NEWS
75mph on Snow? The Don checks in from Saas Fee
15th May 2007
Saas Fee, Spain
"A Le Mans style start, 150 riders, 75 mph down a ski piste, what do you reckon?"
Not your average Monday morning phone call but it sounded good. It sounded like one of those exaggerated claims, 75 mph, 80 feet double - I usually wait 'til I see things with my own eyes before believing it. Little did I know!
The "downhill" track started high up on top of the glacier at Saas fee, it started with a 50m run to the bikes, then a sprint to the first switch back. At 8.30am the snow was still frozen solid so you rolled really quick when you got onto the wide open piste. I got a good start, the fastest I have run in years. I pulled into 2nd behind Bullhead on the first little sprint, then I slingshot past him turning onto the first piste. I was going too quick to pedal within about 2 seconds. Fully tucked all I could here was the wind raging past my helmet.
Definitely the fastest I have ever been on my bike. At one point I was going so quick I was pulling past the skier that I was supposed to be following because we had only had a brief reccy of the track the day before and I didn't really know where I was going. I have been fast on a snowboard before but this was unreal, straight down the piste with no herberts on skis to worry about running into. I led pretty much the whole race until the very last turn where I set up to turn in and realised I was aiming for the wrong track, I straightened it back up and a guy just rolled past me- gutted. I lost by 1 second after leading for about 7 1Ž2 minutes. It was definitely the most fun race I have done in a long while and the speed was unreal. The guy who won it was a motorcycle road racer, I reckon it had more similarity to a moto gp than your average downhill race.
- Will Londgen Team Captain - Santa Cruz / MBUK