Mountain of Hell 2018 review

Perfect weather for Les Deux Alpes’ biggest mountain bike race

featured in Events reviews Author Ian Huyton, Les 2 Alpes Reporter Updated 3 July 2018

For the nineteenth edition the competitors were greeted by three days of good weather and perfect biking conditions. The fastest riders hit speeds well over 100km/h and covered the twenty-five-kilometre-long course in just under thirty minutes.

Between the 3400 metre start on the glacier and the finish at 900 metres in Venosc, the Enduro-style course crossed icy pistes, technical singletrack, rocks, woods and even a few flights of steps. Each year’s Mountain of Hell has a different theme. Recent years have seen Men in Black and Rocky editions. This time it was Pirates of the Caribbean. Fancy dress was encouraged, with free entry to next year’s race for the best selfie-in-costume-with-bike photo. A few riders were seen in pirate outfits but most, perhaps sensibly, opted not to dress up.

In the run-up to the event, Les Deux Alpes was decorated with French and Canadian flags to welcome a contingent from Whistler bike park. The Canadian visit was organised by the commune in collaboration with mountain bike groups in both resorts to provide a week of networking and discussion of common issues. Perhaps of more immediate interest to mountain bikers, five lucky Mountain of Hell riders won a trip to Whistler for June next year.

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Practice and Qualification

Friday’s practice day gave the riders the chance to familiarise themselves with the courses used over the weekend. The event follows a different route each year, often outside of the marked bike park trails. Even local riders are unlikely to know all parts of these trails, so it is an important day for competitors.

Saturday was qualification day, using a shorter course than the main event on Sunday. All competitors get to race in the final, so the qualification course times are used to set the start order. As overtaking is difficult for most of the route, and with almost 800 riders competing, getting a good start position is vital for those aiming at the podium.

The qualification race began at mid-station of the Jandri with a descent through La Fee and down towards Cuculet village on some pretty technical footpaths. The fastest riders finished in a shade over twenty minutes.

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The Final

The final day began early for competitors, boarding the Jandri express from 5.30am to be in place for the 9am mass start. Outside the top funicular station, row after row of bikes arrayed on the snow made an impressive sight. At this time in the morning, the glacier pistes are frozen to bulletproof ice with only the corduroy texture to offer a hint of grip. Despite the slippery conditions, the leading racers pedalled furiously down the Jandri 5 and Jandri 4 pistes. Second placed Jerome Clementz posted on Facebook that he reached 123.9km/h at the end of the glacier section.

After the snow the route headed rightwards below the Jandri Express with a few short climbs, before dropping to the 2600m mid-station. The red Rocky Line trail led to a climb into the Thuit bowl before heading to the front face and a combination of the Valentin ski piste and Bike Patrollers red mountain bike trail.

Heading left, the route hit the roads of the Les Deux Alpes. The riders raced through the place de Venosc before dropping down flights of steps and through narrow alleys to reach the Venosc footpath. Steep, winding, and generally unsuitable for bikes, this path offers a technical challenge on the one weekend a year when mountain biking is permitted. The difficulties did not stop the leaders from flying down, barely touching the brakes. There were quite a few crashes on this section, particularly as the bulk of the field came down, but most jumped straight back on the bike and kept going.

Killian Bron won the men’s race in under half an hour, about a second ahead of Jerome Clementz. Emile Serre beat Whistler’s Christina Chapetta to win the women’s race around fifteen minutes later. After a memorable weekend of biking, perfect weather and great racing, we are looking forward to something even more spectacular for the twentieth edition of the Mountain of Hell in Les Deux Alpes next year.

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