Hi All,
My mate Al and I are off to Sainte Foy in a few weeks for 4 days of biking.(very excited. Been talking hitting the Alps on bikes for 20 years!)

I have found the official trail map on their tourist info site, but wondered if anyone had tips or recommendations.

I have an aged Fuel, Al is on a carbon XC race bike (!), so we aren’t looking for super-gnar but not afraid of some fun either.

Any thoughts appreciated

Ed

Awesome trails when I was there a few years ago, lots of established stuff that I don’t imagine has changes much. Pizza and beer at the very lowest point is good at the end of the day. Fins someone who was been with the white room this year

You’ll fine on those bikes, our first time was on 100mm hardtails (Kona Kula & Scott Scale 30). Some lovely trails around that area.

There is an album in my Vimeo from a fee years back should give you an idea
[video]http://vimeo.com/44645946[/video]

Even more excited now guys! Thank you!
Love the video. Cant wait for a bit of that. That’s my kind of home-run.
Ed

OP that’s where White Room Chalet started out (they are now based in La Rossiere but still ride all those trails), the uplift includes a bus so I understand. I’ve only ever skied there but really like the village. I would suggest you explore a bit, perhaps do 1 day in Les Arcs and 1 elsewhere. 4 days in Ste Foy may be too much.

Good stuff. Where did you find out about the trails in the first place? Just the official map or are there better sources? Summer Alps riding novice here!
Ed

While you’re there you should definitely have a day in Arcs and Rosiere. Worth buying the IGN map too imo.

Yep just pick one up from the Super U and follow the very wiggly pink/black lines.

This is on my Radar for 2016. Every year 10-12 of us head off somewhere for a long weekend. We’ve been to Les Gets twice, and fancy a change. Looking for 1-2 days on the waymarked trails and 1-2 days guided singletrack (uplifted assisted)
Would we be better off based in Bourg then travelling to St Foy for a day or the other way round?

I’d stay in Bourg – there’s a good campsite, supermarket etc. It really depends on what you want – St Foy is lovely but a fair bit quieter.

if you have transport go up the hill a bit and get free use of the lifts in Val and Tignes

Thanks guys – I’ll have a look at it all.

Just as a bit of an up to date input, I got back from the White Room last week and we didn’t ride St Foy at all as the bus uplift isn’t running. You may need to check if this is the case all summer. Even with their own minibus and trailer this was deemed to make St Foy problematic. The area in general is fantastic though 🙂

Thanks for the uplift tip. We are in a chalet in Sainte Foy, but are driving out so can be flexible. Lungs prefer the uplift idea!
Can’t wait!
Ed

As I understand it, the vehicle uplift isn’t running and a ski lift is instead. However it only gains around 200m vertical, finishing remarkably close to a local politician’s restaurant. Convenient. Essentially the trails can’t be accessed. 😥

OP: get the ign map for Les Arcs bought & do a bit of research. I’d be looking at 2 days in Les Arcs, a day in La Rosiere and a day in La Thuile if I were you.

Hi Guys,

Sainte Foy has some of the best flowy, unspoilt singletrack in the valley for sure. Unfortunately, there is no practical uplift running this year so it’s pedal-power only. Very much still worth the effort, even built into a day riding elsewhere – e.g. take the short chairlift up in the morning, pedal over to the Marquise chair, ride 1300m of pure radness down to Viclaire, pedal along to Bourg Saint Maurice (there’s an easy off-road route), go up the funicular and ride Les Arcs, then finish the day by riding off the back down to Villaroger and crossing over to Sainte Foy from there. It’s easy to get back to Sainte Foy town and not hard to get back to La Thuile, which leaves about 300m of road climbing back to the resort.

The official trail map is pretty good (we wrote it…), just remember that the colours have nothing to do with grades. The blues are “family” trails (i.e. fireroads) and the pinks are “enduro” trails (i.e. awesome singletrack) but some are fairly easy and some pretty tough.

Oh, and to be honest, you’ll get beat to crap on those bikes but that’s not to say you won’t have fun!