“NO MATT, YOU CAN’T SEND THAT. YOU’LL DIE!”
comfortable. Andrew is equally at home, having done most of his riding in the wilds of Scotland. He has a video of his own to shoot, so makes his excuses and exits with Chris, leaving Ben, Antoine and Matt to perform for my camera.
The first half of the show is a masterclass in rolling endo corners from Ben and Antoine. Oddly, Matt is freaked out by the exposure and walks down from the very summit. All week he’s been displaying some ridiculous bike-handling skills, honed over a season racing the EWS, but at this altitude there’s such a tiny margin for error, that if you’re not feeling it, then there’s a real danger in overreaching. Besides, the feeling of camaraderie between us all is something special. We’ve all made it to the top, and we all want us to get down in one piece.
It isn’t long, however, before Matt has found his feet back on his pedals, and he soon catches up with Ben and Antoine, endoing round corners with aplomb. We make short work of the switchbacks and get stuck into the rest of the descent. There are sections we earlier deemed unrideable, that somehow we breeze through, while other easier looking sections leave us stumped and gingerly carrying down. More than once, Ben and I take it in turns to rein Matt’s youthful enthusiasm: “No Matt, you can’t send that. You’ll die!”, and “You can ride it, but I’m not pointing my camera at you while you do”. His frustration is palpable. In a bike park or at a lower elevation, there would be no problem but up here, with a sky-high penalty for failure and rescue several hours away should things go wrong, it’s just not worth the risk.
BACK TO BASE
The day fades quickly, with some late afternoon/early evening clouds doing wondrous things to the light, and I’m in turmoil. The trail is sublime. The light is equally sublime. I want to ride non-stop back to the van, yet I want to stay on the hill and take photos until my memory cards are full. This is why I drag my bike to the top of a mountain with a weighty camera bag strapped to my back. Big landscape. Amazing light. Great riders. I keep shooting.
Eventually, the light takes the decision away from us and drops beneath the horizon. The Alpine meadow from earlier in the day is in shadow and it’s time to hightail it down the dusty singletrack before we need more than an emergency head torch. We get back to the van to discover Andrew, Tansy and Chris have given up waiting for us and gone to ride something else, but we don’t mind one bit. We’re elated, tired and happy. Grande Sassière? Completed it mate.