We have been flat out with All Mountain riding and a bit a technical xc for the past few weeks. As the word continues to spread about the work we have been doing down here for the past seven years (our birthday is just round the corner!) Lagos and the Algarve is getting a great reputation for quality, technical descents and it is a perfect place to hang out post ride. To be fair it seems that mountain biking is growing the world over and the UK has some amazing trail centers. The trails we have been building are more wild than the carefully groomed trail centers. Our routes are a journey down the mountain, we take you through many different types of trail on one descent, some of it wide and fast, others tight and technical, all of them using the mountain to it’s best and showing you the stunning area we live in. This is part of the attraction of All Mountain tracks, they can be built in sympathy with the surroundings. Downhill tracks are fantastic and DH racing is still the pinnacle of the sport but they have to be built to take a huge number of runs for a race, which can leave a motorway blazing down the side of a stunning vista.
The new All Mountain route we are building follows ancient pathways down the side of the mountain that have been used for centuries to cart loads along a trade route by donkey and foot. Some of them were long forgotten and lost in the forests, we have searched them out with the help of local farmers and now we are clearing a truly breathtaking line down the mountain. We have already cleared over half of the big descent and as soon as we have time we will test ride it and post a video. The route from the top has been planned, we have hit some unseasonal hot weather this week so we are waiting for the temperature to drop before clearing the rest of the route. For anyone riding later this year you will be in for a treat if you ride it.
We are running a fleet of Saracen Ariel full suspension bikes now, the riding we are doing has stepped up because of the routes we have built so we have stepped up the bikes! They will have dropper seat-posts for the technical xc rides and for anyone who wants to test out how well they work.
There are some photos of the track build here and a video here.
See you on the trails soon.
The Mountain Bike Adventure team.
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