Where Eagles Dare: High in Tuscany
Last summer I decided to book a holiday with Richard Williams, a guide I had met when he was working in northern Italy with Riviera Bike. Richard has now set up his own company, Ridgeline, deep in the Tuscan hills above Pisa. I had been promising myself a trip there for a couple of years since he set up there and finally got it sorted this summer. Even better I managed to persuade 10 of my riding buddies to come along with me, including Paul who flew in all the way from LA just for the trip. To be fair it wasn't difficult to persuade them to come after showing them the pictures of the trails, food and scenery on Richard's website. The pressure was on Richard to produce an unforgettable holiday.
Cheers! From Richard, Davide, Paul, Tom, Chris, ME, John, Toby, Gareth, James, Frances, Jesse (and Dave on the camera!)
Luckily he didn't even come close to failing.
The accommodation is an Agriturismo on the edge of a small town called Castelnuovo di Garfagnana, about an hour's drive north of Pisa where we flew in to. The Agriturismo was a 'basic' country farm hotel. We all shared large twin rooms. But when I say basic, it had a great restaurant serving amazing fresh local food, decent WiFi, a swimming pool and breakfast cafe serving superb breakfast cappuccino. Not only that but there was a fully appointed workshop/bike store as well!
This was to be our home for the next week...
Looks bike friendly!
Anyway - enough chit-chat - suffice to say I decided to take my camera gear along to try and get some good riding shots of everyone. So glad I did as the scenery and trails were amazing...
Enjoy!
NOT the uplift truck.
Looking forward to jumping into the that at the end of a hot dusty day's riding!
Anyway - to the business at hand and some last minute fettling in the workshop...
How's this for the first trail of the holiday - natural bike park berms in the burnt forest
Frances is certainly enjoying it!
The lunches never disappointed - limitless fresh pasta and more...
Richard in his element, leading us down amazing dark hidden trails
Dave and Tom doing their best to keep up!
Who asked for more switchbacks?
Yep! says it all!
Richard's local guide Nick showing he can still keep up on a 29er hardtail.
Even the climbs are scenic...
...and I mean scenic!
Coffee to start day 2.
Breakfast, Tuscany style
Paul enjoying his cappuccino
Time to hit up the local SuperEnduro trails - very steep!
Davide - another of Richard's local guides - who also owns a brewery - more of that later!
Richard dropping into amazing trails above Calci
Are we having fun lads?
The bikes rest up during another delicious lunch
Toby enjoying more trails above Calci
John dropping into Calci
Tom - not in his natural Scottish habitat
Of course, the guide has to show off!
Jesse enjoying the olive groves
Finally - time for some of Davide's beer!
Steak night tonight - some seriously large lumps of amazing beef!
Tasted as good as it looks!
Dave enjoying the views high above Massa
Easy does it John - it's a long way down!
Natural trails test out the guys
That doesn't stop Dave messing about
Where Eagles Dare!
There was a little bit of carrying
A church made of rocks, miles from anywhere...
He's at it again!
Last day - and steep rocky challenges.
The last trail of the last day and Toby leads the train home over the railway bridge...
Stormy sunset over the pool on our last night
www.ridgeline.bike
MENTIONS: @captainian
Luckily he didn't even come close to failing.
The accommodation is an Agriturismo on the edge of a small town called Castelnuovo di Garfagnana, about an hour's drive north of Pisa where we flew in to. The Agriturismo was a 'basic' country farm hotel. We all shared large twin rooms. But when I say basic, it had a great restaurant serving amazing fresh local food, decent WiFi, a swimming pool and breakfast cafe serving superb breakfast cappuccino. Not only that but there was a fully appointed workshop/bike store as well!
Anyway - enough chit-chat - suffice to say I decided to take my camera gear along to try and get some good riding shots of everyone. So glad I did as the scenery and trails were amazing...
Enjoy!
www.ridgeline.bike
MENTIONS: @captainian
Must Read This Week
64 Comments
Roll on June 16th to see all the guys again .
