Am loading up the Volvo, ferry overnight to Santander then two weeks driving back via San Sebastian, Biarritz, La Rochelle and Paris. Mrs McBoo is letting me bring the road bike on the proviso I dont disappear for the whole day on my lonesome.

I'd love to ride the Tourmalet but it looks like a 2hr drive to the base from Biarritz so thats probably not going to happen. Anyone recommend me some nice high climbs somewhere nearer the Atlantic coast?

Unfortunately I've not been there with a bike, but there most be some good stuff in the Picos around Potes.

Have a look at the route for the San Sebastian Classic for ideas.

Doug at http://www.Basquemtb.com will also be able to help you out and could no doubt sort you out re road routes.

Lovely part of the world and great food to boot.

Cheers

Sanny

Oh result, we're going to be in San Seb on the day of the race, Jul 31st. Tremendous.

McBoo, I'm not a roadie but can sort you out with some recommended roads on the coast. There's a few hills that the pro cycle teams train on and some on the route of the SS Clasica. Drop me a mail. The e-mail's on the website or in my profile.

That's the good news. The bad news is you're going to be cycling past some fantastic singletrack 😉

Doug, thanks I will…..I have a week in San Seb and Biarritz before we head north, maybe I should bring the hardtail too……no no no no

if you need any more info, let me know. i live in SS, there are some of my local training runs on my garmin connect page http://tinyurl.com/2dzvl2b. also, have a look on wikiloc.

the clasica route is actually quite flat (relatively!), and the area around SS is better described as hilly rather than pyreneenne. that said, you can easily find climbs of up to an hour, and i rarely do less than 1000m climbing on a run.

anyways, let me know. if i'm in town i'll happily show you a route.

bob

ps. doug's not wrong about the singletrack!

might be sampling some of Dougs singletrack in 2011 😆 if we can save enough

Good to hear Trekster 🙂 McBoo, you can rent bikes too… Ha ha! 🙂 The road cycling looks great though so don't want to tempt you too much, especially if you'll get in trouble with the missus!

bob, small world, I was already looking at a couple of routes you had done on garmin connect. Am staying in a hotel in town so be ideal to just ride out rather than drive. Those coastal roads look great…..and hilly. Will email you, am in town 29th Jul to 1 Aug.

Doug, will quietly slide the mtb shoes and spds into the Volvo……

Thanks fellas

We were in Ax les Thermes (where the tour finishes on Sunday) and it looked like there was some good riding to be had both at the ski resort and on hills near it. Not quite where you were looking for I guess.

ok sounds good.

likewise, if you hire an mtb let us know, we were chatting on here about having a pais vasco meetup. could be a good opportunity.

by way of inspiration mebbee:

some stuff on my youtube too (though i hate helmetcams….) http://www.youtube.com/user/bobsummers1974

If you can, take the mountain bike!!!!!!!! I loved the trails that Doug showed us when we were out there last September. Knowing how good the riding is and the variety from smooth coastal paths to rocky tech loveliness, I can guarantee you'll find a trail you will love! The food is pretty epic too. Pinchos are the way forward. Just don't believe Doug when he says he hardly ever drinks cidre then polishes off a bottle!

Have a look at the basque mtb flickr site. I defy you to resist taking the mountain bike after you've looked at it.

Cheers

Sanny

Yeh I'd love to take the mtb but I need to spend lots of time with the kids and wife. Just had a bunch of weekends away leading up to 4 days at Marmotte. Road bike I can just ride out from the hotel for 2-3hrs in the evening after the beach.

I'm really looking fwd to getting up at dawn in Paris on a Sunday morning, riding round some empty streets, finish up on Sacre Coeur as the sun comes up……

The Angrilu and Lagos De Covadonga are both in Asturias and are classics of the Vuelta, not far from the sea but maybe further west than your trip allows.

Sanny, I resent that!! A bottle of Sidra is a only little more than a pint anyway 😀

Bob, nice ride that one, I was there on Sunday. I guess you won't know the full way down, none of the locals did until I found it / cleared it. I'll show it to you one day, it totally transforms the whole descent. That concrete road you use into Pasaia is lethal and you can do the whole thing on singletrack…

doug, the concrete road (we call it 'the wall' as we used to go up it!) is definitely dodgy, especially when wet. would love to find another way. sometimes take a slightly different track which drops you into lezo but it's pretty well-trodden. someone had been building some jumps up there last time i went that way.

Doug

You know I speak the truth!

Looking forward to a return visit later in the year….. 😀

Sanny

Not guilty on the jumps front! I did spend about 40hrs hacking the vegetation back though! We sometimes ride up there but there's some nicer climbs too (although that's a good challenge!). Will hook up in August with Mackem hopefully if you fancy.

Sanny, looking forward to having you back, got some new stuff to show…

Kaixo.

One road ride I can recommend is the loop I do when I feel fit. start in plentzia, a nice place on the basque coast.
Ride to urduliz then mungia, to bermeo, then gernika, then morga, then gamin-fika, to laukiz, unbe, then sopelana back
To plentzia. It's not super long but the scenery is great and there's a few decent climbs.

..and a basque mtb meet up in august sounds like a great idea.

Bob, Doug, I never caught up with either of you…….was the good dad. I did manage to get away for a couple of hours at a time though, rode out of San Sebastian up over the mountains and down into Navare, came back round through Irun. From Biarritz I rode into the foothills, went exploring some lovely little towns.

Can I just say I bloody love that part of the world. Are there more perfect holiday towns than SS and Biarritz? Lovely beaches, surfing, great food, gorgeous architecture, nice people (no vulgar ostentation), culture……..and mountains! Big ones for cycling up and skiing down! And they love cycling…….

We are already planning next year's trip, having fantastic thoughts about buying a place down there.

Best beach holiday ever.

glad you enjoyed it, shame not to meet but I was in the uk anyway. next time!
I guess you went over Aritxulegi to Lesaka? lovely ride, bit spooky by the reservoir though. there's never anyone there…
sanse's beaches are mental this week, being semana grande. the sensible thing to do is work on the cycling tan, exactly what I'm going to do now 😉

Glad you had a good time, sorry not to catch up. It´s a great part of the world, mountain biking in the mountains all day and finish off with a surf. There are loads of towns apart from San Sebastian and Biarritz. I don´t personally like Biarritz that much, there are some nice bits but San Seb is fantastic. Hondarribia is my favourite place, it´s got a great vibe like SS but it´s smaller, in fact I was partying in the streets there until 4am this morning! The New York times had a fantastic article about eating in Hondarribia recently.

For the BasqueMTB meet… maybe a day out around the end of August if Mackem is back? Anyone else in the area is welcome to come along, just give me a shout. I´ll show you guys some stuff you won´t have seen before and we can have a glass os Sidra to finish it all off. 8)

definitely up for that. i'm on the dole til october so can do more or less anytime, heading out on the camino de santiago in sept but probably end of the month.

lame excuse for a couple more pics… went bivvying a couple of weeks back down in deepest darkest gipuzkoa. 10hrs, 100km, 3,500m+ climbing and slept in a placcy bag on top of a mountain. glorious 😉

this is the route: http://es.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/view.do?id=1014582