For the third round of the Enduro World Series in 2014 the racing returns to enduro's spiritual home - the high, French Alps. While Valloire may not hold quite the same place in the history of the sport as Val D'Allos where the original Tribe 10,000 was held, it is still one of the original venues for the original French races. They have been racing enduro here for a decade on the 1,000m slopes that surround the town.
If you're wondering why you haven't seen a practice post from the race, the simple answer is that there isn't any. Since 2013 French enduro racing has softened slightly, giving riders a untimed run down each track before they hit them at race speed. Until then, there was no practice at all and when you look over the rugged, unforgiving mountains, you understand how real this sport can be - hitting these tracks blind and at full-speed is an intimidating, if beautiful, experience. There are no flow trails here, no sculpted lines - it is a race course of jagged rock, steep forest and terrifyingly narrow and fast goat ruts. Although the first run down each track is now untimed, what hasn't changed is the sheer amount of descending - over the two days of racing competitors will face 10,000m of vertical drop, with 6,000m of that against the clock. These are the roots of enduro, this is where the sport was born and now, ten years later, the racing is set to be more exciting than ever.