If you’re thinking another year is passing, you’re not getting any younger and you still haven’t been to the Alps, read on.

I picked up mountain biking in my late 30’s and over the past 12 years with mates in the area have covered end to end the well-known mountains* in North Hampshire pretty much every weekend. *OK, Caesers Camp, Minley and infrequently Swinley & Tunnel Hill. Annual 3-4 day trip to various trail centres in the UK over the past 8 yrs (Afan, Brechfa, Glentress/Innerleithen, Coed y Brenin) and the odd day trips west to Afan have improved ability in the XC area, even if I still can’t do a manual. The rare Gorrick event undertaken locally was firmly in the 1 or 2 lap “fun” veteran class and by the end of these the word fun was definitely not springing to my mind. I should clarify we’ve no interest in downhill, full-face helmets, storm trooper body armour or maximising time in the air. However turning 50 last Dec (and a present of a Canyon Nerve XC 9.0) brought the “it’s now or never” thought into my mind, so the passport was dusted off and planning began for a week in the Alps this summer. An open invitation to my Farnborough/Fleet mtb mates resulted in one other willing participant and fellow Canyon Nerve owner, step forward Martin and take a bow.

So two 50yo’s, reasonable/good fitness, excellent eyesite (with varifocal help), used to between 2 and 4 hrs (me) on a MTB at weekends ((definitive MAMILs? Ed)) tackle the Alps. What could go wrong?

Pre-training was just the odd extra ride, well there was no free local oxygen chamber and no point peaking too soon. I did post the question “kneepads yes or no?” on this esteemed forum and as a result a pair of POCs were ordered. BikeVillage (BV) were chosen as a suitable MTB company given the overriding concern (no downhill) and it was decided to drive rather than rely on our bike reassembly knowledge ((saddle post? Ed.)) that a flight would involve.

Journey was a simple, if long, doddle. French motorways are a delight after the usual south-east England daily log-jam and we arrived in Landry c.8PM. The other 10 guests were already there eating their evening meal and wine (things were looking up as I was worried about being surrounded by alcohol-free, fitness fanatics) together with a couple of the guides Callum & Justin, Zoe (cook) and Lyndsey (wife of Sam, BV boss). A warm welcome, suitably replenished and a very rough idea that we hadn’t made a big mistake, I had to raise the elephant in the room question and ask “who’d be wearing pads tomorrow?”. The bunch from Cornwall, solo guy Gwynn and 2 mates (fittest blokes Mike & Steve) all answered the same. 11 v 0 for no pads. Heyhoo. Still trying to understand what a BV regular Gwynn’s comment “you’ll have mastered switchbacks by the end of the week” meant (what’s a switchback?) the sack was hit in preparation for Sunday.

Sunday breakfast involved the densest porridge Ive ever consumed. Certainly helped to lower my centre of gravity – thanks Zoe. Before the 9:30 cycle-off Sam gave us a general chat on what the day would entail and altho’ Im sure there were no exact figures mentioned his final comment about “at this altitude its beneficial to breath with all your lungs” (Eh, whats that about?) kept the mind busy.

We all cycled off at the same time and encountered the first of many wild alpine meadows whilst on a downward trajectory. Good weather, fresh air, no pads (yeah, peer pressure) all was well. 1,000m of uphill later the feeling was more mixed. We had stopped several times on the way up. A mixture of fire road, single-track and road (alleluia) and the faster riders had disappeared uphill with one of the guides, but boy was that bloody hard work and sod trying to breathe properly whilst cycling with a camelback, breathing at all was the more relevant issue. On the other hand we’d climbed 1,000m! In one day. (Actually way less than 24 hrs however my Suunto watch for some reason didn’t keep the stats of that memorable day). That was something Ill never forget. And it was all* downhill now.

*Its never quite always downhill in the Alps, there’s always an uphill bit in there somewhere. Just like traverses almost always go up. Callum and Justin “speak” took a while to learn the idiosyncrasies.

Anyhoo, its fair to say the uphill was but a distant albeit bad memory once we’d got back to the chalet/mansion. By that time I certainly knew what a switchback was and my brake pads had been worked harder than ever before. And the graze on my knee (pads, who needs them?) following one of several offs wasn’t too bad. The guides had been brilliant and everyone had had a day to remember. The meal and medicinal wine was wolfed down and decisions on whether to take the uplift (minibus & trailer) the rest of the week, cutting out 600-800m of climbing, were a given for the majority.

The rest of the week? Still hard work but great fun with a super bunch of people. Martin & I may have been in the 3rd group who took some slightly easier shorter routes but we still learnt a lot from Sam, Callum, Justin & Tom from BV and enjoyed superb views. Even learnt , early on, which side of the bar the front brake was on (cheers Callum)…. Their enthusiasm was infectious. And altho’ I wore the kneepads for all the err… non-downhill downhill bits, they were never called into action and subsequently eBay’d.

So if you’re knocking on and are wondering whether to give the Alps a go, if you can cope OK with the red UK MTB centre trails the answer undoubtedly is “Yes”. Fitness also improved leaps and bounds even tho’ our group was accused by BV of polishing off the largest weekly volume of the rather nice local red wine. Well it was free!

And Im sure the hernia Ive now got was nothing to do with it!!

Keith Shapley

If you’re thinking another year is passing, you’re not getting any younger and you still haven’t been to the Alps, read on.

Nice write up sounds like a good time was had, might be hope for me yet!

I hope to still be biking well into my 50s – couldn’t imagine not doing so.

I know people who’ve only just taken it up in their mid-50s and who love it as much as me.

Great story and I’m glad you’re having fun. Now what size wheels do you have?

Bike Village are a great bunch and the riding from the door is spectacular.

Re tmb467
And not 1 mention of a dropper post either.
26 & no.