Tignes Mountain Biking

The Tignes Bike Park has an excellent network of mountain bike trails located on the Toviere, the Palafour and the Grande Motte mountain areas. Conveniently accessed by the Aeroski gondola, the Palafour chairlift and the Grande Motte funicular, you will find suitable trails for beginners right through to experts.

There is a specific mountain bike pass available that will give you unlimited access to all the lifts and trails in the area.  For your peace of mind, Tignes also has a Bike Patrol Squad; a team of riders who are on hand to greet and advise you and to mark and maintain the trails of the Bike Park.

The mountain bike pass will grant you unlimited access to the following areas:

The Toviere sector is made up of 4 downhill trails:

• Gunpowder: a blue trail for riders with some experience
• Funky Tufs: a blue trail for riders with some experience + a specialist freeride zone (ramps, jumps & bridges etc)
• Gypsy: a difficult red trail with specialist freeride zone (wall ride, gap jump, bridges and step up)
• Black Metal: a black graded trail for expert riders only!

Palafour has 2 downhill trails:

• Easyride: a green trail suitable for all levels of rider
• Jump Around: a blue trail for riders with some experience

If you are not averse to a little uphill pedalling, then there are also 8 endurance trails (68kms) to enjoy in Tignes, which range from steep mountain tracks to gentler forest trails. There is even a trail for intermediate/advanced riders that starts up on the snow of the Grande Motte glacier at 3000m - Mr Freeze - before eventually dropping you all the way back to the centre of the resort. These are all accessed by the three main lifts, so in the main part they are downhill but with some short uphill sections.

New for 2010 the bike park is free! There are 2 cross-country trails on the Palafour sector and Bike Land  - an area dedicated to learning and perfecting your bike handling skills.  Bike Land contains a mini downhill course, a pump track, a dual slalom and two wooden ramp practice zones.  However, if you want to try something fancier but are a bit apprehensive about trying tricks for the first time, you can have a practice run on the Water Jump, where you and your bike launch off a ramp and land in the lake!

New this Summer - Tignes are now offering all access to the bike park completely free!

ESPACE KILLY MOUNTAIN BIKE PASSES Ticket Type Price Day Pass Free! 2 Days Free! Special Weekend Pass Free! 6 Days Free! Season Pass Free! Children up to 13 years Free!

During July and August a number of lifts serving the Tignes area open for mountain bikers and walkers. If you're not fond of the uphill or long ascents, you should come during these summer season months when and bars, restaurants and hotels are all open and the resort is liveliest.

Weather permitting, June, September and up to the end of October are good months to mountain bike as trails are quiet and the temperature cool. Too early in June or too late in October and there is a risk some of the higher passes maybe covered in snow and are therefore unsafe to traverse. You should note, however, that minimal lifts are open during these periods and the resort will be extremely quiet with limited shop and restaurant openings.

Whenever you choose please remember to respect others users of the mountain, especially walkers, and control your speed of descent...

Having removed your stabilisers, here's a few ideas on how to tackle the local terrain. ... see "Tips and Techniques - Mountain Biking" for more

The decision on whether to go Full Suspension or Hardtail is a difficult one.... A full suspension (FS) bike is one with both front and rear suspension that is effective at absorbing many bumps thus providing better performance and smoother ride. A hardtail refers to a bike with no rear suspension. Suspension forks may be added to the front of the bike but its back post is rigid. There are numerous makes and models of both types available to the potential buyer so when deciding on which type of bike is best, it is important to consider the following:

• Your budget !!
• The type of riding you and your bike will be undertaking; and
• The typical terrain and angle you will be riding.

In general, hardtail bikes tend to require less maintenance and perform better on steep uphill climbs and sprints to the finish line, whereas full suspension mountain bikes are much more comfortable and arguably have more control over the rough stuff. Sadly, along with an increase comfort, FS bikes increase in price quite significantly.

Whether to go full suspension or hardtail is one which can create a lot of healthy debate amongst the mountain biking community. Inexperienced or beginner riders may prefer to start with a hardtail complete with front, lockable suspension; progressing to a full suspension bike after they have got a feel for their preferred type of riding. Although a full suspension bike will give you more options to adjust to suit the terrain, it can be more energy intensive on the uphill as unless you have a ‘lock out’ facility on the rear suspension as energy can be lost through ‘suspension bobbing' as you climb. Furthermore, you could potentially have more moving parts to repair should anything go wrong. On the positive side, it is worth remembering though you can make a full suspension bike ‘lock out’ so the experience is like riding a hard tail, but it is difficult, if not impossible, to make a hard-tail ride like a full suspension bike!