A little late in the year to be planning these things but hey-ho.

The wife and I would like to have a Europe base bike holiday. We went on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Colorado (Crested Butte area) last year and wondered if it was possible to do something similar in Europe.

So far our list of (possibly unrealistic) desires are:

1. Flowy natural singletrack (whiteroom style?) rather than DH gnarr.
2. Out and back or circular day routes.
3. Not lift assisted other than as a means to access natural trails, prefer to pedal up, happy to do a bit of hike-a-bike.
4. Pretty environment – prefer green and mountainous to brown and parched.
5. Not particularly bothered by having it guided, but marked or well described trails would be good to minimise navigation time.
6. Base ourselves in an apartment and drive/ride out each day.

Can anyone suggest somewhere that ticks (some of) the boxes?

Cheers,

S

bagnere de luchon

Cheers Stoner, looks pretty much spot on from what I can see on the web.

Did you go on your own or with AQR?

The Gers – Gascony – see SW France Cycling Adventures website.
Lovely – we did a 180km loop this time last year. Area is packed with VTT trails and lots of singletrack.

Tick

The Vosges is a fantastically beautiful and constantly overlooked area of France.

Tick too!

went with AQR, really comfortable set up. Good guiding, adapted to the groups wants and needs. Rides going out from the door. Was a while ago now though.

I like the pyrenees, v different to the Alps, natch.

Cheers, looks like some good options there.

S

The Alpine route 1 in Switzerland looks interesting. Planning to do it some time this summer. 700km and 20000 metres climb following Alps.
Alpen route 1

have a look at Vinschgau in Süd Tirol.

often go 2-3 times a year.

well geared up for riding and lots of accom available.

Sounds to me that you could pick any Alpine resort as a base and just buy a decent map and explore.
PdS would work esp staying in the less popular villages with the advantage of lift-access to gain heaps of singletrack.
Or how about basing yourself in a resort and having a couple of 2-3 day loops staying at mountainhuts – gives you great flexibility where to stay and often you’d be the only bikers there, Austria/Switz particularly well equipped for such a trip.

A couple of years ago we looked for something similar and ended up in Ainsa for 10 days riding the Zona Zero trails. Great fun and varying levels of tech. All well signposted but not trail centre and no uplift. EWS is there this year if you need testament to the quality! But great singletrack on old walking trails.

I’m with the professor, entirely possible to go to a place int eh alps and get a map or visit the local tourism office and they often have VTT with all the maps.

It’s what I do when I go there

Sat in Zona Zero right now with a group. We’ve done over 3000m of descending on perfect singletrack. It’s a special place. You have loads of way marked routes. We tend to mix and match and we obviously have lots of can uplift but if you are happy climbing (on Singletrack a lot) the you have the marked routes.

It was Doug and Ed Oxley’s photos that inspired us to go on a last minute booking. The climbing isn’t too bad if you dont have Doug’s van, and the views are good.

I was looking for an old thread on the Vosges and came across this.

Stoner – Member
bagnere de luchon

Point 1 from the OP:

1. Flowy natural singletrack (whiteroom style?) rather than DH gnarr.

From my limited knowledge of the area this sort of rules out Bagnere de Luchon. The trails you see marked on the maps are predominantly walking routes, with lots of gnarr if you try to ride them. Find a local guiding company before you go, without local knowledge you’ll be doing more walking than riding.

Something a bit leftfield, I watched this video the other day and wondered if I could get there this autumn or next spring.

http://www.epictv.com/media/podcast/trail-pirates-pillage-menorcas-classic-cam-de-cavalls-|-trail-ninja-ep-23/601983
For some reason that won’t link properly and will have to be cut and pasted into the address bar

http://www.camidecavalls360.com/en/

pirhana – there are some DH routes there but the majority is flowy ST.

I’ve always found the riding to be very different in the Alps/Europe compared to the riding in Colorado, the Alps do have flowy sections but often you soon into a steep sided valley, where the riding can become slightly more exposed/technical, the trails in Colorado are the most flowy ive ever ridden, i’d rather ride there than anywhere else. Wouldn’t mind trying the trails in Idaho next.

doug_basqueMTB.com – Member
Sat in Zona Zero right now with a group. We’ve done over 3000m of descending on perfect singletrack. It’s a special place.

Been perusing your site lately, was the first thing that came to mind when I read the OP’s post.

Trying to organise a group of mates fora week this time next year. Maybe even a quick recce day in the summer…

So I am interested in pretty much the same, from the above the places mentioned are:

Bagnere de Luchon, France
The Gers, Gascony, France – see SW France Cycling Adventures
The Vosges, France
The Alpine route 1, Switzerland
Vinschgau in Süd Tirol, Switzerland
Zona Zero trails, Ainsa, Spain
Cami de Cavalls, Minorca, Spain

Two more I have spotted and would be interested in opinion of are:

Livigno, Italy
Finale Ligure, Italy (other recent threads on this)

Any other ideas?

I don’t know the trails but Verbier has a lot of them signposted – navigation would be easy (which is often a stumbling block without a guide IME)

I’ve been a few times to Livigno and Finale Ligure and they didn’t disappoint me at all.

Livigno, at 1800 metres alt. Plenty of flowy singletrack. Full of bike shops and excellent place to spend holidays. Can’t remember the names of some routes by heart but La mina loop or Paso gallo are superb. Nearby you can do the Suvreta pass, starting from St. Moritz, which you can link via Chaschauna (or similar spelling) pass. Very steep though.From Scuol via Livigno there’s the permanently marked 444 mtb route, near 135km and 4000metres climbing. It’s also the race course in late August. There’s also a bike park. Plenty of routes also from nearby Bormio/Santa Caterina.. There’s a marathon race late July there Valtellina bike marathon??.
Very good maps for 1€. I bought the 6 of them.

Finale Ligure: ride the 24h finale course. Super fun fast singletrack with good views of the mediterranean sea. Rest of it is more technical and rocky than Livigno. Tons of dusty singletrack. Generally good weather and dries quickly after rain. Don’t ride on wet trails as there are plenty of slppery rock under leaves. As a bonus you have the beach. Good bike shop in Finalborgo old town.
Plenty of maps and marked trails.

Both are awesome mtb destinations

Dolomites, Sella Ronda Circuit?

Did a guided day there last week.

Certainly ticks the scenery box – I’ve never been anywhere more picturesque, and I’ve been to most of the lumpy bits of western Europe now.

Some lovely flowy singletrack. A bit of boring doubletrack as well, but I’ve a feeling the guide tailored the route to suit the less gnarr-orientated members of the group.

Also fairly well signposted and lift assisted.

Quite short though at about 55km. I guess you could make it longer by not using the lifts or by exploring the various valleys that radiate outwards from the Sella Ronda bit.