2024 Snow Bike World Champs

Negligence
Noun - failure to take proper care over something.
an example could be "Putting track preservation above rider safety is gross negligence"

Scrutineer
Noun - a person who examines or inspects something closely and thoroughly.
An example could be "There were specific rules set out about the bikes. The scrutineer Giorgio Baruffi, who is the president of The UCI Commissaries Panel, was supposed to carry out checks. he did not do so"

Cheat
Verb - act dishonestly or unfairly in order to gain an advantage.
An example could be "Knowing full well the rules state the maximum stud length for tyres is 6mm but deciding to cheat and run up to 20mm studs" or "Knowing full well the rules state that you have to use the same bike and wheels to race on that you qualified with, but deciding to cheat and change your wheels as soon as you cross the finish line then get the sticker stating that's the wheels you qualified with"



Where to even begin? a World Champs for a discipline that doesn't have a national series ANYWHERE in the world...


For me it began 2 weeks ago, - unlike The UCI - I headed out to Les Gets for the French National Snow Bike Champs. I thought to myself "I've never seen a snow bike race, I best familiarise myself with it so that when it comes to the World Champs, I know what I'm doing". That was my train of thought, and I was only going to photograph the event. If I were organising a major international event for the first time, I'd probably send some of my team to oversee every single detail to leave no stone unturned. Even more so if I'd invited someone from the IOC - who resides only a few villages down - to spectate with the aim of getting said event in the Winter Olympics in 2030 in the same part of the world... Hey they're just my thoughts, I'm a mouth-breathing knuckle-dragging neanderthal.

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The exact same run was used the previous week for the junior ski world championships. Unbeknownst to the majority, whilst being the same run, the flags were in different positions thus a different track was marked. Needless to say, it was absolutely wild! No jumps per say, but if you look at a ski jump, you will see that it never has a positive trajectory yet they still send it for miles, the same thing here.

In hindsight, it was a perfect mix of Mach 10, wide-open turns and steep into tight turns. Perhaps not as much undulation as one may have hoped for, but a great course and one which i think the vast majority of riders thought would be a lot shorter.


One of the 3 Max's from the Chatel Ski Club doing his best Sal Bae impression. You see the title may be Snow Bike, but the reality is very different. Powder is to speed what Gatorade is to Bobby Bushay, what you actually want is essentially ice.


There's a hell of a lot of work that goes in for this to happen. I'm not sure what they actually sprinkle on the snow, but they do so to transform the god-like ski powder into super dense almost ice-like snow. The MTB equivalent would be turning fresh loam into tarmac so instead of all the pedalling, it's just nothing but speed tucks. It takes a team of over 20 people many weeks doing multiple runs a day sprinkling their magic powder and compacting with ski's to get it to perfect conditions.


Consider fresh snow on the corners to be like a bog in the forest, you hit it with so much grip, that you loose all speed. Ice on the other hand, yes you may struggle with - the confidence of being able to get - grip, but it's FAST and in Super G, it's about carrying speed. To put things into perspective, you pedal out of the start gate, that is it, you are effectively doing a Gwinn chainless run for a good 90%+ of the track.


To put into perspective how difficult it was to be on the side of the hill, every DH race you can walk the track top to bottom or reverse. For this, you had to have a hill sculpter transport you. Side note, best media uplift vehicle ever!

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Very much a run what you brung event. The only stipulations in the rules pertaining to bikes is that the studs had to be a maximum of 6mm and that it was only 1 nail per spike. For those that love to tinker with their set ups to get any advantage they can, this is perfect for you, carte blanche on what can be done.

The vast majority of people ran full DH rigs with the outliers running enduro setups. Suspension setup was very interesting, low speed compression, fully off. You aren't needing any of that. Sag, do you run plenty of sag to maintain the wheels on the deck and just absorb the undulations, or do you run barely any and give your body a bit of a break when it comes to the super hard long sustain compressions. Speaking with Scotty Mears (Danny Hart's Mechanic) he was of the ilk that run max tyre pressure so there was no deformation of the tyres and to get fully dug into the ice.


What's "interesting" (read as a massive oversight and batshit crazy) is that there was no stipulation mandating mudguards. I heard someone describe their wheels as high speed chainsaws. This is a perfect description. Studs, a whole range of lengths, spinning flat out. If you ride any sort of mountain biking you will have inevitably had tyre buzz at some point. Picture that, but instead of a fairly tacky compound grazing your pants, its a self tapper screw or bolt...

I remember watching a video a few years ago (in the roadie world) where someone crashed and the way the wheel propelled the bike, people thought they were running a motor. The reality was that it was rotational mass. I mention this to try an relay an idea. You see people will probably think, ooo that would hurt getting stabbed by one of those. That wouldn't be the case though. In a crash you're wheels would be spinning flat out, and with the rotational mass, the studs wouldn't stab, they would rip, they would tear, they would sever you to shreds. The fact people opted not to run mudguards was truly perplexing.



