# Roc d' Azur Tandemrace 2010



## aka1972 (Sep 22, 2005)

Hello,

here is some cool footage from this year's Roc d' Azur Tandem Race.
218 finish the quite technical race.

http://www.rocazur.com/interactif-vtt/phototheque-roc-azur-10.php?dir=epreuves-roc-tandems-2010

Check out this video:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xfakbr_rocdazur-ours-samedi-09-10-2010_sport?start=28#from=embed

R,
Andi.


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## de lars cuevas (Jun 19, 2006)

awesome!


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## PMK (Oct 12, 2004)

Pretty cool, but where are the brave female stokers. We all know that keeping them cool on rides like this adds to the challenge. Well at least sometimes.

PK


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## TandemNut (Mar 12, 2004)

aka1972 said:


> Hello,
> 
> here is some cool footage from this year's Roc d' Azur Tandem Race.
> 218 finish the quite technical race.
> ...


Yeah, I was looking at that earlier this week. Wonder why we can't get a turnout of that size here in the US?
Sea Otter would probably be the closest, but it's geographically impractical for lots of folks. I know that the concentration of tandems is greater in Europe, but it sure seems like we could get a comparable turnout for some event here.
Of course, the majority of teams racing tandem in the US are life parners/significant others off the bike, where the roster for Roc does not appear to reflect that same mix. If that's the case, for sentimental purposes, I prefer the US approach...


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## aka1972 (Sep 22, 2005)

There where 112 Mixed Teams that finished, so the ratio is about 50:50.
Concentration of tandems in europe is greater than in the US?
There are only few MTB tandems around where I live in Germany.

But I heard about a large MTB Tandem racing scene in France, and the video seems to proof that!
Here in Germany is is quite hard to meet more than three tandems at a race.


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## TandemNut (Mar 12, 2004)

aka1972 said:


> There where 112 Mixed Teams that finished, so the ratio is about 50:50.
> Concentration of tandems in europe is greater than in the US?
> There are only few MTB tandems around where I live in Germany.
> 
> ...


I haven't reviewed the entrant details, but I believe lots of those participants are from other countries besides France. 
If it's a 50/50 makeup, then yearh, that's a higher percentage of non-mixed teams than one would typically see here. That could be because as folks get more serious about racing a tandem, they may well be more likely to team up with another serious rider, as opposed to their SO's (no offence meant to the SO's who are also serious riders).
Bottom line is that there's something pretty special about Roc that I'd sure like to figure out so we could get similar results here. Talk about spreading the Tandem MTB Gospel!

I would certainly think the concentration is greater in Europe, based on a few factors:
Tandems (as with all bicycles) are considered as a more legitimate means of transport in most Eurio countries, and are granted more respect from drivers and more infrastructure to accomodate them. 
Also, based on population density, and looking at our past sales in Europe, the only geographical area where we've sold a greater # of tandems for a given population is one of the wester US states. Since the frame we sold the most of, the Ventana, is now handled by Euro distributors, we don't see those sales much any more, but I understand that sales of the ECDM are still quite strong there, and growing. 
Additionally, there are (or were) at least 2 or 3 bicycle brands that offered tandem mtb's in Europe, vs 1.5 (Cannondale) here in the US. It would seem that there must be a market there for the companys to offer such a product.
FInally, since touring and vacationing on bicycles is much easier there, I would suspect that contributes to more tandems being present.
Now my opinion is based on Europe as a whole, not any individual country there. No offense inteded of course, I compare the wester European countrys to the US states as far as proximity and population density.


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