Velirium

[rockyrider]

OK, Velirium (http://www.velirium.com/) is not a product in the conventional sense, but it is in the larger sense of an event being marketed for public consumption, and was even advertised in the left hand column here on the DR website.

For my vacation this year I attended Velirium in Quebec City and Mont Sainte Anne during the World Cup weekend in June. This was the first time I'd been to Quebec City so I tried to dust off all my high school French to see how much I remembered.

I've been involved with all sorts of festival type events over the years in various capacities, and I've attended all sorts of festivals over the years. I'd have to say that Velirium and the events associated with it are amazingly well organized and well produced with first class production values. I had a blast over the whole 4 days I was there for that weekend. I also fed a lot of mosquitoes during the 4X race at MSA, but that's only because I've been conditioned out of thinking about mosquitoes since I've been living on the coast.

If anyone's interested in attending very well produced mountain bike races with lots of other bike related activities in and around the area, I can highly recommend attending Velirium. I stayed at Chateau Mont Sainte Anne and it was a very nice hotel, but I do recommend getting a room on the west side of the Chateau so that on the closing night where they have the live music party going until 6AM Monday, you can get some sleep. :D

Mont Sainte Anne has some really nice XC trails as well as lift accessed DH trails, so there's no shortage of stuff to do. Most of the XC and DH trail network are still accessible while the race courses are taped off which is nice.

The best part for me is that most people I met quickly recognized when I was struggling with my French and they'd switch to English. In fact, most people I met had such good English that I felt kinda embarassed that I was not holding up my end of being bilingual in Canada.

So I'd give Velirium two thumbs up.

[rockyrider]

I should also mention that Quebec City itself is worth a visit. It had it's 399th birthday while I was there, it's the oldest permanent settlement in North America. Next year is the 400th birthday party, it's going to be quite a celebration (http://www.monquebec2008.com/MonQuebec2008/index.php?module=&id=&lang=en-ca). Quebec does Festivals in a big way, so that year long party ought to be worth a visit.

If you're from Europe it will likely seem quite familiar in the old Quebec city, but it's quite an experience if you're from North America, especially the western half which has a more recent history. Vancouver's history goes back into the 1800's (and of course most of Vancouver burned down (http://www.discovervancouver.com/GVB/grt_fire.asp) in 1886), but Quebec was founded in 1608 by Samuel de Champlain, so it's got some serious history.

[real_ss_budgie]

OK, Velirium (http://www.velirium.com/)
but I do recommend getting a room on the west side of the Chateau so that on the closing night where they have the live music party going until 6AM Monday, you can get some sleep. :D .

man i hope this guy aint rocking up to kansass gig in sept..
noice one rocky, pity we couldnt sleaze over that side of your canada

[rockyrider]

I had so much fun at Velirium last year in Quebec that I am headed back again this year. Over the next two weekends the Canadian Nationals and World Cup Race are at Mont Sainte Anne. And Quebec City is having their 400th birthday party, so I expect that it should be quite a good couple of weeks.

[LeeMcGough]

Man, I'm only one province away from Quebec, and haven't been there since 1990! Kinda sad. I need to get out more. :o

[bomberbarnes]

Bubble and I are giong to spend a week at Mont St Anne this summer, but we don't arrive in Canada till the 24th so a bit late to make the worlds. We'll be there the following week. Looking forward to it :)

Any accommodation recomendations Rocky? We tried a local campsite / cottage developement thingy but they're booked clean through the summer. We have money so budget is not much of a problem (within reason, of course...) but bike friendly is key (obviously)

[rockyrider]

If you're going to be at Mont Sainte Anne, the Chateau Mont Sainte Anne is a good bet, especially if you're not there when the World Cup circus is at the Chateau. It's reasonably priced and you're right there with the trails starting just 300m from the door (or the gondola about 50m from the Chateau).

http://mont-sainte-anne.reslogic.com/?pl=114

Shot from my room in the Chateau last year.

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View from the platform on the top of the mountain.

