DC’s Area 43: Chalet Diary
After riding for a few hours, we
descended upon Jack’s bar for some
good old fashioned Après drinking,
before heading back for some more
beers and pizza at the chalet. I’d like
to say that I spent the night enjoying
everything that Méribel and the chalet
had to offer, but the reality is, I was
shattered and headed straight to bed
after dinner. Day two was going to be
even better.
Waking up in a wooden Chalet
surrounded by snow in the French
Alps is a memory I will never forget,
but what made it even better was
coming down to one of the best
breakfast spreads I’ve ever seen.
Yogurt, pastries, cold meats, cereal,
muesli, alpine bars and eggs cooked
three ways. This was a true ‘if
Carlsberg did Breakfast’ moments.
A fresh pot of coffee filled the
downstairs with the smell of morning.
There was a real buzz throughout
the chalet as everyone got ready
for a day’s riding. Sam Turnbull was
promising some fun lines for the day
so I decided to try and keep up with
him.
We headed straight up to Area 43,
which we lapped for most of the
morning between sipping some
Jägermeister. This wasn’t the easiest
thing to do, not only because the
DC UK riders are incredibly skilled
at what they do, but it was also
minus 17 degrees C. At one point my
moustache was completely frozen
and I had ‘snotcicles’ hanging from
my nose. We stopped for lunch but
struggled to eat our burgers with
either frozen hands or gloves on. I
have never been anywhere colder in
my life and I can only thank DC for
providing some extremely technical
trousers and jackets that kept me
warm. With minus 23 forecast for the
night time, we decided to call it after
lunch and head down to the chalet to
defrost in front of the fire while some
of the team cooked up a banging
spaghetti Bolognese. u