Rider Report: Dan Yeomans in Switzerland

 

Posted: 30 Sept 2008

Images: Raphaelle Solioz

Downhiller Dan Yeomans reports on a recent racing visit to Switzerland:

 

Morgins is a small town over the hill from Champery in Switzerland, where last weekend they held a fun DH race of a slightly different form: 4 tracks, one run on each and the overall time wins. The winner on each track also wins 100chf

The first track was a downhill with a mixture of road gaps steeps and rooty wet sections, 4mins long The second was a flat out DH track with fast berms all the way down also lasting about 4 half minutes The third was the 'freeride' track which is more like a dh track covered in roots at the top with a mixture of berms drops and northshore gaps then the last half turns pretty steep and rocky - around 5mins in length. The 4th was a surprise track taped out on the day, starting with a uphill climb to a field section with whoops and trees to navigate then on to a fast rocky hiking trail all the way down to the bottom, around 6 minutes long overall!

There was one category for the men. For the 1st run I was last down, I fell once on a berm at the top section, then passed a few riders on my way down. Unfortunately had a 2nd collision with someone who was kindly trying to get out of my way and we both fell off. Apart from all that I posted I time which put me in 2nd place by 8 seconds.

For the 2nd descent I put in a clean run which I also finished 2nd...unfortunately this meant I was now 10 seconds behind 1st place.

For the freeride track, which was pretty technical I knew that a lot of people would be likely to fall off so I didn't push the limit too much and stayed on the bike all the way down to finish in 1st place by 0.5 of a second.....phew. luckily the guy who was currently winning dropped a few seconds...not sure how many though.

I went up for the 4th run not knowing how many seconds difference me and 1st position had....so I just pedalled as hard as I could up the first hill. Unfortunately in the field I drifted out and span round. Got quickly back up and finished the run...all 6 minutes of it for this I finished 2nd by 3 seconds behind a different winner also from England 'James Stock'

Luckily the last two runs somehow put me 10.5 seconds up on the winner of the 1st two runs and I took home the overall win (10kg of Swiss cheese!!) lots of beer and 100chf for winning the freeride track.