Has anyone ridden with Basque MTB?

Hi all, going to do their High Pyrenees trip later this year and just wondering what peoples experience of the terrain was in that area & what bike would suffice? I’ve got a Flaremax which is 120mm r/140mm f & i’m just wanting to make sure i don’t bring a knife to a gunfight kinda thing.

Also, how good was the trip?

@doug_basqueMTB.com

Ask him yourself 🙂

I’ve done their Ainsa Enduro trip (few years ago) and loved it.
They’re one of the best guiding companies out there regarding quality of guides/no of clients per guide/accommodation/food and organisation.
And I’ve done guided holidays all over Europe since early 00s.
Took my old 2014 Bronson and was perfectly fine,

I’d recommend very tough maybe downhill casing tyres but you should be fine with the Flaremax.
Would love to do the High Pyrenees trip one day. I’m sure you’ll love it.

Did Backcountry Pyrenees in May 2019. Excellent from start to finish though my body was a bit battered by the end of it as I’d done lots of running but very little biking in the run up (I had an ultra in March which used up all my time).

The group was really mixed but got on very well, no pressures to go all out from the gun. The guides were all excellent though had a varied taste in music in the van.

The riding was epic throughout. Proper big rides but with minimal climbing. Everything from open rocky chutes to forest single track. I remember the guides telling us to pump up our tyres ridiculously hard. One French lad running tubes had 4 or 5 flats in the first day. The guides persuaded him to go tubeless after that. Great food, some really remote places to stay. Oh and take an IKEA bag for the van and transfers, I made the mistake of trying to live out of a small hold-all all week and it was a bit of a nightmare. And did I mention the caterpillars?

Yep, beautiful country side, natural trails, we had sunshine to rain to snow and everything in between,  loved all of it, stayed in a variety of really nice spots, ate lots of ace food, just a really well run, really professional crew led by an entertainingly gruff beardy Scot,  and all round a really enjoyable experience – have been trying to get back there ever since to do it again, COVID messed up those plans, but will definitely go back.

Caterpillars are bastards.

FFS, nobody told me there would be creepy crawlies!

They might be less of an issue up higher, I did the BackCountry trip, IIRC

Yep, done the high pyrenees trip with Basque back at end of Covid. Trip was absolutely epic. Fantastic scenery and trails and great guides. Highly recommended. And you will be fine with a Flaremax I guess. Brother was on a Whyte T130 and another in the group was on an Orange Five. There is quite a lot of options out there for harder or easier trails and the guides will certainly be able to tailer routes to suit your abilities. You won’t be forced to ride anything you’re not comfy with.

Did the Ultimate trip in July 2019 (similar to High but with a chopper and pack horses 🤪) on an Orange Five. A DH tyre on the back was the only trip specific upgrade I made.

Get happy carrying your bike, take a sun hat to wear when you’re hiking / lounging.

Doug and his crew are soooooo good.

Maybe worth a look at the BKXC YouTube channel as he has done a few trips with Basque so you can see what you are getting into in glorious technicolour

Echo the thoughts of others really I’ve done two trips with Doug and they remain two of the very best guided mountain biking trips I’ve done pretty much anywhere. Everything is about as good as you can expect it to be and they really do take care of you in every way. On our day off a bunch of us decided that what we really wanted to do was some yachting from San Sebastian, so they made it happen, there’s not many guiding cos that will go that far i making sure that their guests are happy.

Riding with Doug and the guides is like riding with your mates who happen to live in some of the very best European mountain biking areas. You’ll have a blast.

That day we went sailing on a mountain bike trip…

V good indeed.

DD as a minimum and don’t touch the caterpillars.

All good info 🙂

I haven’t been, but I’m going at the end of July for some Pyrenees action. Very excited!

