Anyone know much about riding in Sardinia?

Primarily the northern end of the island. Road or off-road.

Any specific routes you can recommend?

Thanks,

Clive

I’ve been there a bit and also spent a lot of time in Corsica, which is pretty similar. (search for Corsica for an idea)

In general there are lots of dirt tracks up into the mountains and down to the beaches. All great to explore. But most of the trails are either double track or goat tracks. Since the population is tiny singletrack is not well established. You will find some, but it will involve sections that are sketchy, rocky, hike-a-bike or impossible.

Local knowledge will help, but you can just go off and explore. Best times would be October through to say May. June through to Sept are bloody hot. August is way too hot to do anything.

There are some old mining tracks there which are used for mountain biking – worth speaking to Saddle Skeddadle who operate cycling tours in Sardinia.

Road biking is great there – but again, don’t bother in the summer as its just way too hot. In July I couldn’t ride my bike after about 10am or until it cooled down late in the evening.

However, scenery to die for, hills to kill you and fantastic food/drink/culture. All good.

Been road riding a fair bit round there, based out of Alghero which for a long time had really cheap flights. Amazing roads, very quiet once you’re out of town. In town the surface is generally rubbish, out of town you get fantastic smooth tarmac.

Alghero is lovely, really nice old town and harbour area.
We always went in March/April time, anything in summer is just too hot.

In true STW style I know nothing about the riding on the north coast, so I’m going to recommend a different area that I know about even though that’s not what you asked!

I did a 48hour adventure race there last year, starting and finishing in Cala Gonone (east coast). Loads of good riding, albeit very rocky indeed, and the hills tend to be very steep. We did ~250km on bikes, including some epic singletrack. Of particular note was an amazing 1000 vertical metre descent with a nice mix of gravel trail and twisty rocky singletrack from Gorrupu down to the beach at Cala Goloritze. Well worth doing, although you’d need to arrange a water taxi ahead of time as the beach is only accessible from the sea and the singletrack.

Lovely place, friendly people, brilliant food. Well recommended.

It’s awesome. Will try and write up something slightly more useful when I’m not on the bus!

Just come back from a 2 week holiday on the north of Sardinia in the Gallura region. I ended up taking the road bike after off road research proved fruitless. I don’t regret the decision, but would like to try taking the mountain bike next time. I saw a lot of double tracks and some great potential. The road riding was brilliant though!

Thanks everyone.

Any specific route recommendations? Road or off-road?