Saas Fee Glacier Race
Disengage brain and hold on for dear life were my general thoughts on my way to the 10th Saas Fee glacier Race, held In the picturesque Swiss ski resort. I had heard many tales of this race and watched the same amount of GoPro videos so I had some idea of what to expect.
Living in the alps for the winter has enabled me to do a fair amount of snow riding so I was feeling confident and excited for this race. The Race is pretty unique….. Starting at the top of the resort at 3500m and descending 1700m to the village of Saas Fee, the track takes you on a roller coaster ride and is wide open from start to finish with speeds of 60mph+ on freshly groomed pistes. The Le Mans style start certainly adds a new element to MTB racing, 250 riders lined up all wanting that holeshot, it makes the scramble/run/sprint to the bikes pretty wild. There seemed to be many start tactics, some opted to put there bike at the back of the grid (50m from the front row) so as not to run so far, others went half way. I figured I would be able to run faster than ride on the flat so after digging my back wheel into the snow of the front row I left the bike standing and went to get my place 100m behind the bikes at the start line.
The only way to describe the start of this race is MENTAL, being amongst a herd of sprinting mountain bikers is a pretty crazy experience. Once you reach the bikes it’s a sprint down the piste to the first corner, it’s pretty important to get out front here and not crash! I had a good start and was within the top 10 after the first 2 corners, then came a steep 70mph shoot into a right hander. I lost it here and didn’t make the corner, ended up crashing off the piste and getting stuck in some deep snow. That was the end of my race so I just had a fun ride down after that getting as sideways as possible. I ended up 48th out of 250. Local lad Charly Pasquale put in a blinder of a race to take the win, fully equipped in a skin suit and a helmet with no visor. I definitely need to get practicing my euro speed tuck to keep up with these boys!
This event should be on everyone’s ‘to do’ list! It will scare the crap out of you, make you a man and generally turn you into a more rounded person……..
Big Thanks to Chantal Imseng at the Saas Fee tourist office for helping me out with everything, and to all the event organisers for putting together a great race.
Check out www.Saas-Fee.ch for more info on the resort. I will defiantly be heading back to this picturesque winter wonderland both in the Winter and Summer.