We’ve been out here (nearly) every year since 2013. Writing this from Ainsa where we’re grabbing a few extra days riding after a week on the Back Country trip. you can definitely do the high Pyrenees on 140/120 (the odd person does it on a hardtail) but they’re long days and it’s hard riding – you’ll be less tired and have more fun on a longer travel bike (especially if you’re prone to trying to keep up with other riders). Their rental bikes are Orbea Occam LTs (150/150) and, on the high Pyrenees, the guides (and most guests) are usually on Rallon or equivalent 160 or 170mm travel.

Maybe Rent a bike from them if a longer travel bike doesn’t make sense for your usual riding.

never had real issues with the caterpillars. A bit of skin irritation but nothing serious (they’re worst around  march apparently). I’ve also never used DD tyres (exo+ have been fine, but ymmv)

I reckon the Flaremax will be fine with some grippy tyres.

I’ve been on the coast trip once. Seemed good value considering the amount of work that goes into it. Accommodation was very nice, in fact it appeared to be brand new. I’ve not seen this mentioned anywhere but Basque MTB guide from the rear of the group. Doug explained why they do this, with some excellent reasons, all very logical. However, our group didn’t think guiding from the rear worked very well. All new trails for us, with lots of turnings and crossings to navigate. Otherwise the guides were fantastic, funny and yet very professional. Weather was a little damp the week we were there but the trails were still awesome.

Food was a little hit and miss. The bacon each morning was the best I’ve ever had. Can’t blame Basque for this, but be careful if anyone goes into a restaurant for lunch and orders a “pizza”. The guides did sort of warn me. It turned out to be a big slice of ham for the base, with a thick layer of artery clogging cheese and a small splodge of sauce on top, all sat on a slab of indelibly tough fried beef. Dunno if it’s a local speciality but I’ve never seen anything like it, and I worked in the pizza industry.

I’ve been on the coast trip once.

coast trip really is very different terrain to high Pyrenees.

@b33k34 which would you recommend?

Yes it’s definitely very different. Why do you mention that?

If I were going with Basque MTB again I would want to be doing Pyrenees or Ainsa. The coastal trails were great but also a little too much of a ‘we could have gone to wales or scotland for this’ vibe.

Basque MTB guide from the rear of the group. Doug explained why they do this, with some excellent reasons, all very logical

Would love to hear more….

Can anyone comment on high Pyrenees Vs Pyrenean Odyssey?

Don’t the coast and back country before. The only thing that put me off the bigger trip was seeing bikes dangling under a helicopter scratching each other.

Thanks for the comments guys! Except the pizza one 😂 Can’t say that conveys Basque food for me!

We guide from the back, except for when there are loads of junctions, which isn’t often as our trails tend to be long and easy to follow. Why? Anything that happens the guides are there quickly. If you are off the front realistically you are just showing the one fastest guy the way and leaving everyone else behind… anyone who isn’t right behind is in the same situation at any junction. I know one guy that is alive thanks to having a guide uphill from him so we won’t be changing that ever. On most trips there are a few guides though so we have them in front middle, back middle and back so that no matter where you are there is a guide behind you / making sure you are ok.  Almost 20 years has shown me that guiding from the front is fun for the guide but guiding from the back is safe for the guest.

We don’t do helicopters any more. For lots of reasons but to put it simply it is partly ethical and partly cost vs quality of trails. Bikes were never hanging or scratching though… that’s not our style!

Odyssey vs High Pyrenees is simply that the Odyssey goes higher and each day has a big effort to reach a high point because we go WAY above where 4×4’s can reach. The High Pyrenees is much more focused on the descents.

Hope that helps! Drop me a mail any time with questions though. I try to answer direct questions here where I can but often am busy and not checking the forum.

And thanks again for the comments. We aren’t perfect but we do try our best… we know how lucky we are to have you riding with us because if you aren’t there it’s just a hobby and not a job!

Would love to hear more….

In their experience it was best to have the guide behind to pick up any mechanicals, crashes or dropped/lost riders straight away and not need to go back up the trail searching. That’s fine, but it also means there’s no one at the front who knows where to go, what features are coming up and to keep the group moving. I mean obviously the guide gave regular directions, but it’s not the same.

