just had my 30th (woo!) and my surprise present from my girlfriend is a trip to see le tour in the pyrenees!! awesome or what

we're flying into girona a few days before going to bagneres-de-bigorre, so on the way i was thinking we could stop in andorra and check out the, er… mountain goats?! don't know much about the place. i've heard there is some riding there but it is worth a stop for 2 nights?

alternatively we could maybe stop on the spanish side- doesn't seem to be much on the web about riding there

riding-wise i guess we're after big views and flowy XC rather than full on DH stuff

any advice or recommendations appreciated!

Have a look here: –

Andorra MTB

It's where my mate Cedric lives. I expect he'll post up later.

konastoner – useful website cheers

have you ridden any of those trails?

Peter, just ski'd there but loads of the locals (and a few of the Ski Instructors) I spoke to were into MTB and were well up for summer riding and actually preferred it to the Alps etc mainly due to cost but i'm sure the riding is good too.

From what you mentined the views will be pretty spectacular especailly as you will be averaging around 8000 – 10000 ft alt. As such the trails should be pretty long too. I know that the skiing is around 800m of vertical which will be a tad more than your average trail centre down hills with the added benefit of not pedalling backup!

If you do go let me know how you get on.

Cheers,

Nick

I'm just back from Vallnord on a freebie with Commencal. It's a beautiful country, the towns and mountains are stunning. It's definitely worth it for two nights. The trails are very bumpy though and after 2 days I was pretty badly beaten up, even though I was riding a very nicely set-up demo DH bike. I wouldn't want to ride for longer and was very glad to get back to my own trails and away from the braking bumps! I will definitely return though (it's only 4hrs from me) but will go for a couple of days maximum.

There are loads of trails that aren't marked too which were tough but nice and smooth! We were riding with the girl (SoSo) from the CG bike school and she showed us about. It might be worth getting in touch and seeing if she'd do you a days guiding. She can speak a bit of English and is fluent in Spanish, Catalan and French.

I didn't ride much that I'd describe as flowy and XC though.

Give me a shout if I can be of any help (hotel recommendations or anything like that).

Went there for the World Cup last year and really liked the place (though this might have had more to do with the World Cup). Didn't do any riding to speak of but I liked the town itself and it's a tax haven so theoretically has cheap electricals though to be honest I wasn't that impressed by the prices.

Eck, it's a beautiful place. There's really strict laws on building so it all just looks 'right'. For a place that pays no tax the roads are amazing too! You leave France and instantly the road is twice as wide and totally smooth! The prices weren't that cheap though, certainly not coming from Spain, with a hotel being about €50-150 a night and a hamburger being €7. I noticed the bike shops were cheaper than here though but not as cheap as CRC or similar.

cheers for the responses guys!

doug, a hotel recommendation would be great cheers

has anyone done any of the walks as well? looks like you can get up to the top on the gondola and trek from peak to peak!

or if you can recommend anywhere nearby which might be more xc orientated that would be great. luchon is meant to be good? i'm not dead set on going to andorra, although it does sound like a really interesting and beautiful place

For other parts of the pyrenees (especially the French side), this has a nice run-down of the various markes routes there are. There seems a lot, some areas have 800km of marked routes.

http://www.pyrenees-passion.info/VTT_balises.php

Hi Guys, I know this is an old thread – but we are campaigning hard for Andorra right now – its our personal favourite destination at the moment! Take a look at http://www.singletracksafari.com/andorra-altitude for full details of what’s on offer there!

Also check out http://www.youtube.com/singletracksafari for loads of riding videos in Andorra.

Sorry for the promotion, but we’re really keen to show people what an amazing place it is!

Some nice vids there… except the ones with “This video contains content from UMG. It is not available in your country.” Wish people wouldn’t put Sony/BMG/UMG copyright tunes in vids 👿

Will crack out tor/foxyproxy later to watch them, whilst pretending to be in UK.

But I’ve just put Andorra on my “to do” list 🙂

Andorra is ACE. The bike park at Valnord is really good, as is the one at Grandvalira. Been there for the past two years. Both resorts are proper bike parks, the XC is a bit of an afterthought so I would not even bother. 2 days is not enough either but if its all you got get a 2 day pass for Valnord. The greens, blues, reds are all doable by anyone half decent and are all good fun. The scene is really relaxed and the staff and riders are cool. Early in the season, the braking bumps should be fine. Love the place.

http://video.mpora.com/watch/Iorn02wab/ Gee on one of the reds

There will be loads of accommodation in Massana and you can jump straight into the lift.

For more XC stuff, Les Angles/Font Romeau is about 1 hr away but personally I would stay in Andorra for the two days.