Does anyone know if these guys are still going?
http://www.bikevillage.co.uk/

I sent them an email a couple of weeks ago, but I haven’t heard back from them yet…

Can anyone recommend any similar xc riding companies in Europe?

Still going strong. Great riding and great people, so I’d just give Sam another try…

Unless you love riding your mountain bike on the road, I would look elsewhere.

I’m currently wearing my BV t-shirt from last season 😉 may have even been there with Rod last summer…

Me and the lads are going with Alpine Elements to the Alps in June, they seem to put good deals on, we got weeks stay b+b evening meal, tea and cake 😀 for £199, BARGAIN!!!!!!!!!

Give them a try

I wouldn’t put it quite like that mikey. Fairer to say there’s a good bit of climbing on the road on the bigger days out. I don’t recall losing much of the hard-won 1500m of climbing on “Italian Job” anywhere other than on some lovely switchbacky singletrack.

I thought there was just as much road climbing with Ciclo Montana and AQR – and I’d unreservedly recommend both of them.

There is lots of road climbing to be done, why on earth would you want to ride that far up the singletrack? There are plenty of technical climbs on the trail! if thats not enough then try growbag backwards….

Second Mikey74!

Sorry, but I didn’t enjoy my trip with them at all. Loved the riding at Ciclomontana btw.

Can anyone recommend any similar xc riding companies in Europe?

We’re in the same region as the BV guys, check us out: The White Room

From what I hear, we do a lot less climbing than they do – more emphasis on spending our time on big singletrack descents, let the van/chairlifts take the strain. I know the BV guys ride some fantastic trails though, just depends how much you’re into the climbing side of things.

I have booked two weeks with Bike Village and going over in a couple of months, they are still going strong and still have great reviews !!

this’ll be my 6th year there… but still waiting for an email from them unfortunately. hopefully i can get it booked before i go away on an internship…

imo the climbing is great. i’d much rather earn my DHs to be honest, and the descents are just fantastic. more use of vans and lifts last year though, btw… certainly did less climbing anyway.

magic carpet, italian job, frozen heifer, all classics…
i to was wearing my BV t-shirt today 🙂

given that something like 60%+ of their guests are repeat guests, they must be doing something right…

if sam etc read this, tom from st andrews is keen to know availability for sept!

try sending the mail again,
I was there last week and they’re alive and well,as for the climbing a lot of the best singletrack isn’t really accessible using the lifts so you have to ride,although they do use van uplifts snd will probably be making more use of them this year even more so when lifts are closed in June and September

I wasn’t complaining about the amount of climbing, just the amount of climbing on the road. I worked out that in two weeks with them I climbed about 14500m and I would say that 80% of that was on the road – yes I do remember the excellent off road climb of the Italian Job, but that was the exception.

Personally I love climbing but that was just too much on a mountain bike, on the road.

Apologies for not returning your email bluewomble – I think our spam filter must have nabbed it by accident. I try to check but we’re currently at about 1000 a day so I miss a few. If you either send it again or call me on 0033 479 07 54 88 we can chat.
As for the climbing, there is a fair bit of it and sometimes it is quicker and easier to do it on the road. However, that isn’t much fun and that is why in 2008 we started using our van and new trailer much more and using our newer routes that use fire tracks and, where riders are up to/for it, singletrack on the way up. For anyone who came out 2 or more years ago, the riding (and the house) is very, very different – we do listen! The climbs are much more on trails and broken up by traverses and the van and chairlift kick starts help out a ton. Of course for those who like the pain then pedalling from the house is still always an option! If anyone hasn’t been totally happy with a trip I’d always offer a discounted future trip to show how we’ve addressed what they didn’t like. This especially applies to Woodsman as I know you didn’t get on here and (if I remember right) there are some good reasons for it – please do call/email me so I can explain what we’ve changed as a result of that season.
Having said that, we’ve got 120 bookings for this summer and 93 of those people are coming back for their second, third and in some cases 11th trip – nearly everyone loves BV and we keep on changing every year to make sure that stays the case.
And Hungry Monkey, I’ve sent 3 replies so I think your spam filter might be nailing our replies, I’ll forward them all again in a mo’ so be on the lookout!
Got some more new trails to show you this summer…

Hey BlueWomble, just got your new email and replied straight away – hope it’s come through!

That’s good news Sam. I may think about coming out again next year.

Cheers, we really do bust balls to evolve it every single year, I think (hope) regular BVers appreciate it and that’s a part of why they come back so often. That and Magic Carpet..;-)

having been 3 years ago and returning for the first time in a couple of weeks i can say im glad theres a bit more cheating on the climbs. i thought the descents were more than rewarding enough for the climbing we did but ive gotten lazy since then! i really like the way it felt like you were on holiday with your friends rather than my previous experience of guided riding which felt like we were causing them an inconvenience by wanting to ride when it was cloudy, not wanting to do the same ride twice etc. see you soon sam and co!

tom

Sam, appreciate your comments, have a great season.

Peter aka Woodsman

I’ve never made it too magic carpet 🙁

I went on a 2 week BV holiday last July/August along with 2 other friends. We all had a great time, so much so that we have booked again for this summer and are bringing along some more friends. In the past I have always had some concern over whether a guided holiday would be for me but I had a great experience. The set up at BV is very flexible and when I was there I would say that everyone was catered for with the choice of two daily rides. Often these rides would be essentially the same with one group starting from the house which often involved a lot of climbing (just what I wanted….) and the other group having some motorised assistance! I would also say that the standard of fitness of the guides is good, which is important.

What I enjoyed most about the holiday was that we barely saw any other riders on the trails, perhaps 10 others during our 2 weeks. I went away to ride in the mountains, not sit on chairlift all day and ride man DH tracks and berms as busy as a UK trail centre.

Of course I have now learnt that I should have said it was rubbish so that I got a discount this year!!

Sam is Silver Darling still about or has it eroded away? as I never got to ride that as last time I was with you my girlfriend broke her arm.

Cheers Woodsman, much appreciated. Do give me a shout sometime. As for you Will, I saw you smiling way too much so I know you loved it!!
See you this summer

1000 emails a day?

Hey Rich!
haven’t ridden Silver Darling in 2 years – there’s so much new stuff since you were last out that I never seem to get over there. Magic carpet, Canadian Granny, Sleepy Hippie, Big Cheese, new (again!) Frozen Heiffer, Scary Bear Trail etc etc. Still haven’t gotten any better at naming trails mind 😉
SigmaF – about 10 proper emails a day and 63 offers of cheap canadian medication in the last hour…

Magic carpet, Canadian Granny, Sleepy Hippie, Big Cheese, new (again!) Frozen Heiffer, Scary

need to show you my new find, “Sick-ane” (alternative, more TechniFlow[TM] version of Chicane)

http://www.powderanddust.com in Verbier are awesome. You need to be pritty good at technical singletrack to get the most out of it, but apart from that its amazing.

eh up Sam, it’s been a while, Sam from your Ed days here. Glad BV is still going strong. Hope the family are well. Maybe I’ll come out and ride soon….still havent managed them there Alps yet!

might try and head out with BV next year as I am booked up for this year, looking at the pictures makes me really want to get out to Les Arcs again.

Can’t recommend the BV crew enough, great riding and even better food!