Incredibly rocky paths switchback through the olive groves eventually leading down to the sea and beautiful cove at Deia. The rock gardens are serious ones that would be at home on a downhill course, often steep and lasting several hundred meters, they are littered with huge unavoidable boulders and half meter high drop offs. The old men standing around picking olives and gossiping barely batted an eyelid as I went clattering past in a cloud of dust.

It was absolutely amazing riding but I was certainly glad of the full-suspension bike, you can ride so much more aggressively. Throwing the bike into the corners, launching off the drops and straight lining over the rock gardens. Awesome.

Roadies you are missing out!

The mountains rise up steeply from the shores of the lake and are covered in a network of hiking trails but its hard to tell what is actually rideable. There are often sections that are tough to walk so scrambling up with a bike is hard work but risks bring rewards and I found some amazing descents. The terrain higher up is very rocky and covered in Mediterranean type herb bushes whereas lower down there are lots of woodland singletracks ending in pretty villages with amazing coffee.





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Rifugio Menaggio ride – a long nasty road climb, a technical singletrack climb, a bit of hike-a-bike and then an amazing switchbacking rocky descent followed by flowing woodland singletrack all the way back down to the lake. Brill.




This was an amazing ride at B’tto di Nava, a real adventure expedition. A tough hour of climbing nearly went to waste because of terrible Italian signposting and when I found the path I spent a lot of time questioning if it was the right one because it was so crazy looking. Standing at the top on a narrow singletrack with a vertical drop off the edge, you can only see as far as the next switchbacks and then the trail several hundred meters below. The connection between the two involved and insane narrow track with 30 or 40 tight, loose, rocky switchbacks and a few steep drops and steps thrown in for good measure. Risks once again bringing rewards, like Italy!

We arrived to heavy clouds, cool temperatures and muddy trails – quite a novelty after a summer of dust but I felt perfectly at home. The first ride involved a long slog to get above the clouds surrounded by rugged, wild mountains. Unexpectedly we turned straight into a really fun man-made mountain bike trail full of jumps and berms to descent 100s of metres back down to St Moritz where it was time for a bit of boutique shopping.




The next day the weather cleared up just in time for an epic technical freeride day up to the Survetta Pass. This was the kind of ride where you could stop and take a photo every ten meters, filled with views of glaciers, turquoise lakes, empty valleys and high peaks. Steep climbing was rewarded with a technical traverse along the edge of a mountainside with a disconcerting drop of the edge and kilometers of perfect, fast narrow singletrack descents. Eventually we made it to the Survetta pass, a desolate empty valley with a beautiful glacial lake, and from there one of the best technical rocky descents I’ve ever ridden. More of the same the next day followed by a stunning train ride swooping down 1000s of meters back down to Zurich.












With this kind of thing on the doorstep it’s very difficult to justify going to work on a Monday morning…

The trails are insane, probably the biggest variety of terrain I’ve ever ridden. Everything from fast swooping dusty singletrack through the woods, narrow rocky trails traversing along steep mountain sides, a technical descent across a boulder filled moonscape at 2600m, to rooty trails through the forest. At the bottom of each one you’re left looking at stunning views, pumping with adrenaline and excitement thinking that was surely the best of the day and then 5 minutes later the terrain changes entirely and you have a new favorite.












and don’t listen to anyone that says you need a full-sus in the Alps – Ragley loved it!