We have teamed up with Commencal for 2009 and will be offering a selection of their brand new 2009 bikes.

For the serious riders out there or for those looking for a bike for the pedally Megavalanche and Mountain of Hell or for one of our gravity fueled singletrack weeks we have the award winning Commencal Meta 5.5.3. equiped with a good mix of Fox, Rox Shoxs , SRAM and Avids

For those who are less serious about their mountain biking we have the Commencal Normal Disc equiped with Suntour 100 mm travel forks, and a mix of SRAM, Shimano and Avid.

Both can be booked via our Mountain Bike Holidays website Ride Oisans  . We are the only company in the region that allows you to book online !

To get a better deal on these bikes then join us on one of our mountain bike holidays in the Oisans

[please note all rooms are twin room with en suite and each of the two a joining chalets have a sauna and garage / fettling space]

for more information on price and availability please visit our Megavalanche Accommodation for 2009 webpage

Dirt Magazine have just announced that they will be staying with us in our luxury Mountain of Hell chalet over at Les Deux Alpes in 2009. For more information of this see our Mountain of Hell Catered chalet week

Big brothers moving to Australia and has kitted himself with an Orange Singlespeed- what ever next a 29 er !

What ever you do - do not bring a singlespeed on our Mountain Bike Holidays ! There are too many big mountains and i dont want to see peoples knees exploding everywhere

Un très beau parcours sportif de 100 Km à travers l’Oisans, réservé aux bikers bien entraînés ! Départ des 2 Alpes, arrivée à Bourg d’Oisans, en traversant l’Alpe d’Huez et de nombreux villages et stations de l’Oisans. Le parcours est technique et roulant, même en cas de pluie. L’itinéraire est principalement composé de superbes descentes de type “single tracks” et de pistes en terre. Cette épreuve attribuera des points UCI (classe XCM E1) et des points pour la Coupe de France FFC 2008.

You will take the same route as for the 2006 World Championships!

A beautiful sporting route of 100 Km through Oisans, reserved for well-trained bikers! Starting in Les 2 Alpes, finishing in Bourg d’Oisans, passing through Alpe d’Huez and many other villages and resorts in Oisans. The route is technical and fast, even in the rain. The itinerary is mainly composed of fantastic “single track” downhills and mud tracks. This event will allocate UCI points (Cl: XCM E1) and points for the FFC 2008 French Cup.

Event open to all (over 19). Medical certificate required for non licence-holders.

Town centre accommodation available

Alpe d’Huez have just announced their first VTT Cycling Festival. For more information visit the bike-oisans website.

The dates are the 22-23rd August 2009

In a quite week here at Ride Oisans I went off on the hunt for some new trails over at St Christophe en Oisans. All started well with a fantastic rocky switchback decent through the scattering of houses. I got to the valley floor - started riding a long for 200 metres and came across a waterfall - with no way passed. Only one thing for it and that was to turn back and hike back up :-(.

The next section I came to was some more great switchbacks and rocky descent - this time there was only one hike a bike section . The rest of the trail back to Bourg d”Oisans I know - but it included a fantastic descent down to Venosc from Les Deux Alpes (when the lifts are open) and then a blast back to our base in Bourg d’Oisans

We are now taking bookings for these two events in 2009

The Megavalanche takes place from the 6th to 12 th July up at Alpe d’Huez. For this event Ride Oisans have a luxury catered chalet. The accommodation is for 1 week and includes a days reconnaissance of the Mega Race track (with private uplift back to Oz en Oisans) and private uplifts back to Oz en Oisans on Qualifying and Race day.

The Mountain of Hell takes place on the 17th -19th July (the weekend after the Mega) over at Les Deux Alpes - Less than 20 km away from Alpe d’Huez - We have secured a luxury catered chalet for this event as well for 1 week. For those of you that have not ridden at Les Deux Alpes or the Mountain of Hell then this is a real must while you are in the area. Again the accommodation is for one week ending on Monday 20th July

The prices for each individual holidays are 550 GBP (Approx 700 Euros) or a combined price of 900 GBP (appox 1150 Euros)

Both chalets will include breakfast, afternoon cake evening meal, and as much beer and wine as you can drink - plus loads of free local knowledge as we live here and ride the trails  as part of our mountain bike holidays! )

For videos of 2008 events please click on one of these links

• Megavalanche Practice Video top section
• Megavalnche Practice Video Bottom Section
• Mountain of Hell Qualifier Video

ALSO - for anyone who joins us on our Megavalance / Mountain of Hell holidays we will give you a spanking 10 percent off in 2010 (excludes megavalanche and mountain of hell week but does also include our Skiing and Boarding weekends)

We have teamed up with Singletrack Magazine and are now offering all their subscribers 10 percent off all our holidays (excluding holidays in July). So if you fancy riding the legendary 84 switchbacks of Oulles the descent of the Col Du Galibier , the Megavalanche trail, or one of a dozen other fantastic trails then ride with Ride Oisans.

On a perfect autumn day in the Oisans the challenge was to find the mountain bike trail down the Col du Galibier - think Tour de France. A plan was hatched -

1. Pack road and mountain bike in the minibus
2. Drive to the Col du Lautaret
3. Drop the road bike off with Helen to look after
4. Drive van up to the top of Col du Galibier (2650 metres approx)
5. Ride down the Ancient Galibier Road
6. Meet Helen at the Col du Lautaret and swap over to road bike
7. Ride up the Col du Galibier to pick up the van
8. Drive back down the Galibier
9. Meet Helen at the Lautaret and have a coffee
10. Sleep well that night

Well I did it the descent was fantastic - super fast , rocky. The climb well that was great to but you can check that out at the road blog.

