We’re out there for a couple of weeks in May/June this year. Can’t wait…but we keep being told to get uplifts/shuttles and/or guiding booked up ASAP. Can anyone share their experience or recommendations?

Bit of internetting has thrown up a few leads:

riviera bike (few STW mentions – mixed experiences)
ride extreme
molini freeride
finalé freeride

Anyone comment on these or have any other leads?

Mucho apreciado. 🙂

I’ve been to Finale a couple of times and only had a morning’s uplift over about 10 days riding there. To be honest, I preferred just taking my time spinning up (mainly quiet switchback smooth roads) rather than driving up, which still takes 20 mins or so. Its a good mix of quiet riding up with some pretty focussed descents!

We stayed with Just Ride and they’re great – they will do guided rides and they know the place back to front. http://www.justridefinale.com/?page_id=98 They can also arrange uplifts.

There’s great riding close to the town itself (stages 2 (which is bonkers) plus 3 and 4 of the 2013 superenduro ) but better routes a little bit further inland (stage 5 from 2013 and 2 and 3 from 2012 – still easily rideable from Finale itself. You can probably find all these on strava –

I absolutely love the place – the riding is amazing, friendly place, good cheap food.

Everything Pedroball said! I have GPX files for 2012 Superenduro and 2013 EWS final if you want them. As has been said, PS2 is off the chain lunacy, total madness. You’ll love Finale!

Cheers fellas 😀

I’ve found the Superenduro files but if you could mail me the EWS one/s that would be excellenté. Email in profile. Ta.

Any more for any more?

No worries – the superenduro and the EWS are one and the same.
Here’s a map of 2013 one.
http://www.vitalmtb.com/news/press-release/Enduro-World-Series-2013-Final-Round-Finale-Ligure-Course-Preview,887

You could spend two days doing the 2012 and 2013 routes and you would only do two trails twice – stop off for beer, food and espresso lunch in Final Borgo or the main square. A day a bit further inland from Finale, where the trails get a bit wilder apparently

That would give you some fun days on the bike…

Take a full face for the descents – its rock, rock and more rock, at speed.

Try out Gnabbri Trattori just off the main square, behind the cathedral for a time warp meal. And the ice cream in the main square.

It’s definitely worth booking some time with the uplift folks as it’s relatively cheap and will show you a lot of stuff you can ride after alone if you wish easily. finale freeride are great from my trip.

I had three days of uplift with finale freeride last summer. Highly recommended. One day on their classic tour which is pretty steep, rocky and loose. Two days on the defender tour were some of the best riding i have ever had. Fast flowy trails that can be ridden superfast.

The guides are great and the owners are cool and relaxed. You stop for lunch at local restaurants in small villages for great food. I couldn’t recommend it highly enough.

One caveat is that they are pretty downhill/freeride focussed. I would have preferred something bigger than my zesty for the classic tour. It was spot on for the defender tour.

I’ve just got back from Finale and absolutely loved it! Some of the best downhills that I’ve done, very technical, rocky descents.

I did uplifts with Ride Extreme and they were excellent. Really impressed that we got 6 maybe 7 dh runs in each day, plus the fact that they showed us multiple different trails around Finale each day.

I have only good things to say about Ady (nasher) and Jo and Riviera, in Molini. Whilst it is possible, you would waste so much time flogging 1000m up the forest roads to access each trail. Get some uplift.

Thanks again for all the advice. Did any of you guys book in advance? Deffo gunna do lifts/shuttles/whatnot, just trying to find out if i need to book in advance??

I’m Ady, from rivierabike, you definately need to book in advance, especialy in Finale as it gets very busy. Also try Calizzano and Nava some ace riding there. If u need info drop us a line. Ciao

I’ve been going to the Italian Riviera every year for a few years now and I agree with everything here – its got to be some of the best riding in Europe right now. I stayed at Finale Freeride as a guest in 2010 in one of their 1970’s caravans (a good cheap way to stay in town – check with Silvia if you need accommodation) and ended up doing quite a few weeks of guiding over the next couple of years.

May is definitely the busiest month but it drops off pretty quick into June so you may have better luck with shuttles. The place is huge with German speakers and they tend to come down in groups and book out shuttles. If there’s just a couple of you it may be hard to get on one but its always worth saying hello to Silvia and Mark and leaving your number – they get quite a few cancellations most mornings.

If you’re riding up then there are 4 enduro style trails up in San Bernadino which are easy to find and take you back into town. About a 250m climb on tarmac with a nice bit of singletrack at the end. If you’re going to climb all the way to the NATO base or Cafe Din where the shuttles drop you then check out the Isalo Ecstasy or Crestino trails as they are more all mountain-y and you get more bang for your buck for the 1000m road climb you just did.

Other trails close to town worth doing are Brigga, Caprazoppa (the mental stage 2 – don’t do it in the wet!) and Noli (the only good trail down to the sea).

BUTTTT! as swj77 says the Defender tour is what you really want to get onto. With a modern 6 inch bike you can rip the open corners like no other place I’ve been to. The trails have been built by Finale Freeride in the last couple of years, largely on their family’s land so the trails don’t get ridden out like in Finale. Its quite a long way inland but the Bormida and Osiglia valleys are absolutely beautiful. If you need to make up numbers to get a tour going maybe approach some randoms in town, I think you need 6 or 7 for the tour to run.

Definitely take a full face and run something like the Specialized SX / Schwobbly super gravity / EXO case tyres as the terrain is super rocky and you save a few hundred grams over a full DH casing.

If you have some shuttle assist Finale has maybe four days of riding before you start to repeat everything. With 2 weeks I would definitely spend, if possible, half your holiday up in Molini with Ady and Jo. The riding is so different but just so insanely good. 1000m vert runs through the trees are all over the place. The valley sides are steeper than the more rolling coastal mountains so you tend to get Alpine/Spanish style switchbacks rather then fast open corners but there are still loads of places you can get loose. The valley Molini and Triora are in is stunning too, just dense forest as far as you can see, up until the alpine at about 1600m. The bar in Molini closes when you leave. If you’re with Rich the guide this is at 4am. Agrifolio is one of the best trails I’ve ever ridden and the immediate valley has maybe 20 other great ones. For singletrack descents its way better than a place like Morzine and its why people keep going back.

AHH what am I doing in London all summer I’m getting excited just thinking about the place!

+1 for Sylvia and Mark at Finale Freeride, lovely folks, lovely place, and they have some of their own exclusinve trails that other companies don’t. (edit – yeah, the “Defender tour” mentioned above, it’s lovely flowy stuff

Unfortunately I think the caravans are no longer available – they were great, and cheap, and you just rolled out of them and onto the uplift, was great.