Finally the weekend has finished! I'm sure a lot of us will be sighing a big sigh of relief. It's been a busy 3 days, with thousands of bikers passing through to take part in the Passportes du Soleil - the main biking event of the summer.
For us and a lot of others, it marks the official start of the season. This year it was a 3 day event: previous years have just been the weekend, but due to high demand they added another day to spread out the crowds. It certainly worked. Friday morning we up and ready to leave at 6:30am to get to our spot in Lindarets for 7am when registration started. The lifts opened at 7:30am through till 6pm, so we wanted to get set-up beforehand so we could help out any bikers in need. This would be our routine for the next 3 days. Long hours, but well worth it to see the smiles on everyones faces.
The weather during the week had been a pretty mixed bag, but it got increasingly drier over the weekend with lots of sunshine and blue skies. Friday was a good start for us, not too busy, just a constant flow of people throughout the day. Saturday and Sunday were much like last year: periods where there were no people whatsoever, then a sudden mad rush with everyone wanting things fixed all at the same time.
There were lots of interesting sites to see, here are a few photos that I snapped from the van:
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| We pretty much got there as the sun was rising over the hill. |
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| The van all set-up and ready to go. |
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| Our friend David from Avoriaz was the first to give us a tip! You can see on the right our new display stand. |
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| Friday morning queue a the Chaux Fleurie. |
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| Some people needed a bit of direction help. |
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| These were the brightest shorts we saw all weekend. |
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| As did Matt the ultimate seasonaire (he has no job!). |
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| Gareth got busy with his bottle of lube. |
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| MCF bike guide and good friend Steve-O stopped by for a spot of lunch. |
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| Even my brother turned up with his friends. |
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| This chap had some cool custom stickers on his ride. |
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| "Something Random Racing" is my favourite! |
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| Thierry, the happiest lifty in the world, was as happy as ever. |
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| Our neighbour was Mavic man, truing wheels and replacing spokes for the 7th year running! |
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| Montriond had a great set-up with free food and drink, music and entertainment. |
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| Jean-Noel from Serma was out on his hardtail with his snowboarding helmet. |
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| The Chaux Fleurie queue on Saturday morning, stretching back all the way to the Mavic van. |
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| Some people took their time, enjoying the sunshine. |
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| This guy definitely had the most lairy cycling gear of the whole weekend. |
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| This American chick was rocking some interesting headwear. |
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| Cross country/enduro bikes are the order of the day, it can be a tough course on a downhill rig. |
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| Mustache of the weekend for this chap here! |
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| This guy had a magic hat on his helmet that just wouldn't fall off. |
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| I thought I'd sneak in this one of the upstairs neighbours cat, peeking down at Woody the dog. | |
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So that was the 2011 Passportes du Soleil done and dusted. It was a great weekend, with thousands of mountain bikers enjoying the dusty trails and sunshine. The were lots of tubes, tyres and brake pads consumed. Plenty of brake bleeding and wheel truing done. We'd like to say a big thanks to everyone that stopped by, those that lent a hand, and the Portes du Soleil for putting on such a great weekend. We look forward to the next edition!
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