45°5′43″N 6°4′13″E / 45.09528°N 6.07028°E / 45.09528; 6.07028 (Megavalanche Alpe d'Huez)^[1]

Megavalanche

Alpe d'Huez and Le Bourg-d'Oisans from Pic Blanc, the start of the Mega Avalanche
Race details
Region	French Alps and Réunion
Nickname(s)	Mega
Discipline	Mountain-biking, downhill
Type	Two-day, mass-start
Organiser	UCC
Race director	George Edwards
Web site	www.ucc-sportevent.com/en/megavalanche-alpe-dhuez-en
History
Editions	28 (as of 2024)
Most wins	Rémy Absalon (FRA)
Most recent	Hugo Pigeon (FRA)

Megavalanche (nicknamed "Mega") is a enduro mountain bike race held annually at the Alpe d'Huez ski resort in the French Alps since 1995, and annually on the island of Réunion.

The Alps event, being the more widely publicized and famous among downhill cycling enthusiasts, starts on the glaciated summit of Pic Blanc in Huez and descends to the valley bottom at Allemond, for a total of over 2,600 vertical meters (8530 feet) and a 20 km (12 miles) distance.

The mass-start race is known for its fast speeds and winding turns over varying terrain, with hundreds of riders descending the mountain at once. Famously, racers are allowed to progress down the mountain by any reasonable means, and riders often cut corners and walk their bikes for extended periods of time. Many other enduro races have similarly lenient course guidelines. Despite the inherent dangers, officials state that injuries are modest, and that the race is less dangerous than 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.^[2]

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.^[2] The race has been managed by Edwards since its inception, and is organized by his company, UCC. The exact route of the course may change from year to year, depending on terrain and weather conditions, taking riders between 20 minutes to over 1 hour to complete, but on average lasts 35-50 minutes.

The 2007 race saw a significant increase in participants from outside France, likely driven by an increase in press coverage of the event.^[3] The 2013 race saw 2000 riders in attendance from over 30 countries.^[2]

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 vests protests taking place across France.^[4][5]

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.^[6][7][8]

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

• Practice Day - Lifts and courses are open and free to anyone with a race plate. Riders are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the course.
• Qualifiers - 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 35 riders from each Qualifier start the Elite race on Sunday. The following 35 from each qualifier then race in a similarly mass-started event called the 'Megavalanche Challenger' on Saturday. Any riders outside these two categories are grouped into the 'Megavalanche Amateur' which starts after the Elite race on Sunday, and the 'Affinity' group where they can start at any time after the 'Megavalanche Challenger' on Saturday. Riders' times are recorded automatically by transponder chip.

Year	First place	Second place	Third place
1995	François Dola	Pascal Yen Pon	Guillaume Pallarès
1996	Fabrice Taillefer	Pascal Yen Pon	François Dola
1997	Fabrice Taillefer	Lilian Sergent	Olivier Guincêtre
1998	Samuel Peridy	Bruno Tschanz	Olivier Guincêtre
1999	François Dola	Samuel Peridy	Lionel Sequéra
2000	Alexandre Balaud	Olivier Guincêtre	William Balaud
2001	René Wildhaber	Alexandre Balaud	Karim Amour
2002	René Wildhaber	Alexandre Balaud	Olivier Giordanengo
2003	René Wildhaber	William Balaud	Samuel Peridy
2004	René Wildhaber	William Balaud	Alexandre Balaud
2005	Jérôme Clementz	Rémy Absalon	Franck Parolin
2006	Nicolas Vouilloz	René Wildhaber	Mickaël Pascal
2007	René Wildhaber	Tomas Misser	Gregory Doucende
2008	René Wildhaber	Rémy Absalon	Gregory Doucende
2009	Rémy Absalon	René Wildhaber	Nicolas Vouilloz
2010	Jérôme Clementz	Nicolas Vouilloz	Sam Blenkinsop
2011	Rémy Absalon	Jérôme Clementz	René Wildhaber
2012	Rémy Absalon	Nicholaus Lau	Dan Atherton
2013	Jérôme Clementz	Rémy Absalon	Dan Atherton
2014	Pierre Charles Georges	Thibaut Ruffin	Reon Boe
2015	Rémy Absalon	Thomas Lapeyrie	Yoann Barelli
2016	Rémy Absalon	Damien Oton	François Bailly-Maître
2017	Damien Oton	François Bailly-Maître	Martin Maes
2018	Damien Oton	Jose Borges	Nicolas Quere
2019	Jose Borges	Kilian Bron	Kevin Miquel
2020	Damien Oton	Gustav Wildhaber	Hugo Pigeon
2021	Stefan Peter	Kilian Bron	Alexis Chenevier
2022	Stefan Peter	Liam Moynihan	Olivier Bruwiere
2023	Hugo Pigeon	Damien Oton	Olivier Bruwiere
2024	Hugo Pigeon	Damien Oton	Olivier Bruwiere

Year	First place	Second place	Third place
1995	Nicolas Vouilloz	François Gachet	Patrick Boisvilliers
1996	Pascal Yen Pon	Christian Lemmerz	Samuel Peridy
1997	David Dijoux	Samuel Peridy	Guillaume Koch
1998	Patrick Boisvilliers	Frédéric Nauche	Jacky Séry
1999	Nicolas Filippi	Lionel Sequéra	François Dola
2000	Samuel Peridy	Pascal Yen Pon	Jacky Séry
2001	Steve Peat	Samuel Peridy	Jacky Séry
2002	Cédric Gracia	René Wildhaber	Alexandre Balaud
2003	Fabien Barel	René Wildhaber	Alexandre Balaud
2004	René Wildhaber	Fabien Barel	Olivier Giordanengo
2005	Rémy Absalon	René Wildhaber	Fabien Barel
2006	Nicolas Vouilloz	Rémy Absalon	Tomas Misser
2007	Nicolas Vouilloz	Rémy Absalon	René Wildhaber
2008	Rémy Absalon	Fabien Barel	René Wildhaber
2009	René Wildhaber	François Bailly-Maître	Franck Parolin
2010	Rémy Absalon	Nicolas Vouilloz	Nino Schurter
2011	Rémy Absalon	Julien Absalon	René Wildhaber
2012	Nicholaus Lau	Aurélien Giordanengo	Cédric Gracia
2013	François Bailly-Maitre	Jérôme Clementz	Rémy Absalon
2014	Rémy Absalon	Nicolas Quere	Alexis Chenevier
2015	Rémy Absalon	Alexandre Sicard	Théo Galy
2016	Rémy Absalon	Jérôme Clementz	Cédric Gracia
2017	Thomas Lapeyrie	Loris Vergier	Jean Max Laurestant
2018	Cancelled due to Yellow vests protests
2019	Damien Oton	François Bailly-Maître	Kilian Bron
2020	Cancelled due to COVID-19 Pandemic
2021	Hugo Pigeon	Alexis Chenevier	Stefan Peter
2022	Olivier Bruwiere	Antoine Vidal	Romain Payet
2023	Hugo Pigeon	Olivier Bruwiere	Léo Abella

• Official Site
• Race Results
• 2017 Megavalanche Official Movie (YouTube, UCC Sporting Event MTB)
• Megavalanche 2018 - Damien Oton Winning Run POV (YouTube, Damien Oton)