I’m going to Malcesine, Italy for a friend’s wedding in June. Although most of the time there will be taken up attending the wedding and also Wooing my better half, I’m planning to take a couple of days out and do some MTB riding.

I understand that the MTB trails around Malcesine are very good. So, I’d love to do some decent long descents (nothing mega gnarly, eg. no more than a UK hard red/easy black level technically).

– I’d love to have a decent guided ride for a couple of days, preferably with an uplift (use cable car at malcesine?) any recommendations of guides of guiding companies?

– Since it’s only for a day or 2, I probably won’t take my own bike. Any ideas where I can hire a decent quality AM-style MTB in Malcesine?

I won’t have a car with me, so would be looking to do some riding in the immediate area I guess.

Cheers,

We went on holiday to Lake Garda a couple of years ago and I’m sure there’s a bike hire shop just outside the entrance to the cable car at Malcesine. We were there at the end of May and went up Monte Baldo in the cable car. This was the scene at the top. 😯

image by Jeevester, on Flickr

Anatres – I’m going 2 weeks later in mid June, so it will be scorching hot by then !! 🙂

Wow, I saw that the terrain is fairly serious, but didn’t appreciate there may be significant snow in late May.

I think the bike shop you refer to is Xtreme Bikes. They do MTB rental according to their website. I guess at worst I could hire a bike, use the cable car and take one of the mid-grade routes down myself. Looking at some youtube videos it is busy in summer with MTB and there seems to be a good trail network coming down off the mountain with nearly a mile of vertical descent. Would prefer a guided ride if possible though.