Keep that beer cold Davide
Davide has drunk all the beer, but luckily he makes beer for a living so you should be just fine mate!
Currently 886 euros - plus flights - includes full board, transfers, all guiding etc - you just need lunch (10 euros/day) and beer money! Get in touch with Richard for dates - deffo worth booking soonish I know he's filling up!
How do they handle varying skill levels? Have always wondered this as my buddies and I are concerned we'll get stuck with a tame group and have to cater to the "weakest link".
Not at all trying to be an ass...genuinely curious as it'd be an expensive trip, but looks incredibly fun!!!
If you've visited any WC DH tracks and given them a spin, you'd know that anyone capable of hitting the lines at speed requires a high level of riding ability. Sure, there are tame tracks around the world that pros and noobs can have fun on alike....but I'm not traveling to f*cking Tuscany unless there are at least a few proper tracks. Of course flow trails /jumps and other shit can be enjoyed by all...but that wasn't my original question.
A proper track cannot be enjoyed by all, and if they exist and we get stuck with some sub par riders, we won't be riding them.
Some of the technical tracks going.
Although 'Tuscany' does not immediately summon up the idea of technical riding, (we get that!) we have created all of our riding network here pretty much from scratch, and it is catered directly towards the more advanced level riders. The mountains we ride in are over 2000m/ 6500ft and are very steep and technical where we focus on natural trails, not flow trails or bike park style! I have guided all over the Riviera for many years now and we are definitely not easier than going to Finale or any of the others mentioned!
For mixing people into groups, I know all too well from experience how this can ruin a very expensive holiday, so we are normally very reluctant to do this. For us it is more important that someone gets the perfect holiday than us just walking away with a quick sale.
@captainian very kindly mentioned that we only focus on group bookings for that exact reason you mentioned. It's very hard to match skill, personality and fitness when mixing groups, and we are very fixed when sticking to these goals. When you have a group of riders who are friends coming out, these issues of being the slower or fitter rider are within a group of mates, and therefore not a problem. This only happens when you mix people in, so when we rarely do this, we talk a lot to the individuals about their personal goals for the holiday. For us it's not just knowing how their skill and fitness level will match up, but also the personality and attitude towards challenges that you could encounter are equal to the goals of the group that they are joining.
I hope that answers your questions, and if you have any other questions about our holiday's that we put on here in Northern Tuscany then feel free to drop us a line on info@ridgeline.bike
The thing that struck all of us was the variety of trails - from proper alpine riding, to steep loam, to a bit of impromptu bike park, to some man made techy/jumpy flow trails, to Mediterranean scrub, burnt woods, local superenduro race tracks (difficult!), switchbacky natural goat tracks and deep forest - all within a short drive of the base. Richard has so much to offer in terms of terrain - he will make sure you get the type of trails you want.
Not sure if that answers your question!
Maybe I should try again
No use of the famous drumroll intro
Missed. Opportunity.
#whereeaglesdare #clinteastwood
I was for 10 weeks down there just under Eagle nest just below the Scorpion trail Black trail for sure. I don't know how I survived without my bike. Unfortunately haven't climbed Mt. Folgarita but bottom half/third looked good to me.
Enjoy.
Ez to get couple runs per day(diff trails) or long car drives etc?
There is way more riding than sitting in vans - maybe an hour (absolute max) in the morning and then usually a short shuttle or 2 during the day. One day uses ski lifts.
American?.. stone, ska brewing,
Just curious what's being brewed out there
We sampled his beers in Calci - all sorts, wheat beers, porters, IPAs, strong pilsener lagers etc...
It's quite easy to get to 2,000 metres (6,500 feet) in Tuscany - we did one day in the high mountains using the ski lifts to access higher trails (the final lift was closed due to high winds so no photos made the final cut).
Tuscany is home to the short-toed eagle, amongst several other birds of prey. I have not formally identified the raptor in the photograph, but Tuscany is also home to peregrine falcons, kites and buzzards.
www.europeanraptors.org/raptors/short_toed_eagle.html
Several other species of eagle are native to Italy
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_birds_of_Italy