South Pyrenees Tour: Itinerary

Basque MTB’s South Pyrenees Tour. A tough mountain biking holiday in the Pyrenees!

Our south Pyrenees tour is a challenging mountain bike holiday, touring through some of the best mountain biking on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees. The biking in this part of Spain is technical and challenging with stunning views and old villages. The itinerary below gives an outline of the holiday however, as always, we will keep the tour flexible so we can tailor it to the group we have.

Day 1: Arrive in Bilbao or Biarritz airport. Drive to the Roncal Valley.

After picking you up in the airport we will drive for a couple of hours through France and into Spain to arrive in the Roncal valley. We spend the night in the historic town of Isaba, surrounded by the majestic Pyrenees mountains. The next morning we take advantage of a big uplift in the van. Today is a mix of tough singletrack climbs, contours and fast flowing singletrack descents. For the last 10km of the day we will ride a stunning riverside singletrack that gradually winds down the valley back to our base.

Day 2: Ride the Roncal Valley, Drive to Sabiñanigo

The next morning we will get an early start after breakfast and drive around an hour and a half to Sabiñanigo, a popular ski resort in the winter. On the way we will stop and buy bread in a little traditional bakery, arguably the best bread in the world! Today there is no uplift and we hit the singletrack almost as soon as we leave the hotel. Today’s mountain is topped by a small chapel, and surrounded by several small villages. Each village is linked to the chapel, 1000m above, by singletrack and to each other by another singletrack. We will use the lower singletrack to skirt round the mountain before we climb on a very easy path to the summit. After reaching the chapel at the summit we just have to choose one of the singletracks to descend. Ideally I would like to do the climb twice but we will see how everyone gets on. The descents are all very distinctive. One is an exposed rocky ledge where we actually ride through little chapels built into the side of the cliff. Another descent is all switchbacks and fast loamy straights. Today is a tough one but a good one!

Day 3: Semi abandoned villages in Guara.

Today is a short transfer, around 30 minutes. We drive into a little valley which appears to have been forgotten by time. The valley sides are covered with old stone villages, abandoned for decades. In places some have been converted to holiday houses, or taken over by the Hippies. The best thing about abandoned villages, with regards to mountain biking, is that they are all linked by old paths. These paths are going to form the trails for the next two days. We know the park rangers in this area along with people who clear and maintain all the old trails. The advantage of this is that we know the best singletrack for riding on. The trails here are a mixture of huge bedrock slabs, rocky switchbacks, baby head rocks and loamy forest toboggan runs. Today there will be help in the van as well, so you can rest your legs a bit. We will spend the night in an abandoned village which has recently been reinhabited. The village is tiny, however there are a couple of pubs, a little hostal and stunning views across the mountains.

Day 4: Rocky Mountain Bike Heaven in Guara.

Guara is proof that God loves us and wants us to ride mountain bikes! Huge rocky capes of rock cover the hills, offering a perfect alternative to our usual singletrack trails. Multiple line choices, tapered steps offering drops from 6 inches to 6 feet and swoopy, pumpy undulations make us feel like the riding Gods we will never really be! We will spend another day here to enjoy yet more trails in the area. Today’s trails have recently been cleared by local horse riders we know. These people are crazy. They use horses like we use our 6″ mountain bikes and love technical singletrack and it turns out that the trails which are good for horses are great for mountain bikers too!

Day 5: Drive to Ainsa. Ride Zona Zero.

Today we will take a short but dramatic drive down a deserted valley to a stunning town called Ainsa. The trails today were shown to us by local friends who have managed to secure government funding to maintain mountain bike trails. The trails here are a bit looser than Guara, with tight corners where you can drift the bike round. To ride fast here requires a lot of skill, however we can all enjoy todays trails at our own speed. We will link together the prepared trails to make sure we get the very best from the area, and we will use the van to help us in the morning so we can give our legs a bit of a break. This evening we will stay in Ainsa itself, at another friends apartments, and enjoy the stunning medival town with the big mountain views in every direction.

Day 6: Ride the Onioner! Best views in the Pyrenees.

It is time to start moving back towards the west coast of Spain again. Driving west from Ainsa on one of the most stunning roads in the Pyrenees we will arrive at Torla where we are going to spend the night tonight. Today’s ride makes up for its lack of length with its stunning views and perfect singletrack descent. We will only ride around 20km today using an easy fireroad to climb as we take in what the locals claim are the best views in the Pyrenees. There won’t be much time to look on the descent so make sure you soak it all in on the climb!

Day 7: Drive back to airport.

Sadly it has come to an end and we need to go home. We will pack the bikes and drive back to the airport in plenty of time to catch your returning flight. Hopefully you have enjoyed this week of mountain biking. As the locals in Spain say, “if you don’t enjoy the South Pyrenees you should sell your bike!” That’s a bit harsh but they have a point.