So I realize that we're kind of spoiled living in BC with all the top notch bike parks but I was curious what parks people would recomend hitting in Europe?
European Bike Parks?
So I realize that we're kind of spoiled living in BC with all the top notch bike parks but I was curious what parks people would recomend hitting in Europe?
Switzerland and France. The rest seems to be more or less smaller.
"You don't learn from experience. You learn from reflecting on the experience."
- Kristen Ulmer
if you make it to the UK, come visit us at www.eshershore.com and tell them Rob sent you ;)
its small (3 acres of woodland with 4kms of trail, but perfectly forms)
we've had guys like Wade and Gully over here and they had alot of fun riding at Esher Shore ;)
we've also got tonnes of other places like Herts Shore, Chicksands, Aston Hills, PORC and other small woodland sites all very accessible from London by train or car
Mythic / Da Kine / Esher Shore / Freeborn
^ Your place is on my short-trip list. Definitely. Not that I could rip it…but I'd like to have a brew, talk some proper English and have a pint or two….
"You don't learn from experience. You learn from reflecting on the experience."
- Kristen Ulmer
This summmer I stayed in Morzine in the Portes Du Solei region of France.
It was outstanding! Morzine is right near the centre of a huge area connected with chairlifts. It was easy to ride from Morzine to the Les Gets or Chatel bike parks, the french national course or over into Switzerland to ride the Swiss national or the Champery World cup course.
Morzine seemed to be at least 40 per cent english so language was rarely a problem. I can highly recommend Morzine although no place I've seen yet holds a candle to whistler.
Copy and paste it into your browser.
Check out the book at this link. Got it the other day only flicked through it but it looks great, good pics too.
Eoin
Hit up Wagrain Bike Park in Austria and Spicak in Southern Czech Republic. Both are small, but a lot of fun flow. The beer in Czech is super good and cheap…
TomPro
Tom, are you involved in building the Wargrain bike park? If so, how's it coming along? I know two years ago they claimed that they'd want to rival Whistler within the next year or two but I haven't heard a whole lot since then…
There are some fun bike parks pretty much all over the place in Germany. I usually hit up Willingen and Winterberg several times a month. In Willingen you can ride the world cup 4X and DH track which is a whole lot of fun and Winterberg seems to be one of the biggest bike parks in Germany, they have a little bit of everything - a bermy trail with a couple of jumps, a trail that's entirely made from woodwork with huge teeter totters etc., a top notch slope style (last time I was there Lane McDermott happened to be there as well and he loved it), a DH track… The thing with those bike parks (there are tons more) is that they have a very limited number of tracks and those tracks usually end up being quite short - no 15+ minutes descents but rather some quick 2 minute rips.
The alps obviously are worth checking out but again, don't expect them to be like Whistler or anything. The "bike parks" in Austria and Switzerland usually are tiny but you can always take the gondola to the top of the next mountain and have some epic descents, but those trails most likely won't be anything man-made like Dirt Merchant. Then of course there's the Les Gets / Morzine / Porte du Soleil-area which seems to be amazing. Again, don't expect anything man-made but rather some epic and long descents and some technical DH stuff. I personally can't wait to hit up this area next summer.
Of course there's other stuff in different places as well. The UK seems to have some good riding and apparantly you can ride the Ft. William world cup track up there which is supposed to be a lot of fun. Andorra (located inbetween France and Spain) apparantly has some amazing riding as well and so does the Maribor area in Slovenia.
Ed, we should really meet up at Willingen (which I like more since less riders and not so much attitude towards an old fartish chicken pussy)…..although the WC Dh is definitely :eek:
"You don't learn from experience. You learn from reflecting on the experience."
- Kristen Ulmer
Tom, are you involved in building the Wargrain bike park? If so, how's it coming along? I know two years ago they claimed that they'd want to rival Whistler within the next year or two but I haven't heard a whole lot since then…
I haven't done much there, just helped DK with a bit of design. DK designed a lot of the trails there, but not all…The place has a lot of potential, but there is no rivaling Whistler.
I have been working in Ukraine all summer - www.bukovelbikepark.com. Lot more to do next year. It will be a cool place when it's done, great dirt, lots of flow - but no Whistler.
TomPro
Interesting - the terrain at a lot of places is similar (not like!!) Whistler - still, why the heck do the folks responsible build not something similar in, say, Europe? Never been to Morzine and Les Gets and the like - but Austria would be cool. Waay nearer.
"You don't learn from experience. You learn from reflecting on the experience."
- Kristen Ulmer
my favourite:
bikepark oberammergau, germany
arosa, switzerland
livigno, italy
alpi bikepark, italy/france
les deux alpes, france
portes du soleil is crowded with brits, not so impressed
winterberg, germany the same (crowded, not the brits), also no real mountain
the best riding you can get is off the bikeparks, in switzerland there are many towns with cable cars and chair lifts. we also ride often in the arlberg region or in the montafon/silvretta area (ischgl). but we like technical, steep trails in a nice scenery, this is not for everyone
There's some amazing riding in Europe because of the huge amount of trails criss crossing the mountains from thousands of years of historic use. There's not so much of that here. ;)
The bike parks are generally shit compared to what you've got here, but the "natural" trails - in places like Verbier (Swiss), around Morzine and Chatel (France), and even in the Sierra Nevada mountains (Spain) if you can handle a pedal - are all world class.
No offense to Rob up there (as he's done a killer job with a tiny area behind a shop) but quite honestly visiting Esher Shore would be a massive disappointment if you're on a once in a lifetime trip from BC to ride in Europe for a couple of weeks!
yes, best one would be if you stay in the wallis area in switzerland, there you have access to the bikeparks in bellwald, verbier, crans montana, pds, and the many lift accessed hiking trails in this area like in zermatt (matterhorn!!), bettmeralp, nax (brasilian trail) and many more…
No offense to Rob up there (as he's done a killer job with a tiny area behind a shop) but quite honestly visiting Esher Shore would be a massive disappointment if you're on a once in a lifetime trip from BC to ride in Europe for a couple of weeks!
no offence taken ;)
we always built esher shore as a "bike skate park" or "play park" if you like…I would be the first to admit its never going to compete with the likes of Whistler, etc.
its somewhere close to home, and come and ride your bike and have a blast, especially on wet winter days when the singletrack is deep in gloop elsewhere :)
but the big problem with the UK is the small size of our island and the sheer $$ of land…we have been so lucky to find our Esher site only 20 miles south of London (especially in Esher - a millionaires "footballers and their wives" village)
we think of Esher Shore as a haven to ride your bike and there is some challenging / fun stuff to ride now (its changed alot Wa since your last visit)
I would advise a travelling rider to hit up Esher Shore as part of a wider Southern roadtrip also taking in Wisley, Swinley, Chicksands, Herts, Aston Hills, Porc, Blandford (UK bike park), etc.
and then hit up the 7 Staines projects north of the border as part of a Northern road trip
Mythic / Da Kine / Esher Shore / Freeborn
Forum jump:
