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Any recommendations? We're riding in the Spanish and French Pyrenees but wondering if there are any spots worth visiting on the drive back north.
Heading up into the Alps feels like too much of a diversion.
Ardeche looks like it could be promising - does anyone know it?
I've picked a few places that looked promising from Trailforks over the last couple of trips and it's been mixed
https://www.trailforks.com/trails/courbou/
towards Montpellier was super dry, rocky and rough without a lot of flow and a lot of it unmaintained.
Whereas https://www.trailforks.com/region/foret-de-montaud/?activitytype=1&z=12.2&lat=43.47534&lon=2.27250 was a lot of fun on an e-bike. Kind of like Uber-surrey hills. Lovely woodland Singletrack that seemed to go on forever - over 6km from top to bottom and was mostly in good condition.
Not ridden any bike parks in France yet but this site might have some info and links https://www.kelbikepark.fr/fr
Olargues isnt far from you. Held EWS round a few years ago and has a fair few trails on trailforks.
Orlagues is just to the east of Courbou where I went the year before last (linked above). Maybe worth another visit.
Did a little bit at Ardeche many years ago. Should be some good stuff I reckon
I live in Millau, an hour north of Montpellier. Lots of great riding. Mixed terrain.
I raced at Olargues in October. Stage 3 was trottinettes-la source- courbou-spanninga. Great fun, but the push up the ravine onto the fire road afterwards (the one marked hard uptrail on TF) was the only way out at the bottom. That was officially type 2 fun.
There's more good rolling stuff on the same level as Courbou in that immediate vicinity just not when it's damp, although it hasn't rained down here properly for absolutely ages: chasseurs, la mienne (only one steep rocky chute), nouvelle trottinettes, pancoulet... Just don't go down les crêtes unknowingly!
There are less rocky spots to go play on the north side of the valley at Lamalou, but the top is currently being clear felled and some of the best links are no go areas as I type. Then there's les Bourdelles, which is ace, but getting too much traffic at the moment.
Between Olargues and Montaud is Albine. Scroll across in trailforks slightly east of Mazamet and you'll see. If you like the big pine forest stuff, that's another cracking place to check out. Big descents south of the village from the windfarm and the roc de peyremaux and fun swoopy stuff in the trees on the hill to the east.
To put it mildly, the whole area from Bédarieux to Castres is a biking gold mine: Brassac, la Bruguière, Lacaune... The list goes on
@OCRider
Looks like I rode quite a bit of that out of Olargues -
La Mielerie, La Mienne, Les Chasseurs and some more.
https://ibb.co/bXWmSFs
The in laws are in Caune-Minervois so we're spending most of a week there before heading on (though maybe only a day or two of riding while there) . We've taken the road bikes quite a few times and one a loop out from there through Villeneuve to the Pic de Nore and back through Castan and Lespinassiere. What we'd seen there looks hard to make into a loop and hadn't bothered taking the mtb's up to it. There are old trails around Caune but you can tell by some of the tree gaps that they predate modern wide bars though a few bits are more interesting.
The frustrating thing is that although not far as the crow flies, Caune is on the wrong side of those hills to the trails - last time it took me a little over an hour to get there but google took me onto mountain back roads, then into no mobile signal, and it took me over 2 hours to get back (trying to work out where I was on an ancient road atlas)
Albine looks like it might be a good bet though. Ok on a normal bike or does it really need an e-bike? (haven't decided whether to take both yet)
It was Laprade we rode last year
https://ibb.co/zbdnPfx
I've had several holidays in the Ardeche, there's some flipping awesome stuff there but I was lucky to be guided by two mates who were at the time in PGL as there was a centre there.
You'll definitely need a guide tbh, don't ask me for routes as it was years ago 😞
We even got in an off piste Mt Ventoux back when it was legal (sort of)
@b33k34 The only reason why you may need a motor at Albine is for the rides up and even then they're just long, especially from the village up to peyremaux (850m up for about 7km).
Fwiw if you're in Caunes there are loops around Citou and Lespinassiere but it's mainly winch and plummet and it's far rockier than the Tarn side of the hill.
@ocrider thanks for the tip. Weather wasn't great and K was recovering from Covid so only got out for one ride but enjoyed the Albine trails. That's a big big fire road climb though - best part of 2 hours....
Definitely more to explore next time we're out.
Wife Aunt and Uncle used to live in the Ardeche and we visited a number of time. I found the heat too oppressive to bother about going out on my bike. The Pyranees and Alps a a bit higher up therefor a little cooler
PGL in the Ardeche... that takes me back to a time I can't remember...
That’s a big big fire road climb though – best part of 2 hours….
Yeah it's a fair way up, but never steepens through the hairpins which makes things a bit easier.
Unlucky for you with the weather, we were there for the enduro on Sunday and it was in the high 20's. It's just as well most of the climbs are in the shade, but even then a dip in the river on the way up to sp3 is really tempting. Btw, looks like you did sp1,2 and finished with the mud bath in 5, it's always filthy there.
Yes, the last section was muddy - assumed it was because of recent rain.
trip overall was great - first week in Spain had a bad forecast but stayed dry all week. Lourdes was going to be wet so we cancelled that and went back to Ainsa and it was dry and comfortable temperatures. The first few days in France was more continual threat of rain than actual rain but when it did come it was heavy so took it easy with family. It actually started raining just after I got back to the car at Albine! Probably only would have got one more ride in realistically anyway (especially since I was solo).