EURO TRIP 2004
Text: Aaron Chase & Don Hampton
Photos: Don Hampton, Ryan Gibb and Doug Dalton

Once again Cannondale invited us to take a roadtrip. It is hard to say no to the French and Swiss Alps. The purpose for this trip was to have Aaron Chase come over to appear in a dirt jumping demo at the Free Raid Classic MTB event and to be part of Cannondale’s new Prophet global media camp. We are also promoting the Chain Reaction Five Worldwide DVD and acquiring footage for CR SIX and Aaron’s upcoming DVD release, Counterparts.

Day 1

The day started at 5:30 AM in Rye, New Hampshire the morning after the Rye Airfield Big Wheels comp. We packed the cars and drove for five hours to AC house in New Jersey and then re packed our bags and bikes, said our goodbyes and headed to the Newark airport. Our plane was delayed at take off, the captain told us that we were 25th in line and we would be airborne as soon as we could. So AC and I used the time wisely and watched almost the entire Plush 2 DVD. Once in the air, the flight was smooth and with the time change it was next morning when we arrived in Amsterdam. We then found out that we missed our connecting flight to Lyon, France. We were then bounced all over the airport trying to re schedule a new flight. It seemed a lot harder than it should have to re schedule a flight, but what do I know? I’m just a biker not an airline employee.

So we finally made it to Lyon France with one less bag then we started with. Guillaume Koch from C-dale Europe was there waiting for us with the factory rig. We had a 2 plus hour drive from Lyon up and into the French Alps. During the drive we got to know Guillaume a little better and it turns out that he rides a lot of moto and was a world cup downhill racer for team Scott USA from 95-99. He had some pretty strong results too. I think that I may have some old school footage of him from back in the day. I’ll have to check my tape library when I get back to the DH Productions’ studios. The drive was pretty cool; one of the roads that we were on is a mountain stage for the Tour de France. The climb was twisty, steep, and long and the views were incredible.

We arrived in Les 2 Alpes. The town is perched on top of the mountains with ski slopes surrounding the village. The first thing we did was checkout the dirt jump demo set up and meet the event organizers. The jumps look sick. There is a huge roll in with a big four pack. It was raining and everything was under plastic, so we’ll have to wait until later to ride them.

We checked into our hotel and had an awesome six-course Euro style meal. We are both spent from the past couple of days and all of the traveling, so we decided to rest up and wait to see what the next couple of days had waiting for us.

DH

Day 3

Climbed out of my bunk bed and ready to ride…well kind of. My elbow was feeling a bit stiff from hyper extending it three weeks ago in Vail, CO. Either way I was psyched to see the jumps and what the streets had to offer.

Hampton and I headed out to the venue to see what was up and came across Steve Romanic, Tyler “Super T” Claussen and Ryan Gibb. They weren’t doing anything so we all decided to rent these crazy gravity only bikes. These bikes were so much fun, they had a steel frame with big balloon tires, drum brakes and foot pegs with no chain. Sick! So we shredded the bikes down rocks, snow and into a little pond.

Next up we tried out the alpine slides and almost killed Romanic. I was in back of him and we were flying, he slowed down just a bit for this steep part of the track, I kept it pinned and gave him some more speed that he wasn’t expecting. Basically he got the turbo boost off the drop and landed flat. So funny! But probably shouldn’t have bumped him that hard.

Next Hampton and I went on a little street ride, looking for something to shoot for the next video. We came across a small, quick, bumpy little rock bank to fence. I figured that I would try this little sprocket to jump over and hit up the next spot. Not that easy. Hampton fired up the vid cam and I pedaled at it. I hit the fence and I guess my foot slipped off the pedal and that sent me back and straight to my lower back or upper butt. Ether way it took me out. I laid on the ground for a good bit grunting, moaning and thinking, sometimes about how much my back hurt, sometimes about home and about what just happened. I never F up that bad on a stupid thing like that. I always land on my feet and try it again and now for the 2nd time at this event I am hurt pretty good.

Don and I walked back to the hotel, tired and hungry. Once I finish this entry I am going to watch “Meet the Parents” on DVD and go to sleep. Bon Soir!

AC

Day 4

Today was pretty chill, it was the opening day of the Free Raid Classic. The Free Raid Classic is a huge freeride festival with all of the Euro companies on display. They are expecting 15,000 to 20,000 riders in town for the weekend. The whole town is all about outdoor activity. There are people skiing and snowboarding on the glaciers, people ice skating and playing hockey right next to the packed swimming pool. But most people are decked out in full body armor and rockin’ all kinds of long travel bikes.

We had to do dirt jump demos for the crowd thoughout the day. AC took it hard on one of his first runs on a 360 gone bad. So for the rest of the day he was licking his wounds. I shot video and stills the rest of the day and in between each show, UK street rider, Chris Smith and I hit up some street and park shots.

After the full day of shooting and riding it was time for another awesome six course meal and then we had a few brews with Barrecloth, Axel (shooter for Freerider Entertainment), Super T, Steve Romanic, Ryan Gibb and a bunch locals.

