy that we made the effort too, as that final descent was the roughest track of the weekend. Roots, rocks, steep and intense, just the way we love a descent! A solid 8 ½ minutes later we rolled across the finish line after overtaking a couple of riders and a handful of near death experiences. Job well done!
Bring it home!
Day three was all about keeping the pace steady and not losing more time by crashing or breaking stuff. The amount of climbing was negligible and the stages were once again an amazing mix of bikepark and natural tech. Although the muscles were seriously fatigued, the stoke was still high!
Stage one was another trail of the bikepark. An easy warm up for the tech skills but definitely a lung burner on the endurance side of things. I was happy to move over to the others with a richer collection of rocks and roots.
Number two, three and four were again traditional Enduro2 style trails. Long, varied, epic and did I mention long? Fastest crew of the event was Ludo May who teamed up with French Enduro legend Francois Bailly Maitre. They totalled 114 minutes of racing spread out over the three days. How did we hold up in the end? 23rd in the Men’s Open category, with 128 minutes of lactic acid heart pump near cardiac arrest effort. Not bad for a Magazine Editor and a dentist!
Wrapping it up
Was it what we expected of Enduro2? Definitely. It’s a super well organised event with a relaxed atmosphere. Trail choice is second to none and the concept of racing in pairs is a formula for fun. One of the things that I found most impressive was the variety of trails. When doing a three day event it is virtually impossible to not double any trails or stages, but the organisation did a top job on this throughout the event. They sent the riders to all corners of the resort, really maximising the Meribel potential.
No matter what your favourite type of riding is, the Enduro2 has it. Flow, tech, high speed ridgelines and anything else you can think of all with the amazing French Alps in the background. Even if you really don’t care about any type of racing, this event is still totally worthwhile. The shared stoke of razzing down the mountain with your buddy really makes an unforgettable trip. If you’re booking yourself in for next year's edition, make sure you add a few extra days after the event. Meribel is an amazing area and there will be a bunch of trails you want to ride again!
More information: https://enduro2.fr/
