Many of the winter ski resorts have adapted to become downhill mountain biking Meccas in the summer.
Orcières, in the Southern French Alps is no exception. It is the biggest and highest ski resort in the Champsaur Valley and is home to a fabulous downhill mountain bike area where the ski lifts turn into bike lifts in July and August!
With specially made and managed tracks with banked turns and bumps, Orcières is a downhill bikers dream! You can ride from the top of the mountain all the way down to the bottom of the Champsaur Valley, taking in a full 1800 metres of descent! As it is below the ski lifts, there is a vehicle shuttle to take you back up!
Full-face helmets and body armour are available to rent, which make you look like an astronaut but are useful if you take a fall and you are obliged to wear them if you book downhill mountain biking through us!
Given the demanding nature of the activity, we highly recommend you take a lesson if it is your first time. We do offer lessons with fully qualified instructors to help you improve your technique and teach you new tricks as well. This is a great way to make the most of the downhill biking.
If you like the idea of going downhill but aren't quite ready for a full-on technical downhill experience, why not try one of our cross country mountain biking descents. For these you are driven up to a col or mountain pass and then follow a classic cross-country mountain biking route back down to the valley. These are generally a mixture of some technical sections with forest tracks and paths and though there may be the odd section where you need to go back up a little, they are generally downhill all the way.