I want to know which trails are recommended in the area. Obviously the one with the crashpads strapped to the trees is top of the list. Can anyone tell me which trail it is, and recommend any other from those listed here?

Anyone?

The trails with the pads on are the Maupuy DH runs which I can’t see on that list which is for circuits only by the looks of it. There’s a red and a blue run that both start from the same place at the top of the hill by the antennae. Easy to find by parking by the plan d’eau de Courtille where there is a big map and riding up the fire road. great fun, enjoy!

Thanks, will do. Hope to do them a few times and some of the XC loops too over the holiday.

Its been at least 5 years since I’ve MTBd round there, I’d be interested in hearing your findings.

Well didn’t get down to Guéret nearly as much as I hoped due to bad cough and rain in the first week, and there was a doorstep loop I wanted to do a couple more times as I quite enjoyed it. Eventually got down to Guéret on the Thursday and Friday of the 2nd week with not especially fresh legs.

First on the agenda was Route 14 with BIL, found it a bit disappointing in terms of singletrack – the sections ended just as I was getting into them and were sandwiched inbetween road sections. Don’t get me wrong, it was an ok ride and there were a few entertaining bits but definitely felt like I was missing out on much better routes in the area. Took us a fair while to get round it, so I had to abandon my plans for the DH runs afterwards.

Went back the next day to do the DH runs. Actually I wanted to combine them with an XC loop of some sort. Had downloaded a route from Strava and was following the line on the Garmin but was convinced I should have been riding down the trail I was struggling to ride up so abandoned the route altogether and just aimed to get to the top by the antennae.

On the way up got diverted by a nice section of Route 16. Then near the top found some more singletrack and just followed it for a bit until returned to a vaguely familiar section of fireroad again.

Eventually got to the top and found the start of the DH sections, and opted for the Green run as I didn’t have any protective clothing other than an XC/trail lid.

The green DH run surprised me, not sure what I was expecting (a family DH trail!?) but it was well within my comfortzone. So I decided to give the Blue run a cautious ride… one of the trails with the crash pads wrapped around the trees.

Almost instantly felt underdressed for the occasion, almost needing a nappy to be honest, but I stayed on the bike and the trail, and got down in one piece and definitely decided to go back to the car park, find some food and get fed and get the full-face and knee/elbow pads on.

The second run of the Blue DH was slightly less scary, did it slightly faster, enjoyed it, it is fun, and felt better for having the full-face and pads on. I avoided all the larger jumps, did the smaller ones. To me it was quite a full-on trail. Took about 4minutes to get down.

Was hesitant to do the Red after, the Blue was a big step-up from the Green, so it was slightly worrying how much more intense the Red would be after the Blue… But I needn’t of worried. In one section it felt a bit tamer than the Blue. Was pleased to clear the drop at the end – the speed I was going gave no option 🙂

Felt to drained to ride all the way up again. Wanted to. Wanted to ride some of the more XC routes round there too. Too tired.

Obviously not the Alps. Both runs took me around 4 minutes. Uplift would be nice! It was pretty warm that day. Found the DH runs pretty full-on, I’ve not really done much DH before, only a few days in Les-Arcs last year.

There were a few sections on the Blue and Red where it was pretty unclear where to go and I made the same mistake twice on the Blue. It looked like something had chewed it all up, maybe dirt bikes or heavy rain fall or both.

I’d say it’s definitely worth going if you’re in the area.