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Round where we live in Ogliastra, eastern Sardinia, we are organising a couple of things to improve local riding and enable more people to ride here:-
1. pruning the good, natural (shepherds') singletrack which descends from Baunei round the SW side of Monte Scoine to Santa Maria. This is through rocky limestone country, nice rocky steps, and over 5 days 2-3 of us each armed with [img] 
[/img] are pruning the vegetation by the path
2. with Italian mountain bikers from Nuoro and cagliari we are riding the souther loop of the "T-track". This is a 250-km figure-of-8, in places waymarked[img] 
[/img], though the new sections of track which we supposed to be built never were. So we are going to ride (roughly) the route of the T-track, using alternative shepherd's paths/tracks[img] http://www.mtb-forum.it/community/forum/picture.php?albumid=5530&pictureid=38611 [/img], new walking paths[img] 
[/img] or fire trails. Though the fire trails were once passable by car, in many places they have been damaged in flash flooding, and so give rough, rocky riding in places [img] http://www.mtb-forum.it/community/forum/picture.php?albumid=5530&pictureid=38608&thumb=1 [/img] or, simply, since vehicles can't go on them, in places they are covered in grass or wild flowers, which at this time of year are lovely. We do our first section this Sunday, 4-5 of us, and by the end of May should have documented 100km of trails, with gpx files put on the web.
For info, contact me at peter@peteranne.it
Peter
Good luck Peter, the trails look alot better now they've been washed out a bit!
How did you get on riding the steeper stuff... rik
Very well- Yesterday I rode 90% of the descent that'd been scaring me, walking some bits but always in control, then made a great loop back home...I was a bit worried since you descend into a steep valley, no mobile signal, no people...only mouflon...but followed a great track, by now really enjoying myself, back home. I was finally able to phone the missus and tell her where I was and not to worry...
[img] 
[/img]
I think this could become my regular circuit, it's bloody brilliant and I could probably do it in 2,5 hours.
Then we reckon two more pruning sessions and our 3km "freeride" track will be ready to test. Too hard for me, I'll stick to XC.
Will report after this Sunday's ride.
cheers Peter
We went to ride the whole 50km/1000m+ climbing loop yesterday, me and two guys from Cagliari, both of whom work part-time as guides/race course setters. The summary was: "Splendido e impegnativo giro per pendenze e difficoltà tecnica. Le discese pedalabili ma esigenti, per gli amanti del genere. Il buon vecchio Amos ha chiuso il percorso con una mtb rigida 100%, ammirevole, ma per me lo si apprezza maggiormente con una buona full che permette di "galleggiare" fra le pietre."
"Splendid and challenging circuit, due to the gradients and technical difficulty. The descents are rideable but demanding, for good riders. Amos rode with a 100% rigid bike, admirable, but I enjoyed it more with a full which allowed me to float over the rocks."
Next stage 2 May: Urzulei, limestone plateau at 1000m amsl
For those who read Italian, the thread with photos and comments is on mtb-forum.it at [url= http://www.mtb-forum.it/community/forum/showthread.php?t=157936 ]Reccy trips in Ogliastra, Sardinia[/url]
Next outing Urzulei: good singletrack
[img] 
?dl=1271872434[/img]
pigs & peonies
[img] 
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and freeride-type switchback descent on old mule track
[img] 
?dl=1271872647[/img]
We have had lots of interest from Italian riders (Sards and from mainland) and so made [url=
facebook group[/url] where we will publish photos, rides etc
Here's a [url=
of the Urzulei ride[/url] (and carrot cake afterwards). Davide declared, "I know lots of people who'd come just for the descent!" which is an all-mountain, technical descent with lots of hairpin switchbacks. He estimated that of the 20-odd people he rode with down to Cala Luna last week (a very popular ride) only 4 would have been able to ride this. This ride is great: 6 hours, a mix of unmade roads, singletrack, and rocky muletracks, and the bits on asphalt are on small roads with hardly any cars. You see free-range pigs, sheep, cows, goats, horses, peonies,...and no people.
Definitely one of my best days ever with the MTB.
Peter
The routes are documented with GPS files on [url= http://itinerari.mtb-forum.it/ ]http://itinerari.mtb-forum.it/[/url], zoom in on Sardinia, we already have two there and I will add descriptions also in ENglish. ciao Peter
So here is the [url= http://itinerari.mtb-forum.it/tours/view/2158 ]first route[/url] with also the description in English, starting from Lotzorai where we live. Photos [url= http://www.peteranne.it/album/ ]here[/url]. This week we'll add Urzulei and Talana, the other loops in yellow on Google Earth [img] 
[/img].
If you join these 30-50 km day rides together with the (easy) red links, you can do a very good two-day ride, staying in Urzulei and then coming back to Lotzorai.
For more info contact me peter@peteranne.it
Peter
The route descriptions (Italian and English) are at
[url= http://itinerari.mtb-forum.it/tours/view/2158 ]Mamutorco[/url]
[url= http://itinerari.mtb-forum.it/tours/view/2259 ]Link to next ride[/url]
[url= http://itinerari.mtb-forum.it/tours/view/2218 ]Urzulei[/url]
[url= http://itinerari.mtb-forum.it/tours/view/2261 ] correction Urzulei[/url]
[url= http://itinerari.mtb-forum.it/tours/view/2260 ]Link to next ride[/url]
[url= http://itinerari.mtb-forum.it/tours/view/2158 ]Talana Villagrande[/url]
Altogether more than 100km, you can do in nice two day ride staying overnight at Urzulei as described in description for Urzulei.[url= http://www.peteranne.it/album/Cycling/index.html ] Photos here[/url]. Everyone who's been to ride these thinks they're great!
Peter