Hu folks
Heading out to the Pyrenees in a few weeks and hoping to get in 4 or 5 days of good riding. We’re travelling down from Bordeaux, so will probably head to the Western (French) area initially, but may well travel around a fair bit while we’re out there. Does anyone have any reccomendations for where to base ourselves/what to ride?

I quite fancy a mix with a few gondola/session downhill days and a few big country XC rides. It looks awesome out there, but I suspect that insider knowledge is key to finding the good stuff.

Any and all suggestions appreciated.
Thanks

Quillan is nice, lovely pastries and music on an evening. Near Aix le Thermes for riding.

second Quillan. We stay at a friends there quite often. Some marked VTT routes and there’s much to be gleaned from IGN maps too.

cant link to pix behind firewall but may do later.

There’s a guy called ianv who posts on here who is very helpful and seems to know about the Pyrenees pretty well. There is doug@basquemtb as well.

PS A Quick Release at Luchon may be more yoru scene if youre after some big descents and gondola assistance. XC is good there too.

Nice team running the gig too.

Thanks chaps – will have a look at Quillan.

Can you pick up the IGN maps on Amazon perchance?

Stoner – Thanks, but not looking for guided riding at the moment as will be mooching around living in the back of a van, and prefer to be flexible on where we go when.. This will be a fully DIY mission..

Cheers!

Luchon is great for DIY. Massive lift, lots of marked trails and plenty of cheeky ones that all head back to the lift. If you have a van and are handy with a map than there’s plenty more in the area. Nice campsite on the edge of town, too, called Arome Vanille IIRC

Quillan is more towards the east pyranees and it is XC. The nearest downhill from there is Les Angles about an hour away. Good but small but has some very good mountain riding away from the lifts. Also not far away is La Molina in Spain which has good reds and blacks and also has some longer descents down the valley to Alp (would need some sort of shuttle back though).

For bike parks further West there are Artoust, Cauterets and Saint Lary all nearer Luchon and probably easier from Bordeaux. Never been but a french friend did a road trip last summer and rated them for a day or so each.
http://www.26in.fr/bike-parks/france_pyrenees.html

If you really want to ride a load of downhill then Andorra is ace.

This might help
http://www.downhill911.com/trails/carte-spots.php?p=France

Once you have decided, this is good for routes.

http://www.utagawavtt.com/randonnee-vtt-gps

One further point about Quillan, its not mountains more rolling hills

The riding around Luchon is absolutely superb but tbh I wouldn’t have found a fraction of it riding solo, it was only the AQR guiding that brought it together. Likewise up Superbagneres there’s the bike park but the route we used down was mostly off-piste.

I have no idea if the Potters would take on guide-only guests for a day or two but it couldn’t hurt to ask.

Awesome, thanks guys. That gives me plenty to go on – just need to sit down with Google maps and plan out a rough itinerary now.. 😀

I have been wondering about trying to tag along for a day or two with a guided group. I may send out a few enquiries..

If anyone has any more suggestions – especially at the big views/XC end of the spectrum then please shout, but this really has given my planning a good kick forwards..

Cheers!

hairy_hippy,

IGN Carte Bleue is what you want to search for. I buy mine locally though from the Upton on Severn Map Shop: great shop for such a small town), or from Stanfords when Im in That London.
some photos of riding around Quillan in winter a couple of years ago:

this is a cracking descent into Quliian:

Heres a snap of my marked up 2247 west and 2237 west maps. Iwas based in Nebias so that’s where most of my riding went from, although occasionally we’d drive out to some of the VTT routes. Some are routes ive been shown or found, a lot of them are waymarked VTT routes.

If you click on it, you should be taken to a zoomable image at original resolution.

the “official” VTT routes are shown here on this pdf of VTT in Aude:
http://cdt11.tourinsoft.com/upload/MEDIA_511cb426-f90e-4e0b-b1b5-465a91e99799.pdf

linked from
http://www.aude-pyrenees.fr/Francais/site/Office-de-Tourisme/Activites-nature-et-loisirs/VTT/Espace-VTT-FFC-Aude-en-Pyrenees_12_.html

And second uttagawa for other routes.

And for a laff here’s a couple of screendumps of google earth showing a couple of cracking routes that finish on the descent shown above:

I did a bit of riding around that area a few years ago.
Some good stuff as above, but is a bit xc ish, still fun though.
If you need somewhere to stay in Quillan my old business partner has a B & B right in the centre of town.
http://www.nidelice.com/uk/indexuk.html
Very good breakfasts! Try them out!

“If anyone has any more suggestions – especially at the big views/XC end of the spectrum then please shout, but this really has given my planning a good kick forwards”

http://www.altitudeadventure.com/mountainbiking.php

There is some routes on this page that can be worked out using the relevant IGN map 2249ET Font Romeau. Cheapest place for IGN maps is gooutdoors.

Seriously though if you are prepared to go as far as Quillan, keep going to Les Angles. It is way better in terms of views, mountains, riding and as a place to spend a holiday.