In The art of the warSun Tzu said, “There is also opportunities in the midst of Chaos.” It is difficult to present a more demanding mindset than the next scenario:
You are on top of a glacier in the French Alps. There is a $ 10,000 mountain bike between your legs. You are elbow to elbow with almost a thousand other adrenaline junkies, staring at a black diamond ski slope covered with ice, rock, mud and snow. In just a few seconds you will start bombing the mountain of mountain – first winning one to the bottom.
Welcome to the controlled chaos called the Mega.
Imagine now: you’ve already won two. And on this day, from almost 1,000 extreme athletes, you win your third.
Meet Hugo Pigeon – Extreme Downhill Mountain Biking’s Mr. Olympia.
Hugo is a rock star in Europe. Almost nobody knows him in the US. But if you even have a single adrenaline receptor, this sport will suck you up. I first saw a clip on YouTube from another race, Mountain of Hellwhere a rider –not HUGO – Lastly started, passed a thousand riders and won. It was insane (Hugo was placed 2ND In that race, but he doesn’t recognize it, in the true Ethos of Ricky Bobby: “If you are not first, you are last”).
When looking for that guy I came across Hugo. His resume was equally impressive. The resident of Annecy, France, had won the mega valley three times in a row – no one else did that. This year is his goal to win both The mountain of hell and the mega valley in the same season. Another crown that nobody else wears.
If the goal is to show you something crazy that you have never seen before, we start here – at the top.
Not just fast, Hugo Pigeon Ius Tough as nails
A week after his last mega valley victory, Hugo entered a European cup race. He crashed, landed on his hand, broke the bone right under his thumb – and still won The race, shouting by hand.
“I broke my scafoid,” he told me, casually connected hand up. That is the bone where your handlebars are in. “It was really painful … but I ended. Then I went to the X -ray.”
He paused, clocked my reaction and laughed. “Yes, I am an Android.” It was hysterical in his fat French accent.
Just Another day In the life of a man who has built differently.
Hugo Pigeon is perhaps an Android
Duif is not only difficult – he is conditioned elite level.
Resting heartbeat? About 35 bpm. Ras Hartslag? More than 200 BPM – and he can hold it there for 45 minutes in a row. He trains 30-40 hours a week between the gym, the road and brutal mountain site.
When asked how he feels for a race, he didn’t pretend he was cool. “I’m scared,” he admitted. “The last hour I am nervous. But then I remind myself: I did this before. I can do it again.”
Then the horn blows and he is gone.
Nourish the machine
This man not only trains as a professional – he also eats like one. Duif Eat ROughly 3,000 calories per day, split into four meals, depending on his time in the saddle that day. On days when he is deep in training, his intake becomes even more insane. “I try to eat 90 grams of carbohydrates per hour on long journeys,” he says.
That is not a typo. That is how top athletes of top class roll.
Are staples: peanut butter, avocados, olive oil, clean proteins and complex carbohydrates. But during racing preparation, he cuts vegetables and goes directly for fuel.
He is lean and calls in: on 5’9 ″ and 141 pounds), pigeon, no grams of useless tissue occupied his grated frame.
His bike is also almost indestructible
Pigeon drives a customized carbon fiber and Enduro Beast of almost $ 12,000. It features SR Suntour -suspension and bomb -resistant rims that can inhibit under mega valley conditions.
“It is similar to what you can buy in a bicycle shop,” he says, “but cheaper bicycles would not survive this. I don’t drive what you couldn’t buy or build – but it’s expensive.”
No matter how good his equipment is, it still breaks, just like riders, while he holds his connected hand up again and bursts what has become a very cordial and contagious smile.
The following goal: Double Crown
Hugo has already done what nobody else has – three mega valleers in a row. Now he wants more: Win both Mountain of Hell and MegaValanche in the same year.
Nobody has ever done that.
He has six weeks to heal. The Scaphoid will hardly be restored. That bone is exactly where the impact strikes. And right?
“I will make up for it,” he says.
That is why a quote from Sun Tzu becomes so relevant. “Never fight a battle that you can’t win.” It is clear that Hugo reads the book.
When it comes to bombing a glacier – either intact or with a shattered hand, the money is still on Master Duif.
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