Hold on for the ride - La Plagne gears up for Sochi
With La Plagne’s Olympic bobsleigh track and advisory ice-maintenance team going to Sochi, its Olympic freestyle event facilities insitu and eight Olympic hopefuls, inevitable excitement for the games in 2014 is mounting throughout La Plagne in the French Alps. Here’s the lowdown:
Olympic bobsleigh
International bobsleigh teams are currently training on La Plagne’s track, which was used for the Albertville Olympics in 1992. Under technical manager Alain Bessard, nine ice-experts maintain the track at La Plagne, and they have all been recruited by the Sochi Olympic organizers to ensure perfect ice preparation on the track.
La Plagne’s Bob Experience - three kinds of descent
Bob Raft - a self-piloted, self-braking vehicle for four passengers (see picture above) invented in La Plagne. Reaches 80km/h and costs €41/£34 pp. Special online Bob Experience deal for advance or Sunday bookings (14-years +).
Speed Luge - a bobsleigh and luge hybrid, unique to La Plagne, which offers one lone passenger a ride at 90km/h in a half-sitting, half-lying position. Costs €107/£89 pp (16-years +).
Bob Racing - the most similar experience to an Olympic descent. For three adult passengers sitting behind a professional driver. Reaches 120km/h and costs €115/£95 pp. Special online Bob Experience deal for Sunday bookings.
Olympic freestyle
Two Olympic freestyle events – ski cross and ski moguls – will be brought together again after Sochi at the Ski Cross and Moguls World Cup. Held each year at La Plagne, next year’s finals take place from 19-23 March. For the first time ever, the moguls competition will include a Big Air category which it is hoped, will attract younger competitors and a younger crowd.
Olympic ice-climbing
Featuring at Sochi for the first time as a cultural event at an Olympics, ice-climbing is likely to become a permanent competitors’ event at future winter Olympics. La Plagne hosts the 3rd stage (out of six) in the Ice-climbing World Cup on 31 January and 1 February, when approximately one hundred climbers from 25 countries compete in the ‘speed’ and ‘difficulty’ categories.
Olympic aspirations
Eight athletes from La Plagne could be chosen for six events at Sochi:
Kevin Rolland, ski half pipe – Four times X-Games Half Pipe Winner in 2010 and 2011 (twice in Aspen and twice in Tignes), Half Pipe World Champion in 2009 and 2011, King of Style in 2010, and Dew Tour Winner in 2011.
Benoît Valentin, ski half pipe – winner of the World Cup in 2011
Antoine Adelisse, slope style – age 16, last year’s French number three and achieved 5th place at the World Championships
Victor Bérard, slope style – current French champion
Julien Lizeroux, slalom – World Vice Champion in 2009
Brice Roger, alpine – despite being new to the World Cup circuit, finished 15th at the last World Championships
Loic Costerg, bobsleigh – heads up the only French team on the World Cup circuit. Currently the team is 19th in the world.
Morgane Bonnefoy, luge – currently 27th in the world
Sample La Plagne price: A week’s stay in La Plagne (la-plagne.com) costs from €255 pp/ approx. £216 pp (four sharing, January) in a four-person studio with a six-day La Plagne ski pass.
For further information, visit la-plagne.com.