Summer trips....

[Rolls]

Righty then guys -
To be honest its probably a little late in the day to asking, but have you guys got any recommendations for places to go / stay etc over the summer..
Criteria are as follows:
Not based in Borg (we've done Huez for the last 3 years) or Majorca (off there in April)
Max a week

Road based

Thoughts?

[jamiebae]

Lugano in Switzerland and the surrounding area

Loads of fantastic roads to ride, challenging climbs, great weather and you're a short ride from the Italian border and Lake Como. Less risk of getting ripped off than in Italy and the food is just as good.

I did a weekend there last summer, and will certainly be back there for another weekend or two next year.

[anonymous-user]

Mrspablo bought me the book "Mountain Higher" for Christmas, full of big rides over the lesser-ridden mountains in Europe, there are some stunning looking rides in Countries like Slovenia, Croatia and Norway. Personally I'd be heading over there as I suspect the roads will be quieter. I'm sure you can find some cycling clubs, shops, tour guides or something who can help find you a weeks worth of good riding. Alternatively, just find some good scale maps of the region and spend a night plotting some routes, whats the worst that could happen....

[SoliD]

Went to Cyprus last year, and the riding was fantastic, so quiet once you get off the main roads, and the roads were in generally good or in some cases brand new condition. Views and climbs/descents were great too.

[stongle]

Grand Canaria, Meloneras.

Cyclist mag did a piece on it a few months back. Good quality hotels and food etc. Any of the Lopesan's worth staying at, normally stay at the Baobab earlier in the year (which is about 800 quid per week full board in flights).

Saxo Tinkoff train there, and they have guided rides from the Bike shop (Free Motion Sports) either here or from Playa Des Ingles which is a 10 min ride away. They'll also hire you decent quality bikes, Zipp Wheels etc etc (if you don;t want to take you're own). In the past I had a SuperSix Evo Red; but now take my own. Some of the groups rides are quite fast (faster than there quoted times). Heres a weblink:

http://www.free-motion.com/en/road-bike/road-ridin...

[richardxjr]

Similar to you we've ridden the last 2 years out of Bourg. Having a year out this year to earn house points for next year which will be Route des Grandes Alpes, Geneva - Nice over a week. Lots of new stuff for us in there. Doing some decent UK rides instead like PH does TdF Yorkshire + Scotland & Wales.

Club des singles+, Ventoux? Good day trip

[tjdixon911]

pablo said:

Mrspablo bought me the book "Mountain Higher" for Christmas, full of big rides over the lesser-ridden mountains in Europe, there are some stunning looking rides in Countries like Slovenia, Croatia and Norway. Personally I'd be heading over there as I suspect the roads will be quieter. I'm sure you can find some cycling clubs, shops, tour guides or something who can help find you a weeks worth of good riding. Alternatively, just find some good scale maps of the region and spend a night plotting some routes, whats the worst that could happen....

I rode in Slovenia last year here: http://bike-park-slovenia.com/bike-park-pohorje/ I know its a MTB park but the scenery around Slovenia was stunning, and the roads pretty good - we only cut through the North East corner of the country from Hungary through to Austria and spent a week or so there, after the route we took through Austria to Italy we kind of wished we had spent more time in Slovenia and avoided Austria all together.... We want to go back.

[Daveyraveygravey]

jamiebae said:

Lugano in Switzerland and the surrounding area

Loads of fantastic roads to ride, challenging climbs, great weather and you're a short ride from the Italian border and Lake Como. Less risk of getting ripped off than in Italy and the food is just as good.

I did a weekend there last summer, and will certainly be back there for another weekend or two next year.

Is the price of stuff in Switzerland LESS than in Italy?!

[Daveyraveygravey]

Further south in Italy you have Abruzzo, about level with Rome but the Adriatic side. Big mountains, busy(ish) coastal resorts, quiet inland farm country, fantastic food and better vfm than most places in Europe - certainly northern Italy and France.

[jamiebae]

Daveyraveygravey said:

Is the price of stuff in Switzerland LESS than in Italy?!

Of course not

In Ticino it's slightly cheaper than up here in Zürich but not by a huge amount. It's still a fantastic place for a cycling holiday though, it's much less touristy and busy than Como and the Italian lakes, but just as hilly and scenes.

[broster]

SoliD said:

Went to Cyprus last year, and the riding was fantastic, so quiet once you get off the main roads, and the roads were in generally good or in some cases brand new condition. Views and climbs/descents were great too.

Agreed, I go there every year, tackled Mt Olympus last year. Amazing ridding, great weather and roads are really good!
Speak to these guys:
http://www.mountainbikecyprus.com
They do well prices bike hire too if needed, guided rides and every training camps. Very helpful, delivered a hire bike for me and left me with loads of spares too!

[Mark83]

A mate and I stayed in Lourdes last summer and spent 10 days enjoying the Pyrennees. Plenty of big ones on your doorstep too; Hautacam, Tormalet, Luz Ardiden, Tentes, Soulor, Ausbisque and others aren't too far by car.

We took the ferry to Bilbao and drove to Lourdes rather than driving through France.

I really fell in love with cycling on this trip.

[SuperNiceBig]

Pyrenees maybe our choice this year. Riding the Raid Pyrenees route, as a 6/7 day guided tour. 710 km 18 cols 11,000 metres of climbing. Anyone done this? Any thoughts. Thanks. G.