27 September 2011
Molini
Ray has sent in this report of the Molini trip which seems to have been very much enjoyed by Simon, Ray, Antony, Tread & Charlie.
Walking my bike bag and suitcase to Charlie's house at 2am Wednesday morning, was a little early and I could tell Charlie had not been awake for long. Roads all quite on the way to Tread's mums where we all met up and loaded our kit into the back of Antony's van. No spare seats so had to squeeze in with the luggage on route to Gatwick. No Easyjet queue so checked bags in early and went straight to the bar whilst we waited for tread to take the van back and return in a taxi. Felt strange drinking beer at 3am but what else was there to do?
Flight was good, except for the guy sitting next to me who had terrible halitosis further compounded by the 4 brandies downed in quick succession and an annoying insistence to talk crap. Arrived in Nice to lovely hot weather with not a cloud in the sky. Joe, co owner of Riviera Bikes, picked us up and drove us the 100k over the Italian boarder and up into the Alps. This was my first experience of the Alps and it was big, much bigger than what I was used to in Wales.
Arrived at the hotel Santo Spirito and managed to bag my own room on the top floor, Charlie bagged the first floor and Simon, Antony and Tread all shared a room on the second. Drove down to the bike workshop, unpacked our bikes and spent the next hour assembling them, luckily no damage in transit.
Met up with Adi, the other co owner of Riviera Bikes and our guides Matt and Simone. Simone was about 18, had lived all his life in Molini and was uber fast. Loaded our bikes onto the trailer, piled into the back of the van and started our first ascent. Started to wonder what I had let myself in for as we climbed the mountain, roads were very narrow and twisty, some of the barriers were crash damaged and their were lots of blind corners, decided not to sit in the front next time. Arrived at the top of our first decent Maggiore (Max Factor), unloaded our bikes and put on our body armour and full faced helmets. Matt suggested I put my saddle down so I dropped it an inch, he laughed and advised me to drop it all the way, now I was starting to get worried.
The first descent was absolutely thrilling, steep and rocky in places but very fast and flowing, obviously a warm up for the more serious stuff to come. The first thing I realised was my arms were really pumped with all the braking and my brain was working overtime dealing with all the potential near death experiences. Next few decent's got better after I adjusted the brakes so that my hands and wrists were more in line with my arms when hanging over the back wheel and dialed in the brake levers so that I didn't have to stretch my fingers so much.
The first accident happened on Monti Cuppo. Matt our guide decided to show off his skills just in front of Charlie on a reasonably fast decent, some kind of bunny hop twisty in the air thing, lost his front wheel on the landing and flew straight over the bars. Fortunately he was ok, mostly suffering a bruised ego. Our final decent was Beginners Bends, very steep and rocky at the top with lots of tight switchbacks at the bottom. Was glad it was the last run as I was starting to feel tired and fatigued, started to wonder how I was going to survive the rest of the week. Great evening in Badalucco, beer, pizza and ice cream with all the other riders on the tour, slept well that night.
The next days riding was extreme but mega exciting. We were joined by newly weds Amy and Ken who were on their honeymoon and turned out to be great riding companions. Starting to build up confidence now, more enjoyment, less terror. We did all the serious stuff (blue, black and double black) from extreme rocky decent's that you just had to point, ride and hope you survived to very fast single tracks with sheer drops to one side that you had to ignore or be consigned to getting off and walking. Everyone was riding well, though Simon had a couple of falls that fortunately were not too serious. His first off was Oranges, a mega technical double black run that kicked him of the trail and knocked the wind out of him. Not to be put off, he quickly got back in the saddle, rode another hundred yards, lost his front wheel on some gnarly roots and hit the ground hard. This time it was a bruised hand. The psychology is tough, confidence building is gradual with each decent but the set back after a crash is unfair. Pasta lunch was scrumptious, locals certainly know how to cook their pasta.
Evening drinking however got the better of me, started off with a few beers followed by a bonanza of Grappa shots; Antony's choice of Lemon Cello, pleasant in name but not in taste, Charlie's choice of the local paint stripper, again not very nice, Tread's choice of an obnoxious hot toddy version that made your eyes wince when trying to drink it and my choice of a fruits of the forest fermentation that looked nice but again was just awful. At this point I realised I was out of my league with Charlie and Simon happy to continue the madness, decided to make my apologies, quickly left and spewed my guts up outside the hotel. Plan was to get up early in the morning, clean up and hope nobody would notice. Did my bit to hide the evidence in the morning but it was all too late, the whole town was already a hive of gossip about who the mystery pavement artist could be.
We all suffered in the morning, the drive to the top of the mountain was quite, no enthusiasm like the day before. Bending down made your head spin and the thought of riding in such a sorry state was a little unnerving to say the least. After a few runs the adrenalin cleared our hang overs and it was almost back to normal, though Tread came very close to throwing in the towel and riding back to the hotel.
The rest of the week was simply awesome, once you build up the confidence and ride with speed the trails became thrilling and very addictive. Charlie flew like the wind with only a few heart stopping moments, Antony and Tread were both on form and constantly trying to out ride each other, Simon was as confident as a well seasoned vet and was in his prime in the jump park and I had the time of my life (no exaggeration)
Would I go back next year? Definitely but with bigger forks and a little more respect for the local Grappa.
These are some of the decent's that I can remember:
Maggiore (max factor)
Monti cuppo
Fantasy
Triora
Oranges (Simons nemesis)
Beginners bends
Colla bracha
Terre rosse
Agrifolio
Belinda
Tubo
Magic roundabout
You can find out more details about them at http://www.rivierabike.co.uk/bikingandt ... rails.html
Flight was good, except for the guy sitting next to me who had terrible halitosis further compounded by the 4 brandies downed in quick succession and an annoying insistence to talk crap. Arrived in Nice to lovely hot weather with not a cloud in the sky. Joe, co owner of Riviera Bikes, picked us up and drove us the 100k over the Italian boarder and up into the Alps. This was my first experience of the Alps and it was big, much bigger than what I was used to in Wales.
Arrived at the hotel Santo Spirito and managed to bag my own room on the top floor, Charlie bagged the first floor and Simon, Antony and Tread all shared a room on the second. Drove down to the bike workshop, unpacked our bikes and spent the next hour assembling them, luckily no damage in transit.
Met up with Adi, the other co owner of Riviera Bikes and our guides Matt and Simone. Simone was about 18, had lived all his life in Molini and was uber fast. Loaded our bikes onto the trailer, piled into the back of the van and started our first ascent. Started to wonder what I had let myself in for as we climbed the mountain, roads were very narrow and twisty, some of the barriers were crash damaged and their were lots of blind corners, decided not to sit in the front next time. Arrived at the top of our first decent Maggiore (Max Factor), unloaded our bikes and put on our body armour and full faced helmets. Matt suggested I put my saddle down so I dropped it an inch, he laughed and advised me to drop it all the way, now I was starting to get worried.
The first descent was absolutely thrilling, steep and rocky in places but very fast and flowing, obviously a warm up for the more serious stuff to come. The first thing I realised was my arms were really pumped with all the braking and my brain was working overtime dealing with all the potential near death experiences. Next few decent's got better after I adjusted the brakes so that my hands and wrists were more in line with my arms when hanging over the back wheel and dialed in the brake levers so that I didn't have to stretch my fingers so much.
The first accident happened on Monti Cuppo. Matt our guide decided to show off his skills just in front of Charlie on a reasonably fast decent, some kind of bunny hop twisty in the air thing, lost his front wheel on the landing and flew straight over the bars. Fortunately he was ok, mostly suffering a bruised ego. Our final decent was Beginners Bends, very steep and rocky at the top with lots of tight switchbacks at the bottom. Was glad it was the last run as I was starting to feel tired and fatigued, started to wonder how I was going to survive the rest of the week. Great evening in Badalucco, beer, pizza and ice cream with all the other riders on the tour, slept well that night.
The next days riding was extreme but mega exciting. We were joined by newly weds Amy and Ken who were on their honeymoon and turned out to be great riding companions. Starting to build up confidence now, more enjoyment, less terror. We did all the serious stuff (blue, black and double black) from extreme rocky decent's that you just had to point, ride and hope you survived to very fast single tracks with sheer drops to one side that you had to ignore or be consigned to getting off and walking. Everyone was riding well, though Simon had a couple of falls that fortunately were not too serious. His first off was Oranges, a mega technical double black run that kicked him of the trail and knocked the wind out of him. Not to be put off, he quickly got back in the saddle, rode another hundred yards, lost his front wheel on some gnarly roots and hit the ground hard. This time it was a bruised hand. The psychology is tough, confidence building is gradual with each decent but the set back after a crash is unfair. Pasta lunch was scrumptious, locals certainly know how to cook their pasta.
Evening drinking however got the better of me, started off with a few beers followed by a bonanza of Grappa shots; Antony's choice of Lemon Cello, pleasant in name but not in taste, Charlie's choice of the local paint stripper, again not very nice, Tread's choice of an obnoxious hot toddy version that made your eyes wince when trying to drink it and my choice of a fruits of the forest fermentation that looked nice but again was just awful. At this point I realised I was out of my league with Charlie and Simon happy to continue the madness, decided to make my apologies, quickly left and spewed my guts up outside the hotel. Plan was to get up early in the morning, clean up and hope nobody would notice. Did my bit to hide the evidence in the morning but it was all too late, the whole town was already a hive of gossip about who the mystery pavement artist could be.
We all suffered in the morning, the drive to the top of the mountain was quite, no enthusiasm like the day before. Bending down made your head spin and the thought of riding in such a sorry state was a little unnerving to say the least. After a few runs the adrenalin cleared our hang overs and it was almost back to normal, though Tread came very close to throwing in the towel and riding back to the hotel.
The rest of the week was simply awesome, once you build up the confidence and ride with speed the trails became thrilling and very addictive. Charlie flew like the wind with only a few heart stopping moments, Antony and Tread were both on form and constantly trying to out ride each other, Simon was as confident as a well seasoned vet and was in his prime in the jump park and I had the time of my life (no exaggeration)
Would I go back next year? Definitely but with bigger forks and a little more respect for the local Grappa.
These are some of the decent's that I can remember:
Maggiore (max factor)
Monti cuppo
Fantasy
Triora
Oranges (Simons nemesis)
Beginners bends
Colla bracha
Terre rosse
Agrifolio
Belinda
Tubo
Magic roundabout
You can find out more details about them at http://www.rivierabike.co.uk/bikingandt ... rails.html