For those that did decide to try and preserve - the pristine white that the slope - their chances of perhaps one day having a family, there was a whole concoction of mud guards. I think the above was one of the safest designs on the slope but even still, a high side at over 100kmph and it isn't going to do much. It is worth noting (despite not capturing a photo) most of the mud guards had huge scores and chunks out of.


I managed to have a craic with Henry Kerr, a very down to earth guy, we were discussing tyres and he informed me he was running tubes!!! I think he said in the front tyre he had a chopped up road tyre in between the tube and the screws and the rear he was running 2 tubes one outside of the other. Very impressive to not flat. Highly amusing was the conversation where he said he was running 2 types of screws to try and keep the weight down to then proceed by adding a whole load of mass with the extra tyre and tube.

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HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH practice you say... LOL!

I'm a Brit and have been around the UK race scene since 2006, in all that time it has always been a rule with British Cycling (The national federation for the UK) that you must do 2 practice runs before you are allowed to do a race run. This rule was adopted by BC from The UCI. I asked a few UCI commissaries why this was a rule, the reasoning is solely for rider safety.

And now for the relevance, There was no practice.


Let that sink in.

I could easily write a 10,000-word article - including conversations with people as high up as David Lapertient (the head of The UCI) - on all of the failings from this event. But this is the stand out for me, Track preservation was put above rider safety!

If riders rode a practice lap on the track, it would have chewed the track up so rather than doing a few laps 3-4 days before racing, so you weren't riding blind, and then re doing the track, there was no practice.


There was a course inspection. Clear stipulations were that you were not allowed to ride the track, if you were riding down, you had to stay close to the catch neting. It was either that or walk/ski the track.



Speaking with several riders, this was one of the most psychologically testing races they've ever done. Be under no illusions, if things are to go wrong, they're going to go wrong massively.

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With Max adding the finishing touches to track prep, marking where the splits were, it was time to go racing. Interestingly, though there was no live timing, there was no speed trap. The whole point of Super G is the speed, to not have a speed trap to relay the metric of speed then, is yet again another oversight. Or if you're a sinic, a way of saving money (same with the live timing and lack of days to practice).


I was just about to type "it was the women first" but I, myself would have been overlooking something pretty cool. The first rider down was a course sweeper, he was absolutely rapid and sent everything. Why he wasn't racing was beyond me.



Anyway, digression aside it was the women first. Looking at the entry list it was cool to see Sabrina Jonnier on there.


She may have been the 3rd rider out of the gate, but the French rider Morgane Such took the first ever rainbow jersey in Snow Biking with a time of 2:15.95. The field was hardly stacked with a grand total of 7 entries (3 nationalities all within 50 miles of the venue), but you can only beat who's in front of you and that what Such did. Oh, if like me you were wondering how the start list was determined, being that there was no previous races or ranking or qualifying. This was done in a sealed room with no media/team/rider presence. Apparantly they drew names out of a hat to see the order... make of that what you will.


Vinny T! The 31st rider on course. Choosing to forgo his customary Darkfest trip to sunny South Africa, instead having the light shine on him sending it in the snow. 3rd place and a bronze medal for his efforts. 1:48.91 1.39 seconds back from first place.


Irishman and top 10 DH World Champs finisher Henry Kerr sending it deep of the stepdown. crossing the line in 2nd place where he would remain. A silver medal with a time of 1:48.49 0.97 seconds back from 1st place.



That just leaves the top step, gold medal and rainbow jersey. Pierre Thevenard, coming of the back of a win at the French National Championships the previous weekend over the hill in Les Gets, he's only had 1 opportunity to wear his national champs jersey, now it will be superseded by a rainbow one. From what I can tell, snow biking is his jam. The fastest time of the day with 1:47.52.

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Your top 3 men's bikes.

Closing remarks, expect to see cycling in the winter olympics in 2030, despite what I deem to be an utter farce that took place. What I find amusing and will heavily wager that all those cyclist who make their living from racing a bike that are complaining and slating the event (and rightly so in my opinion). 4-5 years time they'll all be eating humble pie to be on the bill. Expect Andorra next year (Oh totally forgot to mention Cedric was allowed to race despite having a huge advantage having ridden the track) and in 2026 you're looking at Sweden.

Any questions drop me a comment below, like i say, i could easily do 10,000 words on the whole event, Dual included. As much as I think the comments section is full of raving lunatics, i actually love it and love reading them. Truth be told, i only went out to cover it as the comments section on the announcement of the event was fire.