Mountain biking in the Pyrenees?

JamesBrckmn

This summer, me and my family are going on holiday in south west france, near the Pyrenees and the spanish border. We might hire bikes on 1 or 2 days, if there is good cycling and good bike hire places not too far away. I have had a look on a couple of websites, but the bikes look quite old fashioned, and i don't want to be on a rigid with v's in the Pyrenees. We are staying just north of Biarritz.
So, do you know of any good bike hire shops?
and what riding/trails should we do?

bomberesque

we rode 2 years ago in Font Romeau and Axe Les Thermes. Font Romeau is about 3 hrs drive from Perpignan iirc and there was bike hire there but that's the other end from Biarritz. Axe Les Thermes is about half way along (near Andorra) and tehy had lifts open upto 3,000m fog permitting!

The bike industry was in its infancy a bit, trhe shops were basically ski shops with some bike stuff in and the lifts were open more for walkers than for bikes but things were changing and we saw bikers there.
I loved the biking in the pyrennes, more than in the alps if I'm honest. The alps are great but they're so bloody steep whereas the Pyrenees are generally more rolling (but still top 3,000m in places) making them more rideable.

There are marked trails everywhere, just find the local Tourist office and they'll sell you or give you a map of the local ones.

JamesBrckmn

Because i'll be with my Dad, i don't mind if there are jumps or drops and stuff, but there will need to be wimp out routes for him, so nothing too extreme.

doug@basqueMTB.com

There's a bike hire shop in Biarritz where you can get decent hardtails, it's called Singletrack64, but there's nothing near for hiring good full suss bikes (that I have found during a lot of searching!).

It depends what you want to ride. In Biarritz / Hossegor there are some great sandy roads along the shore if you just want to do some sightseeing. Also, we're based just 15 minutes away on the border and there is some epic riding here, the real problem is that very little is marked and most of the best stuff isn't on the maps. You could also drive for 2-3hrs into the Pyrenees and there will be more marked trails there with lifts.

Give me a shout if you want. I think my e-mail is in my profile.

bomberesque

doug@basqueMTB.com wrote:

Give me a shout if you want. I think my e-mail is in my profile.

or maybe in your username

I'm gonna pass your name to a mate of mine who spends loads of holidays on the french side near you (married to a local).

JamesBrckmn

Thanks doug. We'll probably go to singletrack 64. Do you reccomend any areas of the pyrenees for riding? We're not looking to do full on DH, more all mountain/trail/xc stuff.

doug@basqueMTB.com

Thanks bomberesque! It is my username in fact, I didn't think of that when I was typing!

James, the area around the Spanish border and into Spain is full of hills. There aren't any hills that don't have great trails on them! If you fancy having an explore the best thing is to try and get to the top of one of them on a fireroad and poke around and search for the singletrack. Please watch out though, the maps here are rubbish and very often they don't bear much relation to the ground! If you mind getting lost a bit you'll no doubt have a lot of fun!

The area round Biarritz is a lot flatter and although there are good places to cycle they're not what I'd call 'mountain biking'. Watch out for some of the trails along the coast, they're closed to bikes in summer.

JamesBrckmn

Just remebered we won't be able to take bikes on the car, as we'll have the roofbox, so do you know any bike hire places, in the Pyrenees, where we could cycle from.

doug@basqueMTB.com

Hmmm... not that you can cycle from. I guess there must be further into the Pyrenees but I'm afraid I don't know. You'd get 2 bikes inside almost any car though.