The road to FISE

Hi People,

Just had an awesome trip down to Montpellier in the South of France for FISE. DMR kindly lent us the van for the trip.
Blake and I started sunday evening met Matt at Macd's to get the keys for the van then met up with Adam Williams, Danny Pace and Sam Davies. back to Macd's for a snack and coffee then camped outside DMR HQ packed the van and left at the crack of dawn. Caught the 8 am ferry across had a slamming fry up on board and a few games of Time Crisis 2. Arrived an hour latter in Calais and started our 10 hour drive down. Such a boring drive Motor way the whole way, a few stops for fuel in the van and ourselves and finally made it to Lyon where we had planned to stay the night and ride a few spots the next day. After driving around for an hour seeing some lady's of the night huddling in bus stops and under bridges we got hold of Yannick Granari to ask where these trails were only to find out they were smashed so after everyone blaming me we decided to head down to Peynier near Marsielle. got down there at around 9pm we set up camp and got some sleep after a long drive. Got woken in the early hours to heavy rain and Adam and Danny (who were sleeping outside) trying to get the bikes out the van so they could sleep in it.
Woke up Tuesday after a crappy sleep to sun. found a shower at the football club, then checked out the trails which were so sick. then a quick run to the local Carrefour supermarket for breakfast and supplies. then met the local builder Guilbert to ask if we could ride and he was cool with it so got padded up and started shredding. the trails rode so good was a crazy hip line that was so hard to get through, then the big line which was sick a bit hard at first had to pump your ass off to get speed but got it good and had an amazing ride until my rebound decided to break and that was the end of that ride. Managed to borrow Adam's spare forks and then had to call up Sharky Brown to bring some 20mm adapters from the UK with him. here is the first video that Sam Davies made from our trip.

Road to Fise: Part 1 on pinkbike.com

On the Wednesday we drove to Montpellier for FISE it rained most of the way there which sucked. Found our accommodation got unpacked then jumped back in the van and went and checked out the course. The course looked crazy with the mega ramp start, to be honest i was a little scared. never rode that day as it rained the whole time just had a bit of a walk around then headed back to the chalet via a supermarket to buy dinner and a few drinks. made ourselves an amazing pasta dinner thanks to Adam for cooking. chilled out and had a few drinks.
Thursday was another wet day rained most of the day so no riding. met up with a few of the riders. Sam Pilgrim, Sam Ren and Chopper were on a Monster trip the same week so met up with them exchanged stories and chilled in the Monster truck. another day of doing nothing went back to campsite had a swim and a mess about. then went out to check out the night life. spent most of the night in the Aussie Bar with all the competitors. headed back at around 1 am and woke up on Friday to a sunny day which was awesome so we got told that practice started at 9. we loaded up and headed out. got padded up signed in and started riding. warmed up on the last section of the course. then the mega ramp opened and i headed up to check it out and damn was it high, I am not a big fan of heights. eventually after a few guys tried it i gave it a go and it was not to bad felt good the only problem was the speed for the step up after it. second run I dropped in and flipped it felt so much better than straight jumping it. Had a few practise runs then it was time for Qualifying. 1 out of 2 runs counted. dropped in for my first run and did an ok run but not what i wanted. second run went better and I felt good about it. Loads of riders pushing it and crashing but also loads of riders doing really good runs so was not sure if I made it through. after Quaili's we watched some bmx dirt then headed back for a swim and dinner. had a quite night chilled not doing much. started raining hard, thunder and lightning so Saturday was a wash out. found out in the morning that i qualified 7th which was sick a big surprise.
Here is the video from quili's

Road to Fise: Part 2 on pinkbike.com

Sunday and the sun came out for the semi finals and finals. felt tired and my bike was running a bit crappy with different forks. but had some practise runs got warmed up then the semi's started. 3 runs best 2 count I messed up my first run which sucked so much. got my second run but missed the flip on the drop and my third run went better but I needed 2 good runs so knew I had not made it was really unhappy but glad I never had any crashes and still had an amazing time riding the course. Sam Pilgrim shut down as always. Lance Mcdermot had a good run and Sam Ren busted out a sweet run with a huge frontie over the mega.
Finals was in the evening and it went off so many good runs, big crashes and even bigger Tricks Sam Pilgrim took the win easy as the other riders who could have challenged him messd up a little in the runs. Sam Ren was a bit unfairly judged but I think top three was right. a shame Lance messed both his runs otherwise he could have put Sam under pressure. Here is the vid from the Sunday.

Road to Fise: Part 3 on pinkbike.com

Monday and we left at about 11 am for the epic drive back. 11 hours later we arrived in Calais caught the ferry for an hour then a 2 hour drive to DMR HQ where we stayed the night.
Had an awesome trip was such good fun and ill definitely go back next year but maybe i'll fly because its a crazy long drive. Thanks Matt and Damian for letting us use the van.

Untill next time, PEACE!!