Ryanair are flying to Perpignan airport for free on the weekends that our Perfect Pyrenees trips run this Autumn. The flight back is only 15 quid as well (or just £1 and no tax for the last weekend!).
How bloody good is that!
There’s obviously taxes to deal with and extra fees for bringing your bike etc. But you can’t complain about the initial price.
After Friday’s ride I decided to try some more trails I hadn’t ridden in a while. Chatting to guests at breakfast about some routes to ride I realised I hadn’t been up the Col de Bassachaux all summer so Guy and I headed that way. We started out on a muddy, but great fun trail down to lindarets, me wondering why I hadn’t been on it sooner this summer. Once up and at the col we decided to try out a trail neither of us had been on before. It started as perfect Alpine singletrack, traversing the hillside. All going well untill a slip of the wheel saw me putting the wrong foot down and falling backwards down the hill - luckily the bushes were soft and a handy tree was there to grab hold of! We carried on snaking through blueberry bushes until yet again I put the wrong foot down and disappeared backwards into the bushes - at least they tasted good!
After that we rode a trail Guy had done before (but not me) and opted for a new second half - one of the best discoveries of this season. A fantastic mountain bike trail that appears barely ridden. Rocky, rooty, with some tight switchbacks, we had to head up for another go.
After that we descended down to Lindarets, in part on an mtb trail I hadn’t done this year, and then down to Lac Montriond, and back to Morzine.
A great day out rediscovering, and discovering, some fantastic Morzine mountain biking trails!
This weekend saw the Trophee des Jeunes Cyclistes come to Morzine. Young riders from across France gathered to compete in speed tests, road rides and cyclocross. I spent Saturday morning helping out at the cyclocross race, at the bottom of the Pleney, watching the riders compete. It was fairly wet and slippery so there was lots of falls, but also lots of impressive displays of skill and determination.
There’s plenty of stuff on web forums from both lovers and haters of Morzine. As we’re running a business here, we have a vested interest in the future of mountain biking in Morzine. We’re trying to encourage the tourist office & town hall to improve things for mountain bikers. It seems that they’re willing to listen to us outsiders, so whist the irons hot and all that…
I’ve created this here survey:
http://www.surveygizmo.com/s/62902/morzine-mountain-bike-trail-user-survey
I’d be most grateful if you’ve got 5 minutes to spare to let us know your thoughts.
Feel free to comment on this post as well, but the survey might have more influence and has some room for ranting!
Nice one
Guy
It’s easy to forget just how great your local trails are when you ride them regularly. Today I headed up the hill and rode some of the trails I rode pretty much every week last year, and have ridden only once so far this summer. I’d forgotten just how much fun they were! It also helped having a friend along who hadn’t ridden them before, pointing out the amazing views and fun trails.
It’s great re-discovering some of the Morzine mountain biking I’ve neglected this season 
So it’s been about 2 weeks since I got back from Champery - about time I told you how we got on!
So being the inaugural freeride week, it was bound to be less than full, and so it proved: With 3 attendees, myself and our local Swiss-Canadian guide, Joel, our group was a speedy 5. Less hanging around for faffing, falling and punctures suited us just fine.
Josh and Guy on the Col de Coux singletrack
Day one: Champery
Day one saw us riding the local Champery trails, the Col de Coux was hiked up with big bikes in just under half an hour. Then the 700m descent back to Champery made full use of the 7 to 8 inches of travel we all had (except for Ryan, who braved it out most of the week on his Cove Stiffee SL). With that hike out of the way the rest of the day was spent riding downhill singletrack and the Swiss National course.
Day two: The Morgins trails.
Joel was dead excited to show us his (he’s a local trail builder) newest creation - latoboggane. It’s a fast, flowy, bermy, jumpy track they’ve built this year. And it was great. Super smooth berms, no braking bumps and a huge road gap that Joel was only too willing to demonstrate. The boy can fly.
Joel flys over the road gap
The afternoon was spent sessioning the new track as well as trying out the old blue run and the freeride black run (complete with ladder drops, jumps and some truly steeeep stuff indeed.
Chris rails a berm
Champery Jump park:
The boys were obviously not completely tired out when we got back to Champery that evening with a session on the Champery Jump park - right in town. Chris even managed to get to the 4th plank from the top of the wall ride on one attempt but admitted that it was getting a little scary when he started to see the road on the other side 
Chris styling it
Check back for part 2 of the round up soon (on the next Rainy day I suspect!)
The top two photos were taken by Chris. Cheers!
More pics in the gallery here
Once again we’ll be selling off our Santa Cruz hire fleet come September. If you are interested in grabbing a top of the range bike at a bargain price then here’s what we’ve got:
1 * Small Heckler, Blue, 1500 euros (from last year)
2 * Medium Hecklers, White, 2000 euros each (this years)
1 * Large Heckler, White, 2000 euros (this years)
1 * Medium VP-Free, Black, 1650 euros (last years)
1 * Small VP-Free, Green, 1750 euros (last years)
1 * Large Bullit, 1750 euros (last years)
Bikes all come with a 1 year frame warranty from Jungle (the UK importers)
For more details, specs and photos, please get in touch! mail me on guy@flowmtb.com
Nicole Cooke claimed Great Britain’s first gold medal in Beijing with an impressive victory in the women’s road race, taking Britain’s 200th Olympic gold.
The 25-year-old from Wales came out on top in a sprint finish, coming home in a time of three hours, 32 minutes and 24 seconds.
The 126km race featured two laps of a 23.8km circuit before concluding on the Great Wall of China, and was hampered by bad weather, maybe all that training in British conditions helped her win out!
Cooke had been helped out by Team GB colleagues Emma Pooley and Sharon Laws. Pooley played a vital pace-making role and eventually finished in 23rd while Laws came home 35th having spent a large part of the race at the front of the peloton. A pretty impressive show from the Brit girls.
The dirtgirls 2008 trip is now over, with everyone heading home yesterday. The final few days saw us riding a challenging ridgeline descent (with various spectacular tumbles); pushing our limits on the downhill courses; and lots of giggling at video footage of ourselves riding, falling and getting cross with ourselves. Champery very kindly put on a fete du vin for the final night so we spent the evening trying lots of different local wines before finally stumbling back for dinner.
At the awards (with prizes of twin six tees and sombrio gloves kindly donated by Minx) everyone was a winner. And me more than anyone as the girls gave me a fantastic birthday cake (the final day was also my birthday) which we all shared before heading to Mitchells for drinks.
A great week of riding with a brilliant group of girls, bring on the next dirtgirls trip!
We’ve had three days of riding and everyone’s tired, sore and ready for a well-earned rest day! So far we’ve done forest singletrack to Val d’Illiez, downhill trails in Morgins, Croset and Chatel, and plenty of other great Swiss trails.
Bikes have been battered, and so has one of our girls, forced into rest by ligament damage on her thumb during a fall on the Croset DH course. The rest of us have battled on, and we saw grins aplenty on the Morgins singletrack and DH course today! And even happier faces when we stopped for a glass of wine at the end of the day at the gorgeous sur cou bar, just above Champery, surrounded by stunning mountain views.
I still can’t decide whether to join the spa trip, the via ferrata trip or the riding group tomorrow……
