Hard, soft, vast and often dangerous, giving an opportunity for speed that most places fail to offer. For a window of two to three months a year, from Bonneville to Bratislava, the lifts open for a window of chance like no other. The Alps slip their veil, uncovering leaky greens, hoof browns washed out with frosty, brisk waters. The sound of cable and the reassuring chatter through the pylons, the nervy swing and shudder as a rider fails to mount, the quick step off, the exposure. Decisions about what pocket to put your lift pass in, what tracks to run, the avoidance of the mandatory berm that’s every bit as ordinary as you find worldwide. The Alps. Majestic peaks and towering runs, dry mouths and wet riding gear… and gangs of blokes. And if all else fails there’s always cheese.

True, many places can be ‘real and resort’ but ironically it’s the resorts that suffer from the most xenophobia, but that’s no surprise given the transient populations at these altitudes.

The centre of the downhill universe might once have been the Alps, in fact it’s still the Alps but there has been a shift. Long travel trail bikes have stretched to 170mm and now offer sizing and geometry that allows for rapid sure–footed descending. Enduro has captured people’s imaginations, offered up possibilities. The Trans–Provence race has captured the spirit of adventure.

The French/Italian Riviera is raising the tempo, offering an upliftable and often drier alternative to the Alps. A four–hour journey from London will have you locked into some of the most inspired runs amidst mesmerizing landscapes. What makes the Riviera work is the range of options, meaning that for now at least you can be sat in a square quietly (or not so quietly) going about the business of riding. You can return to inexpensive food, a dip in the Med’, some banter with locals. For now at least.

It depends. It depends on your personality, drive, technical outlook… there are endless factors. Riding with better riders will help you ride faster and it will give you an insight into what the good guys can do. Over the years I’ve been lucky to tuck in behind many of the worlds best on track’s they do and don’t know. Get in behind a pro on a track they know well and you will be fully blown away. Try and hold on for even a short while because nothing (not film, not stills, not GoPro, not helicopter, nothing) will give you an awareness and understanding quite like it.

In terms of fitness training this is a difficult area. A good trainer will make you faster, a bad trainer will run you down. Training will improve you and at the same time might drain the fire from your belly. The right training might also be boring and ultimately what you actually get back becomes one of diminishing returns the more you do. Get it right and get fit and the payback is massive, you can pretty much ride everywhere on any bike. Ask a trainer – just remember there are good trainers and rogue trainers who have no right to be on the hill.

Believe what you want, read the online ‘reviews’ and then consider the quote my friend/journalist Seb Kemp once said, “summary of features, but no performance analysis, sales pitch not a review.”

Ten runs with twenty minutes uplift is over three hours in a smelly van with a load of people you don’t know. It’s great for meeting new friends, talking shop, geeking out, slagging, bitching and generally complaining how many lines you missed, how flickable your bike is or simpering about how your bike is “blowing through its travel”.

Just consider you can do all that whilst getting fitter by riding to the top. And so, relative to a few previous points, you need to be vanning it to get loads of technical runs in for skill, and you need to be pedalling it to be able to do multiple runs without getting tired. Strike a balance.