NOT ONE PERSON WE’VE SPOKEN TO – WHETHER PRO PRO RIDER, SEASONAIRE OR MORZINE LOCAL – HAS DONE THIS BEFORE, and not one of them thinks it’s a good idea to try and smash out nearly 20 laps of Le Pleney in a day. That’s the challenge Saracen Bikes have set us – to descend the equivalent height of Mount Everest, 8,849m, before the lifts close. To put that in context, that’s 37 laps of BikePark Wales!
We’ve come to the Alps in order to get enough elevation and a sufficiently speedy lift back up between runs. And, also, so we can use our secret weapon – Madison Saracen factory racer Matt Walker, who’s in town for the Les Gets World Cup and has agreed to help us with our challenge.
If this all sounds a bit familiar, then you may remember that our then-features editor (now tech ed) Alex Evans did his own Everesting challenge on this very same French mountain a few years back. However, his goal was to rack up 8,849m of ascent, rather than descent, so he did it on an e-bike and it took a lot longer than the lift operating hours we’re going to be restricted to. While
