My Ever Changing Moods
'I wish we'd move together, this time the bosses sued Oh, but we're caught up in the wilderness And an ever changing mood, yeah' - The Style Council
For the first time in a long time I didn’t go skiing in May despite some great powder days to be had. I was just over it and worn out from an intense ski season that began in late November. Part of it of course are embraced responsibilities…as a papa, to take care of my boys and get back to work after the first winter season not guiding nor being a sponsored pro-rider for many years and… as an acolyte of the Kogi Mamos to do what’s right as a human and get busy in the gardens and grow as much food as possible again. Busy as a bee…
The other part of my reality that comes with the change of seasons is being a ‘bi-polar’ gravity freak…meaning the longing to get back on the mountain bike is unassailable. Fortunately, the stars aligned to take advantage of one of May’s long weekends and make a family road trip out to visit my buddy and crucial riding partner Kurt at his newly renovated house in the Côte du Rhone to start the season.
From there, a 20 minute drive to Nyons brought us to our delightful discovery of the Four Seasons bike park on the side of the mountain right above town. We hit the perfect weather, as it can be scorching hot there, to enjoy the well groomed super fun trails with practically nobody but us riding the perfectly tacky dirt.
I fucked up this shot of Willy launching a kind of gappy drop and so not getting him sunlit a split second later by forgetting to have put my camera on rapid fire…
And there’s always time to go bother some fish…
Les Deux Alpes has been open extra early this year and we’ve been hitting probably my favourite run in the world, Venosc, on the weekends. Spinning laps on that one sure gets you strong and that’s why the pros show up there as well for training. We had the good fortune of meeting one of the best there the other week… Benny ‘The Jet’ Coulanges who narrowly missed his second win in Loudenvielle last weekend by .127 seconds…
Karin is in bike mode too…in her own style. She’s gone on the road with her cousin Sophie to bike/camp from La Grave to Cannes. Awesome!
For me now it’s back to the best office in the world… getting the bike trails ready here in La Grave for the June 6th opening. Pascal and I shaped a new finish to the old trail destroyed by the Tabouchet avalanche right near the bottom so we’re going next level…as usual. Plus…thanks to Pascal and our partner Santa Cruz Bikes, I finally got a new bike…the dopest I’ve ever had, to replace the fragile stupid Canyon I broke the frame on which they refused to replace despite being under warranty.
My mood is finally fucking STOOOOOOOKE again!
