Sussex-MTB

While on holiday with the family on the shores of Lake Garda in Italy, I got the chance to sneak off for an afternoon of MTBing… so with much excitement I jumped into the hire car and sped off to the northern part of the lake, where the Alps meet the shores, and mountains tower above you all around.

This particular part of Italy is a bit of a Mecca for all disciplines of cycling and I had already enviously eyed large groups of MTBers, Tourers and Roadies over the last few days (yes, even the road riding in that area is epic and looked like a lot of fun) and was pretty exited that now I was going to get a turn. My plan was a simple one… Drive to Malcesine on the Eastern side of the lake, hire a freeride MTB, use the cable car with bike lift access to get to the top of Monte Baldo at 1700m and then nail it back down.

Roadie?

After speaking with the bike hire shop it became clear that they were not going to let me hire out a freeride bike to take to the top of the mountain; I think that they believed it would take me too long to get back down and they shut at 6pm, plus I don’t think they liked the fact that I was on my own. I briefly tried to convince them that I could get down in time, but I couldn’t speak much Italian and they couldn’t speak much English so I soon gave up on that plan and plan B sprang into action. This consisted of starting the post-holiday health drive early by hiring a hardtail and riding up into the mountains as far as I could before nailing it back down. They seemed to be happier with this plan.

The Ghost

So after being kitted out with a Ghost SE 4000 hardtail I hit the slopes and started climbing up and up on a combination of narrow switchback mountain roads followed by roughly cobbled cart tracks and lung-busting mountain tracks into the Pine forests that clung onto the sides of the mountain. Keeping an eye on the time, I was hoping to clear the tree-line and get up into the Alpine meadows near the summit before having to turn around and head back down… But it was very hot and the going was pretty tough in places. Despite this, my Ghost managed to “spirit” me up to around 1200m (but still within the Pine Forests) before I had to turn around and start the descent.

On the way up my trail radar had been in full effect and I had noted some very enticing entrances to single track trails that snaked off into the depths of the forest. It was fairly obvious to me that these were trails that had been carved out by MTBs, and were certainly not official as they were not marked on any maps. After a 10 minute rest I got ready to set off back down, but not before the safety reminders that I had remembered to recite to myself. Must remember: Your brakes are continental style, ie the wrong way round. You’re using V-brakes. You’re on a 100mm hardtail. You’re on your own.

Forest singletrack

I’m not going to bore you with every last detail of what came next, but I will say that I struck gold. The Alpine forest singletrack was among the steepest and most rocky trails that I had ever ridden. On some parts I was just a passenger on the bike but all of it was awesome. I spent about 20 minutes hanging off the back of the bike, weaving between rocky outcrops and trees and dropping off rocky step downs. I’d never managed to get a set of rims as hot as I did on this part of the descent… to the point where I could smell burning rubber and had to stop regularly to adjust the brakes.

Cobbled switchbacks

After a while the forest gave way to olive orchards, holiday cabins, small farms and spectacular views across the lake… Oh, and more steep, tightly switchbacked trails all armoured with baby-head sized cobbles, similar to some of the trails experienced with Freeride Spain (Imagine the Bubion ride on steroids mated with Brutus for Men). These trails were easier to stay in control on and just so much fun, but dished out a severe beating to the body and bike and went on for miles and miles.

Baby heads

By the time I rolled back into the bike shop I had pretty much melted a set of brake blocks, removed most of the oil from the forks, somehow managed to stop the fork lockout from working and given myself a serious dose of arm pump. €10 very well spent I think!

I’d certainly recommend the area to anyone wanting to get away, especially on a cycling break, or even to mix in a bit of cycling on a family holiday. I would jump at the chance to revisit the area with one of my own bikes…

Posted on October 7th, 2009 under Articles, Ride reports • Tags: garda, hoops, italy, lake garda, mtb, photos, singletrack, sussex-mtb. • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback