I normally do the Megavelanche but I’ve promised my girlfriend she can come on next year’s adventure. Unfortunately she is a teacher so we are limited to the summer hols (August and some of July I think). We could just go to Morzine for a week but it’s always better to have some sort of event to look forward to. Does anything happen at this time of year?

It doesn’t have to be alpine or lift assisted – I’m open to different locations and don’t mind peddling up hill. There just has to be biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig mountains ?

If you really don’t mind pedalling uphill then there are the Eiger Bike Challenge and Grand Raid Cristalp, there’s the MB Race as well but that’s 7/8 July, might be a bit early?

the Grand Raid is excellent

The Bike Attack in Lenzerheide Switzerland.

http://www.bike-attack.ch/

Or have a look at pages 42-52 of this months Single Track mag.

Wow – some challanging events there!
How does the Grand Raid work?
Is it a point ot point race or a loop?
Do be people ride it just to try to complete – or is it for racers only?

point to point, different lengths, with return transport provided. not the most singletracky, but incredible atmosphere. not just racers… number boards have your name on, there’s nothing better than having a whole village out shouting your name! i did it in 08 and will be back asap.

Grand Raid is point to point but with easy transport options to get back to the start or to Sion.

There is a huge number of starters however you should be aware that almost everyone takes it pretty seriously. Even the slower riders give it everything (this is a cultural difference in CH/DE, same for running races – there are no “fun runs”)

Depending on the weather and your fitness, cut-off times can be quite tight.

Organisation is perfect, scenery divine however don’t expect to be riding singletrail all the way – it’s mostly fire road, and be ready for a nice hike a bike up a scree slope at almost 3000m…

Are you after a weekend event around which to base a holiday, or are you looking for ideas for week-long riding for one or both of you?

If the latter, riding some or all of the Chemin du Soleil route might be of interest:

http://grande-traversee-alpes.com/chemins-du-soleil

Not so much biiiiiiiiiiig mountains as lots of ’em and loads of riding an scenery…

DoctorRad – option 1 ideally. My other half likes to have 1 or 2 days riding and nothing more extreme than fire roads – she mainly likes to walk. So a week or 10 days somewhere including some sort of event (1 to 3 days max) would be ideal. If I cant find anything then just somewhere with great riding – possibly guided – or lift assisisted.

I have done freeridespain in the past in Sierra Nevada which was fantastic!

Get some flights to Nice, hire a van, drive to Andorra and rent some bikes. Go play in Granvalira…
http://www.chrisdaviesphotography.com/recentwork/andorra

Or this was off the back of a cheapo holiday to a friends apartment on a golf resport in Spain:
http://www.sidetracked.co.uk/edition-07/spain-mtb.php

Chris
(Excuse the shameless plugs!)

If you stay in Morzine and you fancy an adrenaline rush, you could try the Fantasticable in Chatel:
Fantasticable

How about this then? Fly into Nice, and get Greg Germain to take you on his “Traversée du 06” route, for three days of trail riding in arguably one of the best corners of France with initial uplift every day:

http://www.1001sentiers.fr/en/guiding.html

You’ve then got the rest of the week to lounge by the pool / sea, or drive up into the mountains and get some more riding in. There are a couple of smaller resorts with bike parks and lifts within an hour’s drive of Nice. Stay away from the coast if you like things cooler / cheaper than the Riviera.

Book onto the Grand Raid, and book into Bike Verbier for your accommodation/training etc. Then when you get there, see sense, sack the event, and spend a week enjoying some of the world’s best backcountry singletrack with a fantastic bunch of people. Simple.

Greg is running his “Traversée du 06” twice next year: 28-30 June and 8-11 August with slightly different trails and a longer ride in August.

Lots of great ideas everyone!
I am beginning to come around to the guided riding option rather than the event option.

Grand Raid sounds like a fantastic challange – im just not sure mentally I could cope with the down-hill-on-fire-road-in-the-Alpes side of it.

Traversée du 06 – tell me more……

Seriously, if you’re looking for guiding and want some epic, unforgettable adventure days on virtually untouched singletrack in big mountains, just check out http://www.bikeverbier.com. Plenty of folk on here will rightly rave about them. A very good option for couples, too.

Grand Raid sounds like a fantastic challange – im just not sure mentally I could cope with the down-hill-on-fire-road-in-the-Alpes side of it.

Believe me, after 5000m of climbing, you’ll be happy that the DHs are not too involving. Having said that, it’s certainly not all fire road and even the fireroad is loose and rocky and requires a hell of a lot of skill to ride fast.

You are right though – the Grand Raid is not a holiday.

Traversée du 06 – http://pages.citebite.com/j8c1q9o9oqjt – 3-4 days of mountain biking with great trails, mountain atmosphere and shuttles, between the col des Champs and the sea.

Greg is a trail guide, guide book writer and MTB journalist for Velovert in France. I also believe he helped Ash out with the trail scouting for Trans-Provence. He knows that part of France better than almost anyone else, I’d hazard, and will put together custom trips for you if that’s what you want. Top bloke, speaks English, BEESAC qualified guide and the only MTB guiding company on the Riviera to have the “Tourism Quality” label.