DH

Day 5

Today we went back to the event for the big dirt jump demo, still sore as ever and not getting that much sleep from the night before it was still a sick session. Hampton tossed the helmet cam on my head and I trained just about everyone threw the four pack. These guys all go for it off of every jump. Whips, supermans and a sweet tuck no-hander 360 from the Euro Cannondale rider Chris Hatton, everyone was throwing down and the crowd loved it.

Once the demo was over Hampton and I were thinking that we should go on a fun little street ride and film a bit. We ended up having a huge gang of riders that came with and when we were riding one spot all the tourists and locals stopped what they were doing and came over to watch. There were so many people around that it blocked the streets at times. It was a good time.

We finished up the evening by going to the European premiere of the Collective. From what I could see, around and threw the backs of all the heads was that it seemed like is another good bike vid for add to the collection. We left that place out of the back balcony to hit up the town for some beer and crepes.

AC

Day 6

Today was supposed to be our last day in Les 2 Alpes. So we got up early and grabbed one of the new Cannondale Prophets and headed to the top of the World Cup DH course. We shot and rode our way down into the village. The course was wide open, fast and like every trail around this area. The views were amazing.

After the ride we had to pack up all of our stuff and check out of our room and jam into a van for a six plus hour drive to Switzerland. Our van ride through the Alps was awesome. We twisted our way thru another mountain stage from the Tour De France. Seeing these roads, with their steep and long the climbs, gave me a new appreciation for what the athletes in the tour have to endure. The quickest way to get to our destination in the Swiss Alps was to drive through part of northern Italy. It was cool to experience another country, even though it was only for a couple of hours in a van, but from what I saw, the country has its own unique look and few to it. I can’t wait to come back and spend more time in the Italian countryside. We hooked up with some Italian riders who threw out an open invitation for us to come and ride/shoot with them any time we wanted.

After an interesting and rather heated experience at the Swiss border (that experience is another long story and not worth getting into at this point) we arrived just before dark in a small ski resort village just outside of Chur, Switzerland. This is where Cannondale was hosting their global media camp for the new Prophet. They flew in magazine editors from all around the world to check out their new enduro bike. This bike is bad ass. It weighs 27.5lbs with 140mm of front and rear travel. Finally, somebody built a bike that is light enough to climb and burly enough to rip killer DH runs.

We checked into our hotel and went to bed early because the next day was going to be crazy!

DH

Day 7

The Swiss Alps are amazing! We had a great ride today on the new Cannondale Prophet endro bikes. We had to take two long tram rides to get to the top of one of the largest mountians that I have ever seen, much less try to ride down. Doug Dalton was our tour guide on this little adventure and assured Hampton and me that there was a trail down and if we hiked down some of the glacier sections then it would be possible to make the descent. The best part of all was that the new marketing guy at Cannondale, David Budd, came along for the ride. None of us knew that this was his first ever-downhill ride, ever! He took it a few times as we descended the nine thousand foot mountain, but all-in-all he did great and the ride goes down in the books, for sure. I was super stoked to be riding the new Cannondale Prophet enduro bike. It has the perfect balance of weight and suspension, it’s a fun bike that you just have to FEEL for yourself!

What better way to finish off a sick ride like that than to have a beer with everyone at the bar at the end of the day? Well, you know how that goes. By the time I knew it I was on shot number whatever, singing along to AC/DC and the girl behind the bar was pouring something flammable onto the counter and I put my hand in it. When she lit it, the bar and my hand were both on fire! It seemed like a great idea at the time... that’s because it was. It ruled!

AC

Day 8

Another early morning, but this was to be our last day in mountain biking heaven. We broke away from the group and Doug Dalton, AC and I were shuttled to the top of this remote peak. The idea for this ride was to shoot POV shots with the helmet cam rig and get the Prophet in action. This ride turned out to be one of the most challenging rides of my life. We dropped in on some killer single track through cow pastures and the lush Swiss forest. After a few wrong turns and some steep hike and bike sections, we found ourselves on a section of singletrack that will go down as the most insane trail that we have ever experienced. The riding surface of the trail was only 8-10 inches wide. This narrow ledge of a trail was perched along a super steep hill that cut through the forest. There was a 100ft plus sheer drop off to the right that was laced with rocks and tress. At the bottom there was a raging mountain stream, and on the left side of the trail was a nearly vertical wall of dirt, rocks and trees. One wrong move and we would have been DEAD. Falling was not an option. We laughed our way through it and made it to the wide-open double track decent into the town of Chur.

After lunch we packed up our gear and hopped a train to Zurich. We had dinner at a small Italian restaurant with David Budd and some of the editors and writers from the world’s top magazines. After a few beers and exploring the nightlife of Zurich we called it a night since we had an early flight back to the states the next morning.

DH

Day 9

I am so fortunate to be able to go on such a rad trip like this one. Meeting good people and seeing your old friends, riding in different, unique places and just seeing the world is such an experience. I want to thank Cannondale for setting the whole trip up and making killer bikes for me to ride everywhere.

Thanks Cannondale

AC

I just want to thank Matt Mannelly, Jeff Mcguane, David Budd, Doug Dalton, Guillaume Koch, Jens Haug, Bill Rudell, Chris Dodman, David Zurcher and everyone at Cannondale for making this an awesome trip. I was stoked to be part of the crew and I can’t wait to do it again.

DH