My girlfriend and I are planning to go on our first mountain biking holiday together next month. She's fairly new to the sport (started around a year ago), whereas I'm pretty experienced. We're looking for a solution where we can stay in the same place, but join separate guided groups that cater to our individual riding abilities. Ideally, we're looking to go somewhere in northern Italy.
Initially, I thought that Finale may be a good shout due to the huge number of guiding companies out there, but our dates clash with the EWS, so probably not a great time to go for anything other than spectating.
Does anyone have any ideas for anything else that could work? I'm sure I'm not the first person facing this dilemma! Many thanks in advance.
It's a tall order at the best of times, even more so this year with most places being quieter than normal. Can't think of any companies big enough to be running multi groups and crucially have enough at each level to run multiple groups.
You can self guide in Morzine. There's lots of parallel trails so you can ride the reds and blacks and she rides the greens and blues (or whatever suits) and you start and finish in the same place. You can also do extra laps while she stops at a mountain bar for a coffee. That's the sort of thing we do there with a mixed group. Works well and we end spending a lot of time together without anyone missing out on riding what they like. Not the same as a days guiding, or in Italy, if that really is your thing but it does make a nice holiday imo. Also loads of other stuff to do in town.
this is going to sound a bit arsy... call me old fashioned.
But could you not just ride together and enjoy each other company? I quite enjoy rising trails and sharing their excitement at trying stuff they haven't before etc.
this is going to sound a bit arsy… call me old fashioned.
But could you not just ride together and enjoy each other company? I quite enjoy rising trails and sharing their excitement at trying stuff they haven’t before etc.
Unfortunately, that's a very romanticised version of our reality. 😛 Unless, of course, you mean 'sharing excitement' to be mean being screamed at half way down the mountain for taking her on the world's most dangerous trail... which is actually a blue.
Riding together only really works for us when we both know the trails we're riding very well. When venturing into the 'unknown', I think that a guide and a group of riders of similar level would keep my girlfriend's apprehension at bay.
It’s a tall order at the best of times, even more so this year with most places being quieter than normal. Can’t think of any companies big enough to be running multi groups and crucially have enough at each level to run multiple groups.
Umm, I figured as much.
The only guided riding holiday that I have been on where the guests were consistenly split up into 'slow' and 'fast' groups was with White Room MTB in France. The only downsides of going with them are that a) they may not have enough guests this year to split us up into groups and b) my girlfriend would prefer to go somewhere more 'exotic' (I know that this makes us sound utterly spoilt, be we live in the Swiss Alps, so the landscape of the French Alps won't be all that different for us).
The White Room have always been very good at catering for mixed groups when I've been. As above, though, whether this is practical for them at the moment is another matter. They're a friendly bunch - drop them an email and I'm sure they'll be happy to discuss the possibilities.
The only guided riding holiday that I have been on where the guests were consistenly split up into ‘slow’ and ‘fast’ groups was with White Room MTB in France.
EDIT: Ah, snap!!
Unfortunately, that’s a very romanticised version of our reality. 😛 Unless, of course, you mean ‘sharing excitement’ to be mean being screamed at half way down the mountain for taking her on the world’s most dangerous trail… which is actually a blue.
Riding together only really works for us when we both know the trails we’re riding very well. When venturing into the ‘unknown’, I think that a guide and a group of riders of similar level would keep my girlfriend’s apprehension at bay.
Given my experiences of skiing with MrsIHN, I can wholly sympathise with this.
Initially, I thought that Finale may be a good shout due to the huge number of guiding companies out there, but our dates clash with the EWS, so probably not a great time to go for anything other than spectating.
I haven't been, but I'm led to believe there are lots of other trails in the area around finale ligure so you should be able to ride something, and possibly with the influx of visitors you might find a guide who has a full group of novices and pros to cover you both.
For other venues Pila and Aosta are the italian side of the alps, I think both are bike park-ish so would have blue runs you could both do several times.
Given my experiences of skiing with MrsIHN, I can wholly sympathise with this
Ah yes...
"OK, we've done the beginner tow a few times now, let's try the Norbabfahrt."
"But it's a red run and this is my first day skiing..."
"Ach quatsch. It's just the same as the beginner slope, but steeper and narrower."
"But it says on the sign that the snow is patchy."
"Ah, it's OK. There'll be ice on those bits. Just don't try to turn. And hurry up please, the lifts close in 45 minutes and we need to get the lift to the top, ski down the other side and get back up the lift to the top before they close."
"Erm. OK"
Cue me skiing down the run like an absolute donkey, disappearing into the forest every now and again when I couldn't make the turn.
The White Room have always been very good at catering for mixed groups when I’ve been. As above, though, whether this is practical for them at the moment is another matter. They’re a friendly bunch – drop them an email and I’m sure they’ll be happy to discuss the possibilities.
Just have! After giving it some thought, it may still be our best option.
I haven’t been, but I’m led to believe there are lots of other trails in the area around finale ligure so you should be able to ride something, and possibly with the influx of visitors you might find a guide who has a full group of novices and pros to cover you both.
That's a fair point. I'll send out a few emails to ask around.
We'll always have split groups if needed.
Same areas so we can all meet up for lunch but different ability level rides.
Sierra MTB..
And the aprez-bike very good too.
We’ll always have split groups if needed.
Same areas so we can all meet up for lunch but different ability level rides.
Sierra MTB..
And the aprez-bike very good too.
Thank you for letting me know. Ideally, we'd like to drive to the destination, so getting to the south of Spain would be a bit of a trek for us, but I'll run the idea past my girlfriend anyway!
Another vote for White Room. Went with them in 2019 with my then 16yr old son and they ran 4-5 groups of varying ability to different locations each day. It was great for both of us especially since I didn’t have to tell him anything / try to advise etc… very friendly too
Does it have to be Italy?
Madiera is good, try https://freeridemadeira.com/
We went out with The White Room a few years ago, and multiple promises were made that my other half (a very nervous relative newcomer) would be catered to and properly looked after. Sadly, this didn't actually happen until the very last day, and it took her getting very upset and kicking up a fuss before it got sorted. I'm sure other people have had better experiences, but it put her off MTBing for a good while, and took ages to get her confidence back.
Not The White Room.
I had a, quite frankly, shite experience with them as the 'less experienced' girlfriend rider. It was an absolute waste of money and time I could have spent elsewhere.
The best day of the week I had there was the Weds off when we went to Tignes ourselves with our bikes.
I had spoken to them before we went, talked about my differing experience/fitness from my friends. I was assured it would be OK.
First day the guide got fed up riding with me and left me on my own so he could go do other stuff. I had to get myself down the mountain and back to the chalet myself.
I did have one good day with the female guide, but only after getting furious about being left.
I very nearly booked a train home on the Thursday.
The trails were amazing, as was the hospitality, but that's the best I can say.
Bike village as also cater for mixed abilities and split groups.
I used to love Trail Addiction due to the fact they had multiple groups. I'm not sure if they still do though as I think they've reduced the number of guides and have more self-guided days. May be worth giving them a shout, though it's not the Italian experience you are looking for.
We've been to Finale over EWS time before (when we didn't know about EWS) and there are so many trails and areas there that the guides will easily be able to avoid the trails that they are racing down (accommodation may be a bit harder to come by though). If your g/f is lacking confidence on blues then she may find it hard for her to find an enjoyable group experience, therefore, if you can afford it (you on a Swiss wage?) it could be worth getting your girlfriend a one-to-one guide (they can actually be quite cheap there) and you joining in guided group rides. The rest of the trip would probably need to be self-made rather than 'package' though.