Mountain Biking in Europe: A Road Trip

In the summer 2005 we travelled through western Europe by car looking for singletrack. Our bicycle trip to California 2004 had convinced us that we would ride more and better singletrack if we drove to the trail heads instead of spending days cycling along busy roads between places with fine singletrack. So we stuffed the car with our bikes, tent, stove, clothes, and set off in mid-July heading for Wales and Scotland via Denmark, Holland, Belgium and France.

Amsterdam

White Cliffs of Dover

In the UK we first went to Coed y Brenin in Wales. Then to the Sevenstanes in Scotland. The riding was splendid, the weather was horrid.  So we soon  longed for  a  sunnier climate. We  did  a loop sightseeing  in  Nothern  Scotland before  turning south.  First we headed for Chamonix, where it  was also raining  heavily. After a good  ride on the  Balcon Petite Nord  we drove on to Portes du  Soleil a down hill paradise. We tried lift supported riding for the first time. Then, we continued down to Sospel on the French Riviera driving over a lot of passes, as we went via Martigny and the Great Sankt Bernhard Pass to Aosta, on over the small Sankt Bernhard Pass back to France and on along the Route des Grandes Alpes to the Maritime Alps.

Sankt Bernhard Pass

Col de La Bonnette

We spent some days in Sospel riding. Now, we felt strongly for sea and sunshine and decided to head for Andalusia in Spain. We did go up into the Sierra Nevadas but found no riding. Instead we went sightseeing, enjoying a local fiesta and the Andalusian beaches, etc.

Cap Agde a lovely French beach	Taifa Beach
Africa is in the far distance	Gibraltar

We soon longed for moutains and cycling and returned to France and Italy, where we stopped for a while in Riva at Lago di Garda before going on to Sankta Maria Val Müstair, Andermatt and Brigg in Switzerland.


This page was mounted by Per Löwdin 2006-03 28.