BACK TO NATURE
You won’t find loads of berms or jumps in La Thuile, Italy – just rocks, switchbacks and the kind of loamy singletrack dreams are made of
As Dominique drops into the descent, I hang back. He’s keen to show off his skills, but he’s riding a carbon cross-country bike with an almostslick back tyre and no dropper post, while I’m on my enduro bike. It seems only sporting to give him a head start (and sensible not to run the risk of running into the back of him). I needn’t have worried. As we roll through rock slabs, following a thinly-strimmed line through thick alpine heather and grass, Dom lays down powerful pedal strokes where I’d have freewheeled, manualled or gapped sections to save energy. The Superkappa trail – or K, as it’s known to the locals – continues for 7km and only gets better as we carry on down. It’s got everything you could want from alpine singletrack – flow, tight ravines, switchbacks you can blast through and stunning scenery. The grins stay on our faces from top to bottom.
Bobsleigh run
Rewind the clock a few hours and our day begins as all days in Italy must begin – with a strong coffee. We’re in La Thuile, a beautiful town that lies in the shadow of Mont Blanc (or Monte Bianco, as the locals call it). It’s a regular stop for the Enduro World Series, thanks to the alpine forest and vast, rugged mountains that surround it. But it also has a ‘bike park’ filled with waymarked trails. Forget the normal machine-built booters and berms though – La Thuile’s trails have been left as natural as possible, and mostly follow old hiking paths. That means they’re riddled with rocks, switchbacks and, in places, loam – that elusive perfect dirt we all dream of riding.
Our guides for the day are Enrico Martello, a former XC and enduro racer who’s now the enthusiastic force behind all things bike in La Thuile, and Dominique Sitta, one of the athletes he trains. After a quick chat, we hook our bikes onto the first of two chairlifts and are whisked up to 2,350m, where we’re spoilt with views of Mont Blanc, glaciers and mountain ridgelines.
Climbing away from the start of the other trails, we shoulder our bikes for a brief hike-a-bike section and then we’re at the top of our first descent – Superkappa. This is where Dom gives us a proper schooling in XC speed. Next up – after an obligatory cappuccino pit stop – is La Serva, which starts similarly but heads down a different side of the mountain. We’re again greeted by rock slabs, before we find ourselves rallying through high-speed turns and dropping into the trees.
This is where the trail becomes special. The singletrack flows through
IT’S GOT flow, tight ravines, switchbacks you can blast through and stunning scenery. The grins stay on our faces from top to bottom
lush green forest, the dirt offers perfect traction and the turns link up effortlessly. It’s almost as if we’re riding a bobsleigh track, as we bounce off banks and carry our speed down the mountain. Suddenly we’re into a section that feels like a World Cup downhill track, where our bikes dance beneath us as we throw them into the corners and off the hand-built jumps.
Pulling up for a breather, we all high-five. This is one special trail, and we’re still not at the bottom. The last section is a traverse back to town on fast-rolling loamy singletrack. It seems like there’s a natural double out of every corner, which we just can’t resist pulling up for.
Loam sweet loam Both trails we’ve ridden so far have been amazing, but our guides tell us there’s even better riding outside of the bike park. Starting at 1,000m above La Thuile (which itself sits at 1,500m), the Col Croce trail is rarely ridden, because there’s no chairlift to the top. But it was good enough to be used for stages of the 2016 and 2018 EWS, so we’re keen to try it for ourselves. After climbing for two-and-a-half hours, we reach the top, where we find ruins and trenches dating back to the Second World War. We’ve chosen to tackle the descent at sunset, to ensure epic views – and we’re not disappointed.
The trail is everything we could have asked for. We drop into a series of tight, technical switchbacks strewn with rubble from glacial melt, which keeps us on our toes. After winding our way through alpine pastures, we’re into the pine trees. This is where the loam is to be found. If you’ve never ridden loam, you’re missing out. It’s the mountain biking equivalent of powder for skiers – you glide through it, effortlessly turning and carving down the trail, the dirt whipping up after you. Or at least, you do if you’re in front. If you’re behind, you get blasted with the pine needles and dirt coming up off the previous rider’s rear wheel!
Slamming through switchbacks and nailing ridgelines, with burning brake pads, we all share the stoke, screaming and whooping as we make our way down to the bottom. This has to be one of the best trails in the world, worth every second of suffering on the pedal up.
WITH BURNING brake pads, we all share the stoke, screaming and whooping our way down to the bottom