3 years ago I smashed up my hip in a mountain bike fall in the Alps, and the mate I was riding with was nowhere to be seen when it happened, he had charged off down the mountain and I had to find my own way down, on that occasion it was my mate The Chemist who disappeared down the mountain, and as I pointed out to him, what is the point of you being here if we don’t stick together.
A year later, armed with a replacement hip. I agreed to go to the Alps again, but explained to my mate The Mechanic, that I would need to take things very easy as the hip was only 3 months old and we would need to stick together just in case. First run of the trip and he belted off down the mountain on his own and left me to it. Once again, I pondered the point of going mountain biking with mates, when in fact, you don’t see them on the runs.
Last year I drove down to the Alps, loaded up with my new enduro bike and The Mechanic’s newly acquired second hand bike. We had concluded that the cost of renting a bike, about £80 per day, justified buying a second hand bike and leaving it down there. My mate managed to find a bike but I didn’t have much luck but managed to find a new one in the sales that was 60% off, which I decided was a safer bet, as the bikes take a real hammering.
After getting all the gear down to France for him, The Mechanic then decided life was too complicated and he couldn’t find the time to join me – great.
Last year , I ended up riding on my own, which wasn’t my first choice option but as the days went on, I realised that I was actually enjoying the rides more on my own than I would have done with having a mate around. I could go where I wanted, as fast as a wanted, didn’t have to wait for anyone or try and work out where they had ended up.
So, this year, I had the pleasure of The Mechanics company again and I have to say it was rather eventful. If you have read the blogs from last summer, you will have noted that I was haunted by a Gremlins that made my life difficult by hiding things away and breaking stuff, this year I had The Mechanic.
To be fair to The Mechanic, he is obviously very good with mechanical things and does like to go fast on his bike. The problem is that his competence doesn’t always match his speed, when he was last here 2 years ago, I spotted his legs sticking out of a bush he had veered into at high speed for no obvious reason. I helped him out and dusted him down, he had had a similar incident at Cannock Forest a few years ago when he ended up concussed.
To start the trip, we headed straight for Les Carroz to warm up on their quieter runs. On the first run down The Mechanic was following in a well behaved manner, but at a fork in the trail we went different ways and he got to the bottom a bit before me. On the subsequent run I found him in a ditch and he had a few more bumps before the gears on his bike broke, turned out he hadn’t used his mechanical prowess to check his second hand bike before sending it to the Alps.
All that being said, there was one definite advantage of having my mate with me, we could wander down to the lake for a swim and a beer. He claimed to be alcohol free, I soon cured him of that again. With the sun out and temperature at 35c, it is not unreasonable to assume that the water in the local lake would be reasonably warm, but I learned to my horror last year, that it is fed by a mountain stream and is absolutely freezing.
A good chance for a prank on my mate, so I wandered out on the pontoon and jumped in, held my breath and shouted, “Come on mate it’s lovely”. He dived in and the look on his face was a picture when he resurfaced, he was gasping for air and clearly on the verge of a heart attack from the icy water. Nothing like nearly killing your mate for a laugh.
Next day, we headed for Les Gets, took the lifts to the top of the area, the views are absolutely stunning and it was yet another beautiful day. The newly attached replacement parts were installed and he was ready to go.
The runs in Les Gets are very steep, I led the way down and arrived at one of the fire road break points and waited for my mate, and waited, and waited and eventually he turned up covered in mud, a badly damaged finger, a broken brake lever and something else had broken as well, apparently the brake lever broke off on a steep turn, hardly idea.
It was all a mystery how this catastrophe had happened and why he crashed so badly, however I had a fair idea, it was likely to do with speed and competence. Anyway, it marked the end of that part of the day as he couldn’t ride with a bike in bits.
So, he made his way back down the mountain on the fire road with a snapped ligament on little finger, only a front brake and his pride as bruised as his body. As a good friend, I decided to do a few runs on my own to have some fun and promised to meet him again at the bottom in a couple of hours.
When I got to the bottom the repair bill for his bike had reached £500 and I was generally congratulating myself on the wisdom of buying a bargain new rather than a second hand bike, if the Mechanic was having this trouble imagine the mess I would get into.
Anyway, we were up and running again and we headed off on our adventures for the rest of the day. I made sure I was second down the slope and I had to take care to check bushes and obstacles along the way to make sure the Mechanic wasn’t lying there, we had more incidents but they were harmless compared to the morning and the day before.
Up to this point, I was congratulating myself on my smooth riding and not falling off, well all that went horribly wrong on the last run home, when I took a berm fast and found a loose rock on the bend and stacked the bike big time and arrived in the bar at the bottom covered in scrapes and mud.
As I sat there supping I beer, I reflected on a strange thought, that even though it hurt like hell, but at least I knew I was alive and it was a good way to celebrate by 67th birthday.
As the repair bill and the injury list mounted, the last day we decided he needed a day off so we went for a walk up the wonderful Cirque Cheval canyon to look at the amazing waterfalls and just get over the injuries before heading home.
We also had an England game to watch that night when we took on DR Congo, and it is fair to say that the match didn’t set the French alight, and we really struggled to find a bar to watch the game, but we got there in the end !
So, this was my first holiday with the Mechanic since our trip to Ibiza last year, and it was also my first accompanied mountain bike trip for 2 years. My mate is always good company and events are normally unconventional and this trip was no different, we had a lot of fun as usual.
