Photos: Pascal Leeau and Tristan Shu
Sponsored by Chalet Chardons
Riding in the Alps is amazing fun. The trails offer a steepness and intensity you simply can’t find in the UK and with so many resorts now opening their lifts to mountain bikers, your tyres can taste fresh dirt each day, every grain of it on world class trails.
However, if you head to one of the popular resorts it’s far from perfect – the chalets are expensive, the lift queues can be longer than a game of cricket and the braking bumps will leave you unable to straighten your fingers until winter. That’s why we think it could be time to look a bit further afield for your Alpine summer holiday needs.
We reckon that the top of your list should be Tignes. Tignes lies about 100 miles south of Les Gets and is partnered with the Val D’Isere resort that hosted a round of the World Cup in 2012. It offers a myriad of man made and natural trails, similar to any other Alpine resort, but it has one trump card hidden up its sleeve… It’s totally free.