No place like home…

We’re just back from a fortnights riding in various parts of Italy - around vertical mountains and perilous singletrack above Lake Garda (601 Trail!!!), and the lush jungle landscape around Finale Ligure - and we’d never thought we’d hear ourselves saying "isn’t it nice to be home!". More specifically, isn’t it nice to be back on familiar trails that leave you going "sweet!" instead of "you’ll be okay, just breath, I think it’ll only need a couple of stitches!!!"

Don’t get me wrong, we had one of our most memorable mountain bike trips abroad…Italian A&E’s are incredible places and Aneela got very well acquainted with them…but if you’re heading over to Torbole or Finalborgo for a bit of leisurely riding and some après bike gelateria, then think again.

The trails (the ones we found ourselves on anyway) are steeeeep! Let me rephrase that - they are so steep that I spent a large part of the holiday with my butt on the back tire and my thighs being sucked in through my rear stays.

And the descents…3-4 hours in and they just keep getting more and more technical: leafy singletrack, ragged slab, exposed switchback, loose rock, thorny gulleys. My braking fingers are as strong now as they’ve ever been!

Would Aneela do it again? Well, she did love the ice cream.

Would I do it again? Definitely!!!

Ciao!

p.s get in touch if you’d like to know more about our trip, or if we can direct you to some of the trails and mountainbike support that we found around Lake Garda, and Finale Ligure.