User:Mosesintheflesh/Megavalanche

Megavalanche (nicknamed "Mega") is a downhill mountain bike race held annually at the Alpe D'Huez ski resort in the French Alps, and in the city of Saint-Paul on the French island of Réunion, east of Madagascar. The Alps event, being the more widely publicized and famous among downhill cycling enthusiasts, starts on the glaciated summit of the Pic Blanc and descends to the valley bottom at Allemont, a total of over 2,600 vertical meters and a 20 km distance.

The enduro race is known for its fast speeds and winding turns over varying terrain, with hundreds of riders descending the mountain at once. Despite the inherent dangers, injuries have been reported to be modest, and the race is less dangerous that it may seem to outsiders. The course is designed to slow the riders down around tight curves and the width of the glacier at the race's start line allows the riders to spread out.

History
The Megavalanche race was the creation of mountain bike pioneer George Edwards, who was involved in creating some of the first downhill tracks in Europe. The first race, held in 1995, saw 400 riders in attendance. The race has been managed by Edwards since its inception, and is organized by his company, UCC.

The 2007 race saw a significant increase in participants from outside France, likely driven by an increase in press coverage of the event. The 2013 race saw 2000 riders in attendance from over 30 countries.

On November 11, 2018, Edwards issued a statement notifying participants that the 2018 Réunion Mega race was cancelled. He stated UCC race organizers had "taken note of the prefectural orders not to authorize the organization of the event", due to the Yellow Vest protests taking place across France.

 

Megavalanche organizers announced in 2018 a series of races entitled the 'European Mass Start Series', including the Megavalanche race, and other races dubbed 'Maxiavalanches ' using the same mass-start format, to take place in 2019. The winner of the series' races will receive travel, accommodations and entry fees covered for the Reunion Island Megavalanche race.

 

Race Format
Since 2014, the format of the event follows three main days:


 * Practice - Lifts and courses are open and free to anyone with a race plate. Riders are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the course.
 * Qualifying - Riders run qualifying races consisting of six heats of about 250 riders. The resulting qualifier times are broken down into starting lines designated by a letter, with 'A' being the front.
 * Race Day - The top 25 riders from each Qualifier start the race. The following 25 from each qualifier then race in a similarly mass-started event called the 'Megavalanche Challenger'. Any riders outside these two categories are grouped into the 'Megavalanche Amateur', and the two 'Affinity' groups 1 and 2 where they can start at any time after the first two mass start races. Riders' times are recorded automatically by transponder chip.