A Little More Detail
The next couple of days days won't disappoint either β you'll spend time in the world famous resorts of Les Gets and Morzine on the man-made trails, and there's the option of more awe-inspiring natural riding too on our wildly switchbacking "Twister" ride. The culmination of this part of the week is a chance to attempt the Singletrack Safari take on the PassPortes Du Soleil route, following in the tyre tracks of the thousands of riders that flock to this part of the Alps for the infamous annual event. Using the enormous French and Swiss lift systems to reduce the climbing significantly, you'll complete up to 80km in a day. However, we've dropped several of the official route's doubletrack descents and replaced them with singletrack for you!
Towards the end of the week we will move south for a couple of days to our second location, the town of Alpe D'Huez β famous for being the culmination of the Tour de France's most respected road climb. The town is perfectly positioned between the two bike Parks at Alpe D'Huez and Les Deux Alpes β both of which offer some amazing riding.
The latter will provide you with a real contrast to the luscious wooded slopes of the mountains in the northern Alps β Les Deux Alpes is full of huge, open mountain sides and meadows, whilst the top of the mountain can make you think you are on the surface of an alien planet. The Bike Park here is enormous β there are dozens of trails over hundreds of kilometres β and we think they beat some of their more famous cousins hands down for flow and fun, especially for DH riding. The XC riding offers an incredible challenge β our "Ice Age" route starts in the town at 1600m and climbs to the mountain-top glacier at 3200m βcan you think of many other places where bikers rub shoulders with skiers and snowboarders? Once at the top you drop right back down, passing the town, and descend into the valley floor which sits at 900m β that's in excess 2km of vertical descending in one 15km long descent!!
What To Expect
The culmination of our week is a day at Alpe D'Huez β here you will have a chance to take on the route of the mighty and world-renowned Megavalanche, the route of which takes around 1.5 β 2 hours of descending alone...you'll drop an amazing 2600m over 33km!
The format for this week will see you riding for at least 5 days - at times fully guided and at others "supported" by us β French legal quirks mean can't officially guide, but we ride with you, and issue you with a pre-programmed GPS and marked maps to ensure we are within the law. Fortunately some of the very best natural riding happens to be just outside the French boundaries where this applies! Whilst the Bike Park riding may not require a guide we'll be on hand to point you in the direction of the best runs, and we will show you how to make the most of your time at each resort.
Accomodation & Facilities
Accommodation in the Alps is in good quality hotels β accommodation is en-suite, clean and tidy, and the hotels have good bar and restaurant facilities. In Chamonix we are based in a 3 star hotel on the edge of the town, aimed at sportspeople it has one of the towns' most popular bars based on the ground floor and the hotel also has free wireless internet access. In Alpe D'Huez our beautiful, traditionally-styled hotel specializes in cyclists' needs with a bike store and covered workspace, plus washing facilities.The hotel is located in the historic Huez village, only a couple of minutes gondola ride from the bars and restaurants in the bustling main town. Free Wifi is available in the hotel .