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[rockyrider]

I Watched great national championship races on Saturday. Geoff Kabush defended his National champ status as did Marie-Helene Premont. Kabush laid back to avoid completely spanking the second place rider. The race between Premont and Pendrel was a lot closer after Premont's spiffy new Fox fork had a lockout that wouldn't unlock, and MSA is not a course for a rigid fork, even the one lap to get back to service. Once they cut the lockout cable she began making up the 1 minute plus she lost with the fork and pit stop. She put a one minute gap on the Pendrel but lost the gap in a crash in the muddy downhill section. Premont and Pendrel swapped the lead a couple of times on the last lap but Premont motored on to gap her by 6 seconds for the 6th national title. Premont used up everything she had to make up that time twice and just sat down when she crossed the finish line. They brought her a chair while they cleaned up the crash wounds and she did the press interviews, about 8-10 minutes later she was up and signing autographs on the way to the podium ceremony.

Next weekend the World Cup race. In the middle some more sight seeing in Quebec City and some more riding at MSA. Paul McCartney is playing a free concert on the Plains of Abraham, they're expecting something like 100,000 people. Too crowded for moi.

[rockyrider]

For those of you who have never been to a World Cup race, it is just like having the circus or county fair roll in to town. Only of course instead of the midway with the ferris wheel and roller coaster there are lift assisted trails and lots of roller coaster single track trails. It looks like the midway mixed with Interbike, only there's no shooting galleries or bottle toss or whack-a-mole.

There are mosquitoes as I have a zillion bites after walking the course and taking pics in the morning. It has been very wet here but the course seems to be holding up, even though riders come back coated in mud the course remains ridable (but let's say very technically challenging). It is no wonder that the riders that come from parts of the world where the trails are dry and smooth would be intimidated by this kind of World Cup course.

Mont Sainte Anne will host the 2010 World Championships (XC/DH/Trials). If you wanted to wait to make the trip here spectacularly big, that would be a reason.

[rockyrider]

The MSA World Cup race was a big draw, at least the women's race was. The crowd turnout was huge to watch Marie-Helene Premont race her last World Cup race at her home course before retiring at the end of this year. The crowd was pumped up and so was Premont. She shot out in the lead and stayed there with a 2+ minute gap to the second place rider Catherine Pendrel, and the 3-5th place riders clustered in to the minute behind Pendrel. The race course was extremely technical in many areas, looking more like a North Shore freeride trail than a XC trail. There was a heavy rain the night before so the course was very muddy and slick in places, the winning time was over 2 hours, which is longer than expected.

By the time the men's race was held the place was much quieter and less enthusiastic, even though Geoff Kabush managed a very impressive 2nd place finish.

[rockyrider]

A few shots of the World Cup course's soggier sections, these were taken before the rains that came the night prior to the race. The camera sucks all the sense of steepness out of the trails, the section of trail with the orange catch fence is steep and lots of wet rocks, so the catch fence keeps the racers from chucking over a good sized dropoff if they over cook it.

[rockyrider]

Here's a very steep chute section from the east end of the Coupe de Monde course. The camera sucks all the angle out of it, but it was steep enough that some tree grabbing on the way down was useful while walking down to snap these shots (and it was drier on the day I took these shots). At the bottom the trail turns 90 degrees to the right between trees into a 7' high drop over a root bundle that makes it 90 degrees down for the first foot or so before changing to a 45-50 degree roll out. The shot looking back at the drop is with the camera level, so you can see the start of that drop between the trees is above eye level. The shot with the blue tree cushion is the side shot of that roll out. From there it climbs back up again to the starting elevation and then into a shorter but equally steep and deeply grooved La Petit Perdix chute.

It's no wonder that racers that start their career in southern California on smooth and buff single track find the World Cup circuits a bit challenging. :rolleyes:

[rockyrider]

...and what fun is a county fair or circus without the daredevils...

[rockyrider]

This is the other challenging descent in the Coupe du Monde trail, called L'ECUREUIL (The Squirrel), lots of elevation change here and when it's been wet it's nasty as it becomes a stream bed. Many crashes in this section during the races, even in the dry.

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Looking back up the previous photo descent

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[rockyrider]

And another section of La Coupe du Monde XC trail that crosses below and eventually under the DH race course bridge.

[rockyrider]

And a few more shots of the first technical loop of the Coupe du Monde trail. I sure wish the camera could capture elevation change better, need a 3D camera. A lot of these pics are of trail segments that are surprisingly steep.

[rockyrider]

and they have great socks...