iRide Italy – Trail riding heaven
Join us in the Mediterranean Alps for a week of the best natural trail riding you’ll ever experience! This is the birth place of Enduro with Sospel, Finale and San Remo all within a few hours drive. This is where Santa Cruz launched their new Nomad and Specialized launched their new Kenovo Ebike. We’ve spent 3 weeks with our hosts Riveria Bike in previous years and the riding is so good and so varied that we just have to go back again and invite you to join us!
If authentic is what you are looking for, then you have found the perfect trip. This is rural Italy and the feeling of it’s ancient history is palpable! Little medieval villages hidden amongst massive valleys with church towers perched on hilltops are wide spread. The food is to die for, accompanied by wine of course.
This trip has mind blowing singletrack which vary between long and tech, loamy and flowy, fast berms, technical switchbacks, alpine meadows, pine & beech forests and ancient coastal trails. Your skills will ramp up and you will find a new normal when it comes to SPEEEED! Famous Italian hospitality and cuisine, fantastic weather, incredible trails and experienced guides make this a holiday made for the experienced mountain biker.
The Basics
- When: 8-14th July 2018
- Where: Molini di Triora, Italy, Liguria (Map – look at all that forest!)
- Price: R30k should cover everything including;
- Flights, (around R10k),
- Trip with Riviera Bike around R15k including;
- Hotel B&B for 7 days breakfast and dinners with wine/beer
- Shuttles
- Guide
- Visa’s (Around R1.5K)
- Insurance (Around R1.5k)
- Daily Lunch and beers comes to around 12 Euro is for you own account
Be Prepared
This trip is not suitable for beginners. Due to the nature of the trails in this part of Italy you need to be comfortable riding steep & rocky terrain. Don’t be scared away though, we have a great mixture of trails to keep the stoke levels high and to ease into things. We will be doing a mixture of shuttles & pedaling, but don’t be fooled, you still need to be fit & strong to make your way down the mountain and across the traverses.
You need to consider yourself an avid mountain biker, who loves to ride technical singletrack and ride a few times a week, you like to push yourself and is always up for a challenge. A good attitude is way more important than anything else. You need to be able to ride solid back to back days; again, the fitter & stronger you are, the more enjoyable these trips will be for you.
What to bring
A well maintained Enduro/Trail bike with between 120-160mm Travel. You can expect to descend between 2000-4000m EVERY day and this takes a toll on your body and bike so bigger is better!
If you’re bringing your own bike (you can rent Cube bikes from Riviera Bike), make sure you have dual-ply/DH tyres on! Bring a spare tyre also. Expect to get through one set of brake pads. Spokes, hangers, chain… yep, bring all that. Derailleur – probably not a bad idea just in case, but Rivieria Bike give us access to their workshop with all their tools.
Earplugs. This is vital as Italy’s Catholic history means every church bell of every church in every village sounds it’s bells EVERY half hour. The hour chimes go BONG, the half hour chime goes BING and 12:30am is just the worst. This is the only kak part of the trip but earplugs/sleeping pills solve it!
Bring a good stash of anti-inflammatory drugs and a decent first-aid kit between you. There will be blood if you are not concentrating ALL the time.
We ride with normal (half-lid) helmets. While the trails are often rocky gnar and one could feasibly argue a full-face is a very sensible thing to wear, we found that with the heat and effort, we suffocated in the full-faces. Having said that, do bring your full-face just in case you have a nasty off one day, and feel a need to be a bit more cocooned the following day.
The hotel is clean and basic. Dinner is delicious and plentiful – you will not go hungry! Breakfast isn’t quite as good, but the coffee is good.