Post by Mary on September 25, 2021
This year we’re enjoying some superb late season mountain biking. Jamie is just back from a 4 day Tour du Mont Blanc. Apart from a pretty horrendous first day of weather conditions were good. Classic September weather with cool mornings and warm sunny afternoons. The trails were quiet and the hotels and refuges are all still open. Some places are staying open later than usual this year to accommodate the end of season demand. After a summer of travel uncertainty people are starting to venture further afield at last. It’s the first time Jamie has ridden the route on his Selwyn hardtail and he beat all of his climbing records from previous trips. He’s increasingly impressed with how the bike climbs and descends.
My late season mountain biking adventure was in the Aosta valley with a group of girl friends. It’s a fantastic area to explore with so many options including epic adventure days, easy flowing singletrack and bike park fun. Aosta is well-known for it’s Pila lift and bike park and the local uplift services. However away from these services there are even more great trails to explore, which are less-well used and in better condition than some of the more popular routes. The refuges in the valley and many of the high cols have well-graded dirt tracks leading directly to them or at least within a short push or carrying distance. You can climb relatively easily up to 2000-3000m of altitude and then access huge descents back down to the valley floor. We pedaled up to two excellent refuges – Refuge Fallere and Refuge Chaligne – both of which feature on the hiking Tour de Mont Fallere. Jamie is looking at it as a possible short point-to-point adventure. We’ll keep you posted.
Looking ahead to early next season, we have a date for your diary. The Vélo Vert mountain biking festival is coming to our valley from 3rd-5th June 2022. It’s one of the biggest mountain biking festivals in France with a bike fair, testing, races and rides. It’s a great opportunity to ride our Alpine Singletrack trails and enjoy the festival at the same time. Let us know if you’re interested.
If you’re interested in some late season riding then please do get in touch. So long as the weather holds – and it usually does – we can run mountain biking trips throughout October. We hope to see you soon!