The organisers have just announced the dates for the 2009 Megavalanche they are the 6th -12th July 2009. Entries will be taken for the event from 12th January. We will also have a chalet in Alpe d’Huez again so contact us at info@rideoisans.com for more information or check out the Ride Oisans website.

Course de VTT de descente, ouverte à tous, pendant 3 jours (une journée de reconnaissance le 17 juillet et 2 jours de course les 18 & 19 juillet), réunissant amateurs et professionnels dont le but principal est de se dépasser dans un pur esprit freeride et convivial.
Ils seront 400 pilotes au maximum à prendre le départ de ce véritable derby de VTT depuis le glacier des 2 Alpes, soit 2500 mètres de dénivelé négatif ou près de 25 kilomètres.

Pour Mountain of Hell le chalet de Les Deux Alpes

The dates for the 2009 Mountain of Hell have been released - 17th-19th July 2009 - and we are going to have Mountain of Hell catered chalet accommodation up in Les Deux Alpes for the event - and also have our house in Bourg d’Oisans available. If you have done the Megavalanche then you need to step your game up and do the Mountain of Hell. Link the 2 together and so the Mountain of Hell and Megavalanche double combo.

Not heard about the Mountain of Hell then check out our video of the qualifying event from 2008

En le 17-19 Juillet 2009, la station d’Oz en Oisans accueille les Championnats de France de VTT FFC !

Les 4 épreuves de la discipline sont au programme : descente, four-cross, cross-country et trial.

Le programme sportif sera bientôt disponible.

Renseignements sportifs et inscriptions - Fédération Française de Cyclisme

Accommodation: Ride Oisans

We have just had an article published in Distilled Mag- for an electonic copy of it click here or on the picture belows.

Distilled mag has released some of its article online - check out www.distilledmag.com for more details or click on the picture below to read the article.

The guys over at Les Deux Alpes have announced the dates for the 2009 Mondail du VTT (18th - 21st June)- for those of you that don’t know it - its where all the mountain bike companies show off their products and you can demo bikes. There are also quite a few mountain bike races and demos going on as well.

Ride Oisans are offering a weeks holiday in Bourg d’Oisans to ride the trails up at Les Deux Alpes, check out the giant expo and also ride some of the hidden gems in Alpe d’Huez and the Oisans valleys all for 450 euros

For more information check out our website at http://www.rideoisans.com

Just a very short ride from our house in the local woods are some rather large “north shore” wood has been constructed - not sure how long it is going to be there but some of it is huge and I will NOT be dropping off it any time soon. Here are some pictures anyway and you can come and have a go (if you are brave enough) if you stay with us in Bourg d’Oisans on our singletrack mountain bike holidays.

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We have started putting our new holiday dates up for next year - so if you are after gravity fueled singletrack including the 84 switchbacks of Oulles or the decent from Alpette (picture shown below) then check out mountain biking holidays here.

We are a holiday company that specializes in finding the best trails in the area and combining them into epic all day rides for you and your all mountain bike.

We are just waiting for confirmation on the 2 big events of the year the Megavalanche and the Mountain of Hell and we will then fill in the missing gaps for the year. Remember also that if you book before the end of 2008 then we will give you a lovely discount for 2009 - just contact us for more information.

Some video of crashes and mishaps from the Megavalanche, Mountain of Hell and riding out of our garage !

We have just finished a taster for the forthcoming video check it out here !

Awesome trail found today - switchback heaven - I would tell you about it but would have to shoot you - of course if you came on mountain biking holiday with us I would show you !!!!!

Anyway have a look at these photos and decide for yourself

The Col d’Ornon is better know in the road riding circles as a classic mountain climb. But just off the Col there is a massive mountain bike ride with over a 900 metres of climbing over toward Oulles and 1300 m of descending.

Check out more of the photos here and look out for some of the video action in the forthcomming Ride Oisans Mountain Bike Holidays Video

Went up Alpe d’Huez to watch the Tour de France today and found this lovely bit of singletrack - going up to ride is as soon as…..

Ride Oisans Mountain Bike Holidays - finding alternative routes down Alpe d’Huez for you

Click here to see the Mountain of Hell video from  Saturday. Remember we will be providing a double whammy of catered accommodation for 2009 - a week in Les Deux Alpes and then a week in Alpe d’Huez for the Megavalanche.

more photos from the qualifier can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/rideoisans 

Well all I can say is the Mountain of Hell makes the Megavalanche seem like a tame cross country race - though it might be because I have ridden the Mega loads of times and had not had a chance to scout out the Mountain of Hell qualification run. We are running holidays for the Mountain of Hell and Megavalanche 2009 so keep an eye out on http://www.rideoisans.com for more information. 

Went over to Les Deux Alpes today to register for the Mountain of Hell - did not get a chance to ride but took a few quick snaps of the slopestyle practice and some other random stuff going on.

Will be riding qualifying tomorrow at 2pm  ! To check out a video from last years event watch the Mountain of Hell video.

Lapierre bikes were up n Alpe d’Huez today showing off their 2009 range of mountain bikes - They had some great long travel bikes which were stupidly light !

Here is a selection of pictures from their pitch in Alpe d’Huez

Photos from this years French Trials competition in Bourg d’Oisans the home of Ride Oisans

For accommodation however you like your bike !  

Martin Hawyes, Chris Akrigg and Neil (and Zac) outside Ride Oisans HQ  the sunday after Megavalanche

Race day arrived with thunder and lightening and the snow start was finally abandoned as the lifts were unable to open! I was based down at Allemont providing our guests with our priority lift service up to Oz at the end of the race. 

The race was a mud bath and everyone seemed to enjoy it although they were all disappointed not to do the snow start.

Of our guest Chris Akrigg had the best finish with a 54th place , Andy Hibbert 74th and Graham Neale 124th. Of the girls Rachel finished 14th.

Full results can be found here