The Pyrenees is a visually stunning collection of mountain ranges that span the border of Northern Spain and Southern France. This huge area is full of diverse and challenging zones to ride a bike, from big mountain ridge lines, long natural single track and manicured bike park and trail centres, it's a must see destination for any enduro focused mountain biker.
While there are dedicated downhill trails and bike parks in the Pyrenees such as Loudenvielle, it's enduro and E-Bike that are best ridden here. The destinations are quite under developed in comparison to areas in the Alps, such as Morzine, Les Gets, Chatel or even Austrian resorts such as Leogang. The riding in the Pyrenees tends to favour nature, and being outside of official riding centres.
Where you do find signed and built trails, they will often be built without the use of machines. Areas such as Vielha have had some machine work to help build an incredible network of riding, but it's really only a handful of bike parks that have invested in such measures. The majority of trail work here is done by hand, using the hillsides to create some fantastic, but often steep and technical riding.
Pyrenees Trail Gallery
- Advised bike - Enduro or aggressive trail bike or 140mm - 170mm
- Fitness - 3/4
- Skills and Technical Ability - 3
- Riding Style - All Natural / Epic Adventurer
With so many riding options available in the Pyrenees, and a huge area to cover, it is difficult to cover the ability needed to enjoy a riding trip here on one page. Therefore we will base our advice on our High Pyrenees and Loudenvielle MTB tours.
The High Pyrenees tour is a point to point adventure, covering both Spain and France, also involving a heli bike trip. You would need to be a dedicated mountain biker to enjoy this trip, you'll need to have good levels of fitness, stamina and mental fortitude for some of the climbs, that access the best trails. You will also need to be mindful of your fear of heights, if you suffer from vertigo some of the riding, especially the heli drop, maybe too much for you. There plenty of other exposed trails on the program also. The level of riding requires a good level of skill, nearly being all natural singletrack, graded red to black. There are steeps, rocks, roots and everything in between, this is one of the most technically challenging tours we run.
Loudenvielle is similar, though a bike park, it is based on quite steep hillsides. The very best trails are red and black grade. While there are blue runs in the resort, there are not many and these would be considered a warm up for the more challenging routes, rather than a network of trails that make up a bike holiday.
If you have any questions regarding your ability and the riding in the Pyrenees please use the contact form below and feel free to ask any questions. One of our team will get back to you asap.
