I’m going to Carcassonne for 5 days riding in early Feb and want to bring the MTB. Does anyone have any info or guidebook recommendations? I won’t have a car so driving to the mountains won’t be possible. Please help, I don’t want to bring the road bike!

Cheers.

check this site http://www.utagawavtt.com/randonnee-vtt-gps and search under dept. Aude. There seems to be loads in the surrounding area. Also, the is a centre VTT at a village called Aragorn just east of Carcasonne with waymarked routes.

Check the train to the mountains. Bike are free to carry in all the TER connexions
Best

Try looking here…

http://www.catllar.com/joomla/

It’s the MTB club in and around Prades

Prades is miles away from Carcasonne.

sorry, it’s quite a few years since I was there

Adding nothing to the discussion but, I almost got forced to spend a year there in the French army. But that’s a story for another day.

I’d also recommend utagawavatt.

I have a guidebook VTT dans les Corbières et le Pays Cathare by Robert Parramon – but it’s pretty old (1996).

atlaz – ooh do tell.

No idea about the cycling, but what a lovely place it is.

Won’t a lot of it still be covered in snow in early Feb?

I stayed in the area last summer and found loads of waymarked trails all over the place, although I was nearer to Perpignan than Carcossonne. I was there for two weeks and never rode the same trail twice. Most of the VTT trails and clubs favour the high mountains (understandably) which may be a problem with snow this time of year.

There is plenty of riding but I would check out the weather conditions first, alternatively the road bike may be a good bet, there are always loads of roadies out and about down there.

There will be loads of biking around the area, and there should (normally) be no problem with the with the weather. Carcasonne is only 25 mins from Narbonne, not much higher and the coastal areas usually have decent weather in Feb.

Cheers for the replies guys, will check those links etc. My cousin lives there and he reckons should be 10-15c at sea-level ish. Fingers crossed!

Leggy, on the singlespeed?

Lovely part of the world, spent a week about 30 miles south of there 2 yrs back. We used walking trails all week (but were in remotesville) and found the odd good track.