Les Gets Bike Park Opening Day 2012

May 27th, 2012

It’s that time of year again, summer! Beaten by a week by Whistler, Les Gets Bike Park opened it’s lifts for the French bank holiday weekend.

Good sized queues, except at lunchtime of course, backed up to the last corner of the home run and beyond by afternoon. Weather was warm and sunny and expected thunderstorms rumbled but didn’t show up.

French flag flying at the lift

Photos: Julia Revitt/Andrew Revitt

It was good to see a mix of riders out on opening day, a fair few Factory Jacksons in full TLD and Fox and one guy pimping the Sombrio pyjamas. Other than a few people on hire bikes, nobody was wearing armour over their clothes, in fact armour seemed less evident than usual, still a fair few Leatt braces. Didn’t see any roost guards for once, although I did see a guy on an old hard tail with bar ends, no helmet, no gloves, shorts and t-shirt. French of course. Nice to see some non racer women enjoying themselves with some pretty sweet bikes. Scott Voltage and Specialized Demo seemed to be the order of the day, saw two of the TLD Demo’s.

Tahnee Seagrave was the only minor celeb spotted rocking the Intense M9. The French Transition distributor Xcytt was there in force with some sweet kit and TR450’s.

The tracks were identical to 2011. Seems they even had last years brake bumps on them. The green from the top had some snow on and a load of puddles to contend with, not ideal for getting beginners into it. I couldn’t see any evidence of trail work or investment.

Rumbles of thunder in the afternoon

Off the track Les Gets was 95% closed. A disappointing showing, difficult to get a drink unless you wanted a sit down at the L’Op Traken restaurant which was busy with bikers but only the motorised variety. The Tabac was open and 4 of 6 bike shops but stocks were low and most hire bikes were out. A couple of benches and a bit of music was the best they could manage at the Chavannes lift and only one poor liftie. Two hoses at the bike wash meant a 20 minute queue to get he obligatory Les Gets mud off, even though it was dry. The ticket office was over run and chaotic and bikes everywhere outside, no bike racks just ski racks. Chaos. Car parking was a mess. Seems they can never be bothered to sort these things out.

A great days riding but in comparison with Whistler I would say Les Gets is still a way behind in attitude if not tracks. Better facilities and some atmosphere would be nice and something for beginners other than a load of last years armour.

A 15 euro ticket was in place for the day, cheaper than the Portes du Soliel pass and fitting as only the Chavannes and Nauchets chairlifts were open. Monster queues at the Nauchets chair in the afternoon saw a few riders head back to the Chavannes on the doubletrack instead of waiting.

The Park is open weekends of June 2nd-3rd and June 9-10 at the reduced price and opens officially everyday from June 16th until September 9th. Prices are up around 1 euro for a day pass from last year.

Opening times: 9am-5.30pm

Prices: