“Itinerary scouting for the Mavic® Trans-Provence Enduro race starts every spring as soon as the trails are clear of snow. Enduro racing through a wilderness environment is arguably the purest form of mountain biking discovery. Here is how we the organisers go about providing the geographical part of that experience.”

www.trans-provence.com

Mavic Echelon short sleeve base layer.

The key criteria upon which all base layers need to be assessed is how well they wick sweat from the skin. That is the fundamental task appointed to a base layer. Mavic use an Air Dry fabric and it really does work very well on the trail. With just a soft shell jacket over the top it’ll keep you dry even during hard rides.

Lightweight Air Dry fabric works well and is very stretchy.

It’s a lightweight base layer and perhaps isn’t the first choice for winter riding, but if you run hot it’s a good choice. With a long sleeve jersey over the top and a jacket I find it the perfect setup for rides of a couple of hours.

Mavic’s Echelon short sleeve base layer does everything a base should although it isn’t at its best during the depths of winter. I use it with a warm jacket for short rides on milder winter days.

A slim close-fitting shape ensures the fabric makes good contact with the skin to it can do its job effectively. There’s a good amount of stretch in the material so it never feels restrictive.

A well-priced performance base layer for cool days.

Price: £26.99
Web: Mavic Echelon base layer

Nice and lightweight, the Mavic base layer keeps the sweat off your skin.

Lightweight, close fitting, base layer with excellent moisture wicking

Perfect under a jersey for active moisture management or adding light thermal protection. The open fabric structure combined with the light stretch make this extremely comfortable and highly breathable.

He’s a nice guy who we chatted to in 2012, you can read the interview here.

For now, here’s  a great edit from one of Jérôme’s sponsors, Mavic, in which he chats enduro and explores the Italian island of Sicily.

Ever ridden in Sicily?

If that’s whetted your appetite, the 2013 Trans-Provence will take place from Saturday September 28 to – Saturday October 5. It costs €1395 which includes all meals and support. Entries open December 1. 

Geoff Kabush tries to get ahead of the gathering storm.

Normally, then, the last day is relatively easy after what’s gone before it. We say relatively easy, it’s still 30km of riding and nearly 900 metres of climbing, with 4 Special Stages before we reach the coast. The first riders are normally above Monaco before midday and everyone is by the beach by 2pm drinking a beer and dive bombing each other in the sea.

That would be a normal final day at Mavic Trans-Provence. But that wasn’t this year.

At the last minute, authorities in Monaco decided that we couldn’t meet at the beach as we have done in previous years, with threats of fines and even prison for the race director if we decided to ignore the decree.

Then we had storms. Massive but mercifully brief storms turned dusty, rocky trails into limestone man-traps while forked lightning struck the ground around us. Several members of the mountain staff and media team felt and saw lightning strike fences next to them. Ed Oxley claimed he felt it pass through him, but he’s a man with a huge beard so who knows…

Maybe it was relaxing on the last day, maybe it was the weather, or the little slippery trails, but somewhere on the first Special Stage of the day we had our first serious accident of the week. Apart from a few stitches up until day 7 we’d had a remarkably incident free event this year. Sven Martin went down, broke his arm and was helicoptered off the mountain. Healing vibes, Sven!

Unsurprisingly this changed the dynamics of the day. Incredible respect to Anka Martin (Sven’s wife) who still finished the day, but people were clearly shocked, the reminder so late in the week that at any point a misplaced wheel or a lapse in concentration can end your race and maybe far worse.

Mavic Trans-Provence day 7

Naturally a fair number of riders waited to make sure Sven got off the mountain and this further slowed down the day. It also meant that many riders were still riding when we were hit by another large storm.

By the fourth Special Stage we had riders who had seen a bad injury, been out for longer than they thought they were going to be and also been hit by storms twice. That all probably contributed to the three-person crash only a couple of hundred metres from the end of the final Special Stage. Jon Cancellier twisted his ankle so hard that he needed to be carried off the mountain and then to hospital to check it wasn’t broken (it isn’t).

Finally, though, riders gradually appeared at the final camp of the week, some a little worse for wear from more than the beers they’d had at the beach, some just looking shell shocked from the week gone by and the accidents of the final day.

Another year is over, most of us are now home, whether you’re a racer or part of the team the make sure the event works behind the scenes, the next few days always seem a little unreal. After spending seven days with new friends or being re-acquainted with old ones travelling day by day across a country, suddenly being back indoors and fixed in a single place feels as strange as the Mavic Trans-Provence is hard. We’re sure some are wondering about coming back to race again next year.

We’d like to thank all of you who’ve followed the event this year, the support of our sponsors and everyone that has run our videos. If you’ve watched it and reckon you could do it why not apply for the race next year? If you want to ride the route but don’t fancy racing you can always join the team for one of the guided tours. Either way don’t just watch, come and join us.

Until next year!

The Mavic Trans-Provence team.

Riders shelter from the storm.

Video

Mavic Trans-Provence Day 5

Day 5 itself is a very physical day with some of the hardest pedalling, Special Stages of the week and still really technical. If you’re not already  spent after four days of riding and racing the days  Special Stages are punctuated by big asphalt climbs over two Cols.

So lets talk about the spirit of the event then, and what makes it so special. Yesterday saw Fabien Barel happily lend his spare Mondraker to one of our amateur racers to ride after he broke his own bike. No fuss , no drama just another rider helping out another rider – Watching the riders face as he was handed Fabien’s  nearly brand new Mondraker  was a priceless moment.

More of the spirit of camaraderie was  seen at the top of the second Col, and the start of Special Stage 3. Mixed groups of riders clean the last of the climb, maybe led out by a pro downhiller with a xc world cup racer in tow, the most unlikely  grouping of riders imaginable taking turns to slug it out in front.  Taking time to catch their breath,  sitting along the edge of the start of third Special Stage to cheer each other on through the first few switch backs. Imagine dropping in to a section and being whooped and whistled for your efforts by  Mark Weir, Fabien Barel, Nico Vouilloz, Nicolas Lau, Matti Lehikoinen, Anne-Caroline Chausson and Adam Craig  to name but a few and you’re just a regular rider who’s out for the week to take part. Where else are  you going to  being cheered on by some of the fastest riders in the world? All of this happens, and it only happens at Mavic Trans-Provence!

Mavic Trans-Provence Day 5

MAVIC TRANS PROVENCE 2012 ::: DAY 5 from Trans-Provence on Vimeo.

Seventy-one riders started the first day of the Mavic Trans-Provence on Sunday, and all seventy-one finished, with last year’s winner Jérôme Clementz leading at the end of the day after winning the final special stage and taking second in the first two.

Here’s the day’s video:

It was a relatively relaxed start to the week with a later kick-off than normal at 8.30 am. The riders tackled three special stages and around 45km of riding.

After an uplift out of the valley, pedalling proper started with the now legendary first climb to the first special stage. The climb looks like an innocuous enough fire road. It gains height steadily to log 600 metres of ascent and tops out at around the 2000 metre mark. It’s certainly a wake up to the system.

Stage one has been modified from last year and organisers omitted the lung-busting ‘carry or push’ section, instead choosing to shorten the stage. Old hands at the event are disappointed that the newcomers don’t have to suffer in the same way.

It still started on slightly uphill singletrack before plunging into a leaf and wood-littered chute that started steeply and only continued to steepen as it made its way down hill. A real case of do or don’t and make a choice at the beginning! Dismounts can and do end badly here. This is the special stage where round-the-world record holder Mike Hall broke his ribs. Commitment is the key.

A short liaison stage led riders to a brand new special stage two for 2012, which started with steep switchbacks and ended in singletrack that crisscrossed a stream. There were a number of crashes including Geoff Kabush using his face as a rudimentary brake! While there were no serious, the alarming view of Anka Martin riding into the feed station bleeding from around her eye after getting caught with a branch was reminder of how a small thing can potentially end your race. This is a race that has a long way to unwind

At the feed station, Fox were turning around some very quick rebuilds of forks for competitors, while Mavic neutral support were busy repairing drivetrains and bleeding brakes as well as dealing with any wheel problems a rider might have regardless of brand.

Mavic’s large yellow truck and its household name status in France brought out some of the local villages more colourful characters mostly to have a nose around. A man on a chopper motorbike in leather chaps turned up, then later appeared trying to chance his arm and get a free repair of some seriously vintage mountain bikes.

What happens when you leave a feed station at the Mavic Trans-Provence? Well, it normally involves something steep and not in the direction that most people prefer. This feed station was no different. The second part of the day started with a big fire road climb that finished the climbing for the day and led to the final special stage.

Open woodland singletrack gave way to more leaf-filled gullies before driving steeply down the side of the mountain in increasingly tightening switchbacks. It fired the riders out over a muddy stream and with the last blip of a timing chip against the timing balise day one was over for another year.

Tomorrow sees the first wave of riders leaving at 7am for arguably the toughest day of the event.

Pre-race gallery

 Results

Clementz faces tough competition from the likes of French megastar Nico Vouilloz, the multiple downhill world champion who was second last year; the USA’s Mark Weir (fourth last year); and his countryman Ben Cruz who will be hoping to have a better this year after a damaged ankle on the fourth day of last year’s event forced him to drop out.

Fabien Barel riding in the 2011 Trans-Provence. Watch this space for Barel’s video diary from this year’s event.

Mavic Trans-Provence is claimed to be the only multi-day gravity-orientated itinerant mountain bike enduro in the world. It comprises seven days of riding over 310km, 15,000 metres of descending, 10,000 metres of climbing (each day has an uplift shuttle at some point) and 26 special stages.

This year, 70 riders from around the world will tackle the punishing terrain of the Trans-Provence. From Gap in northern Provence to Monaco on the Mediterranean coast, there will be representatives of every mountain biking discipline from from World Cup downhillers to World Cup cross country racers, plus the new enduro specialists, first time racers and some just there for the adventure.

Another former downhill world champion, Fabien Barel will be hosting a series of videos over the week. Barel was third last year, and this year will be chatting with riders, checking out bikes and sharing his in depth of knowledge of all things racing. Oh, and racing the event himself. Sleep? Pah, who needs it.

Here’s Fabien getting ready for this year’s event:

See the Mavic Trans-Provence website for more.

Mavic have jumped aboard the 29er bandwagon

The French company tentatively dipped their toe into the water in 2011 with the launch of the C29 wheelset but that has, until now, been the firm’s only 29er offering. That’s changed with the launch of the race-ready Crossmax SLR 29, trail-focussed Crossmax ST 29 and budget Crossride 29 hoops.

The wheels were launched in June and we’ve already tested the “light, stiff and bombproof” ST 29 wheelset – read the review here – but Eurobike gave us the chance to take a closer look at the top-of-the-range SLR 29.

While the ST’s are essentially a supersized version of the 26-inch equivalent, the SLR’s have taken some fastidious engineering to ensure the weight is kept down without sacrificing strength and stiffness. In fact, Mavic wanted to unveil the SLR wheelset in 2011 but it’s taken an extra year of development for them to be happy with the finished product.

Rim thickness has been increased by 0.6mm on the Mavic Crossmax SLR 29

Mavic told us a 29-inch wheel is 39 per cent less stiff than a 26-inch wheel and heavier by somewhere in the region of ten per cent, while a big wheel has 40 per cent more inertia, which can affect reliability. So Mavic set about overcoming both hurdles with the help of riders from the Cannondale Factory Racing team.

First they increased the number of spokes from 20 to 24. That improved stiffness but came with an unacceptable weight penalty as Mavic have designed these as cross-country racing wheels, so they switched back to 20 and tried stronger spokes.

That partly solved the problem but Mavic then started noticing cracks in the rim. The solution? Increasing the thickness of the rim’s sidewall by 0.6mm. Problem solved? Not quite. The stronger rim only moved the stress to elsewhere in the rim and spokes were snapping on the driveside of the rear wheel. Mavic overcame this by bead blasting those spokes to increase strength without incurring a weight penalty.

The result is a wheelset which weighs 1,620g and costs £850, and which was ridden to bronze by Marco Fontana in the London 2012 Olympic mountain bike race.

Continental unveil semi-slick Speed King tyre

The semi-slick Speed King is designed for racing on hardpacked or paved surfaces

Meanwhile, we also spotted Continental’s Speed King tyre at Eurobike. The new tyre is designed for racing on hardpacked or paved surfaces with a semi-slick tread which Conti told us offers 18 per cent less rolling resistance than the lightweight Race King. Claimed weight is 430g and it’s available, for now at least, in one 26×2.2in size.

Otherwise, we’re heading into the cyclo-cross season and the Continental CycloXKing tubular, which has been doing the rounds as a prototype for a while now, will be available to the rest of us from the end of September. It uses Conti’s excellent Black Chili compound, with a tread pattern based on the X-King mountain bike tyre (with tall shoulder lugs for grip on loose and wet corners).

Mavic’s Crossmax ST are fantastic 29er wheels for trail riding.

When Mavic brought out their new three model 29er wheel range this year, the middle-of-the-range Crossmax ST were the ones that really caught our eye. Unlike the expensive Crossmax SLR, which required some fastidious engineering to get the weight down, the ST’s were simply a supersized version of the 26-inch wheels.

Mavic were satisfied with the results when they tested them, so apart from the size difference, they’re virtually identical to the 26in models. Stiffness is the key test of a 29in wheelset and we’ve been highly impressed, they’re easily the stiffest aluminium 29er wheels we’ve yet tested. They even threaten to give carbon 29er wheels a run for their money.

Excess material is removed from the rim to reduce weight.

The wheels arrived the evening before the Bristol Bikefest 12-hour race. Cue some manic last minute tyre and rotor changing. But what better, a 12-hour solo race, to test new wheels?

The Ashton Court course is full of fast and very twisty corners. Wheels need to be stiff for the constant and sudden changes of direction, and light for good speed pickup. The Mavic Crossmax STs ticked both boxes with ease, and impressed me from the first lap to the last.

because they are so stiff, you can really chuck the bike around with very little hesitation from the wheels. There’s no flexing or squirming as the forces do their thing on the spokes and rim.

Accelerating out of the many corners the super quick engagement of the ITS-4 freehub lets you get straight on the gas and powering down the next slither of singletrack. The wheels are tagged for all-mountain riding, so the 1710g weight is about spot on. You certainly don’t want to go too much lighter for such riding, yet for occasional racing (if you’re not a weight obsessed weenie) they’re adequate. I didn’t feel them holding me back, that’s for sure.

The hubs are compatible with all current axle ‘standards’

Away from the race circuit and back to local trails, we found the wheels really come into their own. You can batter them through roots and rocks and they refuse to bend or twist. We deliberately tried to push them as hard as we could: taking bad lines and riding into ugly ruts and steps. They handled it all just fine.

The rims have taken a few knocks but there’s no dents or dings showing, so they’re clearly tough.

It’s illuminating to compare them with the Reynolds XC 29er carbon wheels we tested earlier this year. The Reynolds carbon wheels are stiffer, yes, but not by as much as you might think. Mavic have really narrowed the gap.

The details

Mavic  took the current ST 26in wheels, released only a year ago, and simply up-sized them. They found the 26in wheel was sufficiently sturdy to deliver enough stiffness even with everything stretched out to the 29in format.

Pleasingly plump Zicral spokes.

The wheels look great as well. The fat, round Zircal spokes look good, and are laced in a two-cross pattern, radial on the rear driveside.  There’s 24 of them in the front wheel and 20 out back.

The rims are officially UST compatible so it’s a real cinch to go tubeless. Mavic’s FORE technology (spoke nipples thread directly into the rim) leaves the inner wall undrilled so they’re completely airtight. The rims also have excess material milled out between the spokes, which Mavic call ISM. I fitted a pair of the new Schwalbe Racing Ralph tyres and they popped up and inflated first time.

The hubs have been designed to to cope with all the axle ‘standards’ currently available. That means you get a bunch of adaptors in the box so you can fit a 20mm or 15mm bolt-through or plain old fashioned 9mm quick release. The rear hub can similarly be used with a 9mm QR or 12mm bolt-through. Plenty of options no matter what bike you’re fitting them too, then.

I mentioned the quick engagement of the freehub earlier. Mavic use a clever design comprising  two staggered pairs of pawls with a 7.5 degree engagement gives a very low response time to a stomping on the pedals.

The beefy rear hub transfers torque the tangential left-hand spokes.

Sealing has proved to be good on both hubs, with the cartridge bearings still running smooth a couple of months down the line.

Weight is 1710g for the pair, and that breaks down to 825g for the front and 885g for the rear wheel.

If, like me, your riding consists mainly of typical trail riding with just the occasional race, and you value durability over weight savings, then you’ll find the ST’s a fantastic pair of wheels. I’m so impressed with them that I’m still riding them as I type this review. After a couple of months hard riding, they show no sign of damage or needing any tensioning.

Verdict

Light, stiff and bombproof, the Mavic Crossmax ST are fantastic 29er wheels for trail riding.

Pros

Stiff
Good weight
Look good
UST compatible for tubeless fans

Cons

Bit pricey

More info:  Mavic Crossmax ST 29 page
Weight: 1710g
Price: £625

What Mavic says

“The 29er for real mountain biking

“Versatility at its best. The new Crossmax ST 29 offers a perfect balance of features to go up and down the mountains fast and for a long time. This “real” mountain-bike wheelset will stand use and abuse from the 29er enthustiasts. Worry-free ride!

“Cross-country responsiveness, Cross-mountain strength
Less inertia: optimized rim extrusion, ISM
Stiff system: 19 mm rim, through axles compatible, Maxtal, Fore, Zicral
High energy transfer: ITS-4, Isopulse, UST, asymmetrical rim
Tough as ever
Rim resistance: 19c, Maxtal alloy, Fore drilling, SUP welding
Hubs quality: QRM+ bearings, ITS-4
Strong and light spokes: Zicral
Convenience and reliability of a Mavic UST system
Compatibility: 19c rim to fit a wide range of tyre standards, complete discs and axles compatibility
Ease of use: ready to ride UST standard
Mavic race proven technologies: UST, SUP, Fore, ITS-4, QRM+”