Europe (all)

One of my favourite training rides. A fast downhill section becomes steeper and trickier when I meet deep, stone-ridden sand. It's worthwhile to slow down, or stop altogether, to take a look at the simple but really nice landscape around here, that will be missed at speed. Vineyards with the colors of autumn, little streams, small valleys that let you feel you are away from the world. And the town is just over there, behind a rocky hill.

At 1872m I find ice on the road, no problem though in negotiating it. I then get to the alpine pass Passo degli Oclini/Jochgrimm, at 1989m. It's full of hikers up here, and with good reason. The view on the twin peaks of Corno Bianco [White Horn] and Corno Nero/Schwarzhorn (Black Horn) is great, and looking to the South you think you could touch Latemar and Catinaccio[/Rosengarten].

A general introduction to this prime area for mountain biking. (This was the first report ever to be posted on the Trento Bike Pages.)

One of my favourite trails, with a great singletrack section. The single track is really beautiful. It goes through a very varied terrain, slightly desolate at the start, then surrounded by sparse trees. A particularly nice spot occurs when crossing a creek near to a ``malga'', a wooden Alpine hut. At a couple of rough spots I prefer to walk for a few meters, so I have a chance for looking at the scenery. On such technical tracks I should really remember to stop every now and then anyway, to avoid the risk of looking only at the trail in front of me in search of the best path, and missing the scenery entirely.

Inspired by the epic Alpine stages of the TdF and GdI that I see each year on SBS TV and by the personal accounts of Jobst Brandt, Mark Chung and others on the net, I made a plan for a two-week cycle around the Alps.

Five tour descriptions: Monte Piana, Fanes, Drei Zinnen, Cinque Torri, Col di Lana.

An excellent report, also from a technical point of view.

Dyranut - Trondsbu - Sandhaug - Lågaros. This is the English version of the original Norwegian one: Med sykkel som bagasjetralle / Hardangervidda - fra nord til sør / Dyranut - Trondsbu - Sandhaug - Lågaros.

[The] report of a [...] bike trip in 1989, across the central part of the big mountain plateau Hardangervidda in Norway. The first 12 km on a narrow gravel road, the next 52 km without roads at all. My friend and I followed hiking trails.

You will find the area in your world atlas when searching south of the railway line Oslo - Bergen. We went by train to Geilo, and bus about 40 km to a desolate point at the highway to the Hardanger fjords. The endpoint of the trip was at Mogen north of the small town Rjukan, in the Telemark county. We went by boat across the 35 km distance of Mosvatn lake. Finally we made a bike trip (25 km) at the old and forgotten construction road down to Rjukan.

The Hardangervidda is a rather flat mountain plateau, at altitude 1100-1350 metres above sea level. The terrain is very easy - if you look at detailed maps in scale 1:50000. But big stones (1-2 metres), wet areas, dirt and a very small but angry wood vegetation are not indicated at the maps...

Diese einwöchige Tour - die wir zu viert unternommen haben - hat uns in jeder Hinsicht sehr gut gefallen, und die persönlichen Eindrücke über Strecken, Landschaft und einen einfach schönen Urlaub sollen auf dieser Seite wiedergegeben werden. Folgendes kann für eine Mountainbike Tour problematisch sein, worauf ich aufmerksam machen will. Nach dem Studium der zugänglichen Informationen über 'Biken' und 'Trekking' in Kreta waren wir für die Tourenplanung gewarnt. Es gibt viele auch auf den genauen Karten eingezeichnete Nebenstraßen, die nicht existieren, dafür gibt es neue nicht eingezeichnete Straßen. Wir haben festgestellt, daß alle in Mitteleuropa herausgegebenen Karten von ein und derselben ungenauen kretischen Karte abgezeichnet sind. So möchte ich unsere Erfahrungen über die gefahrenen Strecken weitergeben, vielleicht möchte sie jemand nützen.

The Bike \& Board site has the following goal: ``Das wollen wir mitteilen: in den Bergen gibt es viel mehr für die Seele als man denkt. Geht in die Berge und respektiert sie, seid wach und nehmt nach Hause ein Erlebnis mit, das dem Leben mehr Sinn geben kann.'' Among the mountain bike trail descriptions in Germany, Austria and Italy: Lagorai/Latemar (in German and in Italian), and Transalp 2000 (in German): an Alpine crossing from Germany to Italy.

Mit dem Mountainbike zweimal über die Alpen. From the MTB page of Florian Michahelles. The great story of a five-weeks trip from Mittenwald (Germany) over to Alps to Bozen/Bolzano and then to Liguria, Corse (France) and back through Lombardia and Switzerland. Individual sections are linked to under the various countries.

Alpenuberquerung mit dem MTB bei zwei Wochen Regen. Nach einem Fruhstuck aus Wasser, Milupa-Milchpulver (ab dem 1. Monat) und Musli brechen wir auf. 340km, 11.000 Hohenmeter warten auf uns. This beautiful tour will take Florian and his buddies over Switzerland and Italy.

an excellent collection of mountain bike routes by the Landesforstdirektion Tirol - Landschaftsdienst.

Jamtalhütte, Piz Puin, Inneres Bergle, Heilbronner Hütte, die Greitspitz, Silvretta-Skigebiet: six mountainbike tours with pictures.

