Les Gets - Mountain Biking

Les Gets is a small alpine village, which is part of a collection of resorts called Portes du Soleil (Gates of the Sun).

Its closest neighbour is Morzine, a 15 minute drive away, or 20 minute cycle using the ski lifts. The towns of Chatel and Morgins are also part of the resort and offer excellent cycling challenges.

Morzine is a larger village than Les Gets, and gets a higher number of visitors each year. However Les Gets has embraced the mountain biking scene to a greater extent; setting up "BikePark Les Gets" which organises events and promotes all styles of cycling in the area. Downhill Champion Fabien Barel (Amazing rider/nice guy) is ambassador for the BikePark as it is his favourite playground, offering as it does many different terrains and challenges and has trails to suit every rider.

Taxis are available from Geneva Airport but can be expensive at around £60 (70 Euros) per person. If there are a few people in the group it may be cheaper to hire a car. It is a pleasant drive through the mountains to Les Gets, with glimpses of Mont Blanc on a clear day.

Driving to Les Gets is easy from anywhere in Europe as it is very well connected. For people travelling from the UK, it takes about 9 hours to drive from Calais to Les Gets, it may be worth stopping overnight half way in Dijon or Troyes - both of which have a great nightlife and good restaurants. Travelling on French motorways will incur a charge at the toll stations, currently the cost amounts to about 70 Euros each way between Calais and Les Gets.

(For 2011) The lifts are open from the 1 June until the 7th of September. A Pass to take your bike on the lifts is called a VTT and costs 90 Euros(2011) for a week. You can buy daily/2 days%u2026etc. tickets from the ticketing office at the bottom of the main lifts in Les Gets (Chavannes Chairlift) or Morzine (Telecabine du Pleny).

There are 24 lifts to explore in Portes du Soleil and the VTT Pass will give you access to all of them.

There are literally hundreds of miles of trails within the Portes du Soleil area; in fact it is the largest in Europe. Whether you choose to explore as much as you can in the time available or session your favourite trail over and over, depends on how you roll.

Most of the sign posted trails should be considered Downhill, and are graded Blue through to Black, exactly like Ski runs. Most trails (except Extreme Black) can be ridden by an average rider and there is often a bailout or alternative line choice to avoid larger obstacles.

With so many trails around there is something for everyone, A Green/Blue trail would be considered Cross Country in the UK and usually contain some fire trail suitable for family rides.

Whether your bring your own bike to Les Gets or hire a bike will often be depended one quiet a few factors; including how you intend to travel and how long you will be staying.

Having your own bike will have obvious advantages - knowing how it will respond in high speed turns, table tops and drop offs will give you an advantage and confidence to attack the trails and make the most of your stay.

There are loads of shops in the area hiring out bikes for all mountain bike disciplines; Hardtails and Full suspension bikes with 150mm to 200mm of travel.

It can seem expensive to hire a bike and demand is great, but what you'll be getting is this years model, with a free service mid week and no worries about needing to bring spares and tools.
A weeks bike hire will be in the region £250 - £400 for a rig which would cost £4000 to buy new. A cycle helmet is always included in the price and protective body armour is available (and advised) or bring your own.
An additional cost to consider; If you're flying into Geneva Airport, How much will the Airline charge for a bike, could the bike get damaged in Transit?

If you don't normally ride in the Alps - do you have a 200mm travel Downhill rig with 2.7" tyres?
If you have a solid bike with around 5-6" of travel you can buy a larger set of Forks 2nd hand from Ebay just for your holiday - which will be cheaper than hiring a bike.
Here, you can have bike weighing in at 40lbs without any issues because you never have to ride it uphill!

Although it is possible to ride all the trails on a Hardtail, it would be a much more technical challenge (no bad thing) but the amount of punishment your hands and legs take over a day would limit the amount of riding you can do.
A weeks riding here is like a years riding in the UK, for you and the bike!