As I managed to injure myself prior to the trip and was mostly somewhere near the back, this didn’t bother me as much as the faster guys at the front.

Edit, Doug beat me to it, but I’ll leave it here anyway

@doug_basqueMTB.com apologies if I’m misremembering some of the pics I thought I’d seen. Maybe it was the mules/donkeys. I always appreciated the care given to loading the bikes into the Basque MTB trailer and to the spacing of bikes on the 3rd party trailers. Very tempted to leave the Mrs behind and come to do something bigger.

Yeah, we did a bit with mules but the bikes were very protected… the mules too!! But after a couple of trips with journalists and friends we worked out that actually it’s better to carry your own bike and let the mules carry the food and camp.

Definitely a future guest here. Reading with interest!

@sharkattack don’t be afraid to ask anything… drop me a mail or whatever and I’m always happy to answer questions. Well, unless it’s over breakfast before I’ve had one coffee! Maybe that is where the “gruff bearded” bit came from 😂

@doug_basqueMTB.com I take it that the high Pyrenees week is the one to do for big mountain days?

That’s the highest trip. Well apart from the Odyssey.

Not sure if I’m quite fit enough for the Odyssey. I’m ok with a bit of hike a bike, but don’t really enjoy massive sufferfests.

Why we guide from the back….

Thanks for confirming. Pretty much what I expected 🙂

Was just intrigued that it was specifically called out.

let the mules carry the food and camp

and intimidate the skinny dipping guests 😁

oh and congratulations Doug on being on the cover of the upcoming mag (there’s a mag??)

@bitmuddytoday because I’d happily ride a shorter travel bike on the basque coast (though it can get steep and techy there too) but I’d definitely prefer an enduro bike for the back country, and definitely for the high Pyrenees (haven’t ridden  oddessy but that’s HP but more so. Big hike a bikes and descents from mountain tops)

@kramer they’re all great.  Basque Coast is great riding and least hectic (as it’s from a single location) and has most flexibility in technicality.  I don’t know what accommodation Doug is using now but worth a premium to stay in Hondaribbia – it’s a really lovely town with great food.  The mountain trips are all multi location so you’re packing bags, loading vans and arriving at accommodation late. They are tiring. But they’re a real adventure and all take you to some really special places. The sense of achievement from getting to proper high mountain passes and summits on the HP (and more of that on odyssey) is brilliant but personally I’m  less of a fan of the highest mountain trials – I get more out of the lower sections,  Back Country has more of that – for k and me it’s  our favourite.

I’ve not done the Ainsa enduro but I’ve just spent 5 days here unguided (as we have the last couple of years after a guided trip).  The hotel Doug uses is excellent, there’s good eating here and lots to explore – both HP and BC trips pass through,

It’s really hard to convey just how good the riding is here but we were a bit unlucky this year and had a bit of rain. So the guides replanned and we did some easier “more XC” trails for the morning while it dried off a bit.  They were stunning and a load of fun.

And the scenery around Ainsa is, well :

because I’d happily ride a shorter travel bike on the basque coast (though it can get steep and techy there too) but I’d definitely prefer an enduro bike for the back country, and definitely for the high Pyrenees (haven’t ridden  oddessy but that’s HP but more so. Big hike a bikes and descents from mountain tops)

Ah. I’ve been on various trips to the Alps and southern Spain, which I imagine are similarly technical to the Pyrenees. That’s more on what I based thinking the Flaremax would be okay for the job. Rather than the Basque coast trails we rode. So long as the tyres and brakes are solid. Wouldn’t want to take brakes that aren’t 4 pot. Of course a enduro sled would be preferable if there’s a choice.

I did a similar trip last summer with my trusty Flaremax, and it handled the terrain like a champ. The trails varied from rocky to smooth, with some steep ascents and thrilling descents. Your bike’s suspension should be just right for the job, especially with those specs. As for the trip itself, it was absolutely epic.