A mountain bike ride from Mittenwald to Bolzano/Bozen in five days

An excellent site with many good trail descriptions in Great Britain, with some excursions to mainland Europe and Africa

This site is for all Mountain Bikers who love the challenge of an Offroad Adventure. Offroad Adventures - Online is an online resource packed with a collection of full ride reports, routes guides (some including maps), preparation tips, equipment, images to inspire and practical advice.

To get the most from Offroad Adventures - Online you will need to spend time to read the many articles written by Real Mountain Bikers, the equipment reviews and the advice given by riders who have ridden epics in the past.

I introduce in a brief way some itineraries cycled by the author in Spain (Pyrenees, Road to Santiago, The Silver Route, The North Route, Andalusia, but also in Greece, Croatia and Slovenia), with pictures of them, trying to show the beauty of this different and relaxed way of traveling.

The report of a varied and challenging ride in this prime mountain biking area.

This is one of the mythical Alpine passes, made famous by great Giro perfomances by Fausto Coppi and others.

Here's a simple question for you. Where is the best mountain biking in Europe? Well, 'best' depends on what floats your boat; sun, singletrack, downhills with chair lifts? However, when I lived in Germany, I posed this question to several biker friends, and always received the same answer - ``Lake Garda''. I searched through magazines for the answer and it was once again ``Lake Garda''. I was starting to see a pattern emerging. Well, my mate Dickie was on a student exchange to Trento, which is close to Lake Garda, in northern Italy. Therefore, I decided to take a few days off work and head on over the Brenner to see what all the fuss was about. The visit also coincided with ``BIKE fest'' a weekend festival where thousands of German mountain bikers get drunk in a field beside the Lake, then try to ride 80 miles the next day.

The next day's ride was decided to be a 'biggy'. I had the 'Moser' guide book of Garda, which is in German only, and provides route cards, guaranteeing that you will not need a map. I always find guide book routes too easy, so I selected a 'very hard' grade: Monte Casale. Big mistake. We set off with just the route cards, into a nondescript Italian forest, with no idea where we were headed, except that it was 'very hard'. The forest tracks climbed incessantly, until we branched off onto some pleasant singletrack. Suddenly as Dickie rode through the forest ahead of me, he unexpected threw his bike to the ground and let out an uncontrollable string of expletives! I rushed up to him, wondering if he'd been bitten by a snake. The trees fell away in a 1000m pure vertical plunge to the valley far below, we were at the edge of the cliff we had seen yesterday, and Dickie had almost ridden over it! The singletrack then proceeded to wind its way precariously along the edge for a couple of kilometres, before climbing up to the summit of Monte Casale at 1632m.

In summary, I have no doubt that this area offers the best trails in Europe. Unfortunately none of the routes are way marked, and no English language guide exists for the area, meaning that you must rely on good map reading as a means to explore the area. See you there!

A ski trip to l'Alpe d'Huez became a winter mountain bike adventure for British cyclists David George and Kate Harvey. Nicely illustrated with photos and maps.

A mountain biking guide for various regions of France with excellent practical information that is extremely helpful when organizing your trip.

You think your home trails are rough? Read what's in store here...

Hannibal (not the one played by Anthony Hopkins) Project - MTB Alpine crossing.

Auf dem Ligurischen Grenzkamm durch die Seealpen von Ventimiglia nach Cuneo. From the MTB page of Florian Michahelles. Includes Praktische Tips und genaue Daten zur Tour.

Has links to lots of mountain bike itineraries all over Italy, and over 60 such (and counting) in or near Piemonte (Piedmont): detailed descriptions (in Italian) and maps - very nice job!

You will find descriptions of most trails in the vicinity of Uppsala here. There are some absolutely marvelous trails around. In Uppsala we have excellent relationships with hikers, hunters, dog owners, land owners, bird watchers, joggers etc, and we like to maintain good relations, so there are some local ethics.

There are several areas that offers excellent MTB-trails around Uppsala. The descriptions here are in Swedish but can easily be used by non-swedish speaking people. The maps and the gradings will be sufficient to get you started.

An absolutely super site, with 100 trail descriptions in the Oberwallis region. Descriptions include a map, an altimetry profile and all relevant data.

Von Arona nach Airolo auf Schleichwegen. This is a tour over the spectacular Passo San Giacomo, between Italy and Switzerland.

A great photo archive. Each page includes no more than 3 photos, on average, 25,000 bytes [...] We hope you enjoy them. There is a help page if you are having difficulty viewing the images. The photos are not of printable quality - if you wish to use any of these pictures in a hardcopy publication, please contact us and we will supply a high-resolution file.

Has a section for Off Road Tours.

The best Russian site about trips on bike.

Excellent information and photos on this prime cycling region. Featuring photographs of the 2002 Tour the France.

Surrounded by three mountain ranges, Grenoble is in a unique position and offers a cyclist a huge variety of rides. The rolling mountains of the Chartreuse to the north, the high plateau of the Vercors to the south-west before the huge imposing climbs of the Alps to the east.

L'Alpe d'Huez; Col de Sarenne; Les Deux Alpes; La Berarde; Cols de la Croix de Fer/Galibier; Mont Ventoux (July 4, 1999).

Four rides in Toscana (May 1999):

• San Gimignano-Volterra (May 7),
• Chianti (May 8),
• Pisa-Lucca (May 9),
• Monteriggioni-Siena (May 10)

Four Rides in Dolomiti/SudTiröl (June 1999):

• Bolzano to Marmolada (June 20),
• Bolzano to Passo Mendola (June 21),
• Tre Cime/Gruppo di Sella (June 23),
• Passo Pennes (June 25)