THE 'PERFECT' MTB WAS A BIG MISTAKE...URBAN DOWNHILL FAIL!

I'm out in town of Laidu Alps, it's got an urban downhill race and we're about to drop into the qualities any second, hopefully I make it into the finals and after that we've got best trick and a full day of shredding on this amazing mountain. Let's get into qualifications. 2, 1, go! Whoa! Pedal strike! Pushing it too hard, I need to relax and actually be fast. Come on, oh this bit's so slow. Oh, get this bit good. Oh, that's fun. Yeah! Survived. Oh, I've got a punny. Look, into the finish. It was going down, it wasn't fully flat. Let's see what my time was. 9th. That was a lot of pedalling. Now it's just a fun waiting game to see if I can qualify. I'm not sure it's going to happen, we've got loads of fast guys left. I'm in 11th, 6 seconds off the top guys. Wow, those guys are fit. Here we go, I'm back at the top after that poorly run. Whether it was the flat tyre, my skill level, or did I make a mistake bringing my small trick bike. This Canyon Torque's been set up with a 26 inch rear and 27 front, which made it fairly skitty on the stairs and stuff, but I thought it might have been easier in the tight turns. I'm not like a racer, my fitness isn't that good at pedalling. I'm like, my goal in life is to not pedal in between jumps. Let's go and find out. I don't think I can possibly qualify with that score I had, so let's check. And then, if I didn't, we've already done a best trick yesterday where I may have won. Let's go and have a look. Right, I just noticed I didn't qualify. I'm blaming you because you're the only other English guy. I'm going to destroy you. Look, I've pre-put your face into this thing so I can throw these discs at you. Oh, in the face. Oh, in the forehead. Right, let's go and look at the best trick footage. Right, it's time for best trick. We've got the bike set up without the front brake on. That's how I normally ride the Torque, and it's going to be well fun. So it's this top section of the urban race where we're doing the best trick sesh. Yeah. Yes, bro. Oh, they love flip no-handers here. It's actually a pretty weird jump to do tricks on. Super flat and long. You've got to pull hard for backflips. This kid next to me is going to get one stomped, though. Your go for it, yeah? Yeah, come on. Come on, baby. Yeah, bro. Look at that rain. That's such a tight jump to trick on. Cheers. Big train. Boys are in for a bit of a train. So they're going to do one last run for the best whip. We're basically judging, aren't we? We're judging, yeah. Wow. Oh, that was good. Best whip winner. Huge group ride coming up now. Look, massive squad. Oh, look. Ready for it, Billo? What on earth? Dusty, bumpy. Bill 26 in twill. Oh, my God. It's so sketchy with the shadows and the dust everywhere. Getting this fresh lift. Do some freeride lines, you ready? Yes. This lift is costing 180 million euros. Every cabin is... Half a mil every cabin, wow. 50 cabins on the queue. No way. Wow, right, Laurent, where are we off to? Yeah, we are in the Jandri and we are going for a freeride chase. And we have there the crack, we call it the crack. It appears two years ago, it was maybe 20 centimeters wide before and the water go into it and now it's huge enough to ride it. Here we go, up in freeride paradise. Oh, my God, it's dusty. Immediately dusty. Oh, my God. Wow. Yo, oh, avalanche. Freeride. Oh, my God. My brake totally stopped. It disappeared completely, that's so scary. Right, we've cut forward in time now in the video because you saw in the last clips that my brake was fading and it just was terrifying to ride this bike. But it's all sorted. We've got a small group of four. And now it's rained, we can train down it. But we're going to have to rock, paper, scissors for it because we all want to go at the back to get the cool shot. So we're all going to have to rock, paper, scissors. One, two, three, shoot. Okay, I'm out. We're both out. So then it's just between you two and then you beat me, right? Yeah. So then you're at the back if you want and then you two choose who goes in front. And I'm third. I'll go front. Oh, sick. There we go, done. Okay, then. Dropping. In we go. Oh, it's dusty. Oh, no. Oh, it's so dusty. Oh, it's hard to see. Oh, it's so scary with the dust. Yes, boys. No way. What on earth? That dust was crazy, yo. That was sick. So scary, actually. Nice one for leading that. It was scary, weren't it? Because you're like, wow, I'm getting quicker and I can't see. I'm getting less vision. Sketchy line there. Thumbnail. Here we go. Taking up the... Oh, no. Oh, we immediately can't see. I'm going to let them go a bit. Okay, it doesn't look as bad. Right, this is a sick track. It's like super steep, though. This is one of the many illegal freeride runs. Well, not illegal, but homemade. Wow. It's still dusty. I left quite a gap. Oh, where's this go? Oh, my God. That's sketchy, that bit. Foot come off. What on earth is this? I'm going slow. I can't see where the turn is. Where am I going? Dead straight. Oh, it's not even going to look dusty on the GoPro. Wow. That was terrifying. When you just can't stop. Let's watch these guys come down. Oh, yo. Yo. Oh, that was lovely. Yo. Oh, that's a sick one. Nice. I'm back from France, and it's time to clean the bike on that last sesh. I've absolutely covered it. It's full of dust, and if we leave it too long, it's going to get in all the bearings and stuff. So, Motul dropped some new stuff here. We got the bike wash. This is in a way bigger bottle now, so it's going to last longer. And we're just going to spray it on. As much as this is actually me advertising something, I think this stuff's super good. So, at least give it a try once, and then you'll see for yourself how well it's working. So, we'll leave that five minutes. But while that's doing that, Motul finally made a load of stuff to clean with. I love this one. Look at that. You can, like, get in the shower with it. Yeah, we got all the brushes, drive train cleaning stuff, and this little double head thing, which is good for your chain and all the bits you can't reach. Well, we've left it long enough now. Let's get brushy with it. I'm just going to spray off the bike first, like this. Doesn't need any pressure. Easy. I'm just going to wet the little brush. And then, especially good in hose pipe bands like we're in, because you don't have to leave the hose running for ages and get arrested for leaving it running. Yeah, that's actually dreams. Right, we're going to do a little spray off now after that brush sesh. I'm just going to get the bike upside down and get deep into the drive train. This bike's not going to know what's hit it. It's been so clean. That's it. Look, nooks and crannies. Cleaned. Flip it back. Wipe it off. After the bike clean, I'm just going to do a bit of brake clean here. Massive pot of it. Well, good. You just sort of dab it on. It's powerful enough to just rip through all the oil and whatever is on your disc. And then we just... I mean, you guys know. You spray it on, wipe it off, and it makes stuff clean. But it is an amazing choice. And then, dry lube. There you go. Bike's fully mowied up. If you want to get some, links in my description. Definitely worth investing in that sort of stuff because it makes your bike last longer. And as for that racing, I wish I'd qualified. I don't think I'd put full effort in knowing that I went there for the best trick and then won that. So then the next day, I was like, oh, okay, let's try. I think I'm going to blame the woman that was pushing the push chair in the line. So I lost some seconds there. And the puncture might have slowed me down. Who knows? You guys can decide. And also, the best trick was fun, but the setup there was pretty strange. So I ended up only needing to do backflips, which was pretty cool. Did all the combos possible on that bike on that kind of jump. See you in the next one. Disco!