Post by Mary on June 10, 2024
The summer mountain biking season is here! It got off to a very damp start but our first guests arrive this week and the forecast is sunny and warm so things are looking up. On 31st May Jamie kick-started the summer season with an entry to the Vélo Vert festival enduro race. The conditions could not have been tougher. We’d had weeks of rain, the trails were saturated and it hammered it down pretty much all day during the race. Jamie was the muddiest I have ever seen him. There were many DNS and DNFs! Incredibly, Jamie managed to stay on his bike for the whole race and slipped and slid his way round to a very well-deserved 3rd place podium finish. Anyone who finished the enduro race merited a medal in those conditions.
At the beginning of May we used one of our only good weather windows of the Spring to do some enduro riding with the kids in the beautiful Swiss Valais. We camped near Leuk and used our van and the fantastic Swiss postbus service to access some top quality singletrack. The kids were on brilliant form, nailing tight switchbacks with serious exposure, cruising over the technical sections and generally riding better and faster than me. Jamie probably has a few more years until they catch up with him!
Jamie now has a following of young enduro trail-builders and dirt jump riders. Much to Jamie’s delight, Cameron and five of his friends have recently become very enthusiastic about building and riding jumps in the woods. Jamie took them all on a boys day out to the dirt jump park at Le Chable near Verbier last weekend with a stop off at the UCI BMX pump track in Aigle . They all thought it was a special treat for them. Little did they know, Jamie has been longing to visit those places for years and just needed an excuse! Young and young at heart had a fantastic day out.
Guided trips start tomorrow but we still have plenty of availability throughout July and early September if you haven’t yet booked an alpine enduro adventure this season. We can do good deals for single riders and small groups if you stay in our holiday apartment. Packages include a few days of guided backcountry riding followed by a few days in the bike parks. Get in touch if you’re interested.