MTBCut's Joe Barnes Takes the Win at The French Avalanche Enduro

Joe Barnes, chief dude in the Dudes of Hazzard and MTBCut's rear wheel-steering supremo, is currently in the early stages of an epic summer roadtrip. Plans are to touch down in the UK in September after months of French Downhill Cups, Avalanche Enduros, the infamous Megavalanche, iXS Downhill Cups and the remaining European World Cup rounds. Races will be interspersed with adventures and various antics.

First race stop was the Avalanche Enduro in Vaujany, just east of Grenoble, France. Chalk up victory number one.

See how stage one of the trip went through Joe's eyes:

The start of the roadtrip has begun.

After a frantic last minute pack I swung the van round to Liam's house, then on to Ruari's house and got it fully loaded. It is probably the fullest it has been with enough pants to last 10 weeks and a few bikes to ride aswell. Descending down Ruari's drive and the van sounded a bit flailey so I pulled over for a closer inspection. The fan belt had shredded its self. We had only made it 10 miles before the first disaster. Luckily one of the useless bits of crap from the van happened to be a fan belt so we whipped the new one on and continued trucking.
With no time to lose we rolled straight onto the ferry and straight into France. The drive was fairly brutal as per usual, crossing the tedious French flatlands. When the mountains finally arrived and a few baguettes and ice creams had been eaten we were fully stoked to get on the bikes.

The Vaujany Avalanche Enduro was our first race and after meeting up with friends Jamesey Boy (iXS and Answer sponsored rider) and Emma we got on the lift and went for a practice lap.

I had raced it the year before and remembered the course pretty well and how good some of the sections were. That evening the first van film night in a while was a great one, and after a few chuckles and a load of pasta we went to bed happy.
Race day next and with a 3rd place seeding meant I was 3rd off for each stage. I was giving it some on the stages and caught the guy in front on all the long stages so was fairly confident I was on the pace. Jamesy Boy Shirley was also pretty pinned but a mysterious, inexplicable time penalty for Ruari and a crash from Liam set them back. After a long day on the bike I took the win and James second, Emma also won the girls so not a bad start for team Scotland.

Just a chilled day practising the Mega today and the same tomorrow. Its great to get the trip off to a good start and now time to focus on the mega and try to smash it there as well.

The MTBCut team are powered by iXS armour; Nuke Proof bars, spacers and saddles; and Straitline pedals, stems and chain guides.