Help!
I'm in the forces and have just found out i'm posted to Holland, in the south near Maastricht.
Does anyone know of any riding around the area or over the border into Germany? Happy to try anything that puts off road riding!
Cheers
SC
Yes - I have some links somewhere of some riding in southern holland and there is some in the ardennes
I was in Amsterdam at the weekend and I saw a chap (amongst the many traditional bikes) on a big DH bike with Boxxers wearing those funny pyjamas that downhillists wear. There must be some AMAZING kerbs on the way to the shops there...
Eifel hills area in Germany?
Ardennes in Belguim / Luxembourg?
Least there's hills and trees in the vicinity. When I lived in Holland, the only nearby hill was the sand dunes between the office and the north sea.
when I was in Nordvijk, on the coast near Leiden there was a mountain bike course there. It was fast swoopy singletrack through the dunes round a nature reserve. Granted there weren't any epic hills, but it was fun!
Conversation I had on FB just last week with an Amsterdam resident (expat from Pennines):
'Amsterdamer': completed his A10 Ring Amsterdam ride in the sun last yesterday evening. Another 45km of brilliant "mountain biking" through the north part of the city. Great fun!!
'Me': How do you do "mountain biking" in one of the flattest places on Earth? I'm intrigued.
'Amsterdamer': The A10 is the motorway ring road around the city and is built on an artificial dyke which is tree covered and quiet steep here and there. Riding along that, in combination with some wicked thechnical riding through housing estate/blocks of flats/office builidings makes for a brilliant training and is really good fun.
It's admittedly not the Holme Valley or the Belgian Ardennes but it's a great blast all the same.
We're going to film it using the helm-cam soon - watch this space.
So there. MTB on the flats. It can be done.
So what's the best train station for Ardennes and where are the trails?
Head south east of Maastricht. It gets lumpy round there - that's where the Amstel Gold classic is run.
Heerlen... and there's some decent riding near the indoor snow ski/snowboard centre. You can rent bikes too, they're good quality and better spec'd than the ones i own!
From my friend who used to live in Heerlen:
heerlen is very hilly, get into vaals and you won't believe holland is flat... the heuvelrug specifically towards vaals and valkenburg. vaals has forest trails very hilly, lots of mountainbikers there
I'm seem to remeber Bas De Bever won the Stellenbosch round of the then grundig downhill world cup in 1997...........
I was drafted to JFC Brunssum 2003-2006, just outside the camp is Brunssummerheide (it means-common)there are miles of signed singletrack rideable all year round its a really nice place to ride not overly technical but very fast! Schutterspark and Heelen Heide are also good places to ride and can be accessed from Brumsummerheide. Just across the border in Belgium they run regular races/short enduros pop into a cycle shop and they'll give you a book of dates, they are very cheap (they were 3 Euros) and are very well run and are a great excuse for a Belgian Beer. 4 kms from Brunssum is GK which is a Canadian Airforce base, they've got a bike shop which is very cheap tax and duty free, but obviously the Sterling/Euro rate is not so favourable as my time there, LET OP!
Apparently it's not Heuvelrug but Limburgse Heuvelland
The Eifel region over in Germany is well worth a look.
Stayed at De Kempervennen Centre Parcs (south of Eindhoven) last year and found a great off-road loop right outside the gate. OK, it was fairly flat, but very scenic and fun and I loved it. The signposting was spot-on: always a sign at every junction. About 25K IIRC.
If you ride a single speed, you're not that far from the SSEC (end of April)
Hi Sand Crab. I happen to live there. We have a lot of signed tracks outta here, see the [url= http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=nl&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fmtbroutes.nl%2Findex.php%2Fkaart-nederland ]map[/url]. [url= http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=mergelland&w=all&s=int&referer_searched=1 ]This[/url] is how our typical surroundings look like, this is more southwest of Limburg around maastricht.
Brunsummerheide is also really good, more info [url= http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=nl&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mtbclub-discovery.com%2Fvasteroute%2F ]here[/url].
We have some [url= http://www.broadbandsports.com/node/9151&gvsm=1 ]freeriding[/url] around, but thats Germany technically ;o) Between Vaals and Aachen.
If you travel for short hour your are in Belgium (Ardennes) or Germany (Eiffel) with loads of good trails, also [url= http://mtbroutes.be/kaart.aspx ]lot of them[/url] signed out.
For weekend outings we have [url= http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bikepark-fermelibert.com%2Ffr%2Fpr%25C3%25A9sentation%2F ]few[/url] [url= http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bikepark-winterberg.de%2F ]lifts[/url] within reasonable distance if u like that.
Just let me know, I'd hapily guide u around!
@zippy & Sand Crab....Hello, I'm new to the area and to mtb but def down to explore/ride. I'm in the Heinsberg, DE area, but willing to travel a bit. Let me know if you want to set something up.
Zippy & prmojo,
I am in Munstergeleen, nr Sittard. Very keen on meeting up and doing some exploring, if you are interested?
I have been out a couple of times with these guys: www.mtbclub-discovery.com
Zippy - sorry for missing your offer first time! It took forever to get the internet and it was only by chance i caught prmojo's reply. Very keen, if the offer is still open?
Chris