In weekend a avut loc concursul intitulat Apuseni BIKE CUP, concurs ce a pornit de la ideea de a crea o competiție de MTB în zona Clujului, destinată atât amatorilor cât și celor cu experiență, care să promoveze ciclismul montan și Munții Apuseni. Este un concurs multi-stage Enduro, deschisa oricarui participant si cu un grad de dificultate mediu spre ridicat.
Concursul a fost mai mult decat distractiv si cu siguranta nu vom mai rata editiile viitoare. Va lasam mai jos videoul mai mult decat concludent care surprinde o particica din atmosfera evenimentului. In plus, am avut parte de cateva ture de antrenament, pentru a ne familiariza cu etapele si pentru a ne distra si mai mult 🤭👍🍾
Recently we got to visit Macin mountains and their beautiful trails. Never expect less from this place. If you have a camera with you, even a phone camera, this place will turn you into an awesome photographer. Not a good rider, just an awesome photographer :))). But if you ride these trails a lot, you eventually will become a good rider to 😛
The trails are nit, beautiful and unique in their own way. You have some trails with loose over hard pack where you need to control your speed and brakes very good, you have rocky trails where you don’t want to get a flat or fall, and you have Tasmanian forest like trails … the scenery is very diverse for such a small region, but totally worth the effort. Its quite close to Bucharest (3h drive) and very close to the sea side so you can actually go for a swim after a day of riding ;). Check out Măcin hype, its true! enjoy and ride safe!
This year,Bârcaciu ski touringevent hold place, a bit underground, among friends but it had happen. And it was a great weekend to spend on the mountain with beautiful snow, fresh lines and bluebird days. It was also the birthday of the man in charge, the one and onlySherpa from Carpati, Mihai Petre, and seems the gods favor him that we had this briliant conditions.
I feel that i’m repeating myself but this area has so much to offer in terms of mountain acces, lines, trails, tracks and anything in between (good food and good accommodation😊)
Don’t be shy, check it whenever you have the opportunity. I will not continue buzzing you with the same details, just check the pictures and movies bellow and if you want, the the past articles like Bârcaciu Skitouring VRR Editionor Făgăraș from peak to creek #barcaciu. Enjoy and ride safe!
Sketchiest day so far at Balea Lake. I know that from the cover it doesn’t look that way, but it was. Things can change very fast on the mountain, so expect anything. We had a beautiful start of the day, with a decent descent from the ridge of the mountain to Capra lake, but then, the fog came and it stayed for diner… and breakfast next day too :))).
After that, we tried to become friends but she wont open up to us…😆 hard to make a bond when there’s no communication, you feel like talking to the walls :))). Enough with the funny talk, here are some pictures and 2 movies to judge by yourselves. Also for more riding in Balea Lake, you can check BALEA LAKE POWDER DAYS. Enjoy and ride safe!
This is a classic tour for us, each year we do one or tow rides in Ciucas. Why? because its accesibile, usually holds good snow despite of the windy ridge, has good slope with moderate inclination and you can have 2 or 3 decent descent in one day. I recomand a tour in Ciucas for intermediar to advance skiers and the recommendation is to check the weather and in before you go there. You can also look for a guide to take you there, its 1 day job and for sure you will find some good ones here like our friends from Massif Experience. if its heavy snow after a long dry period, better stay bellow the tree line or on mellow slopes. If not, you can try even a descent from the peak. each way you do it, check the conditions on the spot ;).
Bucegi mountains have a lot to offer in terms of hiking, climbing, skiing, biking, and a lot more. Each year we schedule some rides here and is great when we discover new trails that are simply perfect for mountain biking. This time we tried a new one that reward us with flow and view. It’s the trail that descents from Scara peak near Omu to the cross above Malaesti hut and passes Tiganest mountain refugee and Tiganest lakes. It is a trail whit a kind of technical access, almost via ferata :)) but once you put yourself on the bike you are immediately possessed by the trails and the flow it has. the view is epic, and I think this part of Bucegi mountains is the most beautiful one. The sections from the cross to Malaesti hut it’s to steep and not so clean so it’s a hike a bike sections but from Malaesti down, a new trail awaits you, technical at the start but flowy at the bottom. The trails are on trail forks so check them out. The track of our ride its here on Garmin connect. It’s one of those rides that we will probably take each year, along with Tiganest descent or Strunga descent. These 3 are our top 3 trails in Bucegi mountains. Enjoy and ride safe!
After this ride, we know where we will be each year for first of November, no doubt about it 🥰.
Valea Cernei is a delight for the sight in this period, and combined with the beautiful single tracks along the way it makes for an perfect day out. I strongly recomand to go visit this place and Mehedinti county in general, it’s a region in Romania like no other with a lot to offer. #shapingthesouth hashtag must be replaced with #gosuth because slowly it becomes a must ;). Thanks Pufi for the great ride and see you soon! Cheers!
This is another epic that you must check in Mehedint county. Is the second time we send this trail and the feedback is the same, awesome and gnarly trail with beautiful scenery, forest and technical parts. The start of the trail is epic, and you have a clear view over Baile Herculane valley but the end of it is hardcode. Some tight corners on rocky sections and loose ones makes you think twice before trying anything.
This year again I didn’t get to nail all the bits of the trail and as I grow older its hard to say if I’m ever gonna send it from top to bottom. But no worries, this is not all its about, the gang, the mountain and trail itself make it worth the effort, as always…
As usual, we never leave Mehedints county without checking Mehedinti enduro trails build and maintained by our local trail forks ambasador, Alexandru Pufan aka The_pufalot, cheers mate!
Cindrel bike packing adventure reloaded. I think this is the third year we
do this track and not only the trails keep us coming back, I think the refuge
is. The way it looks and where its located has something to it. And doing the
trip this late in the Autumn, when the probability of finding someone at the
refuge is low, makes this more desirable.
This time we did it in the same manner as third years ago, Cindrel
mountains bikepacking trip, but the weather was top. A bit
windy but only to make thing more adventurous. Not to many peoples on the
mountain this time of the year and that suits us well. We saw a guy with a 4×4
going down from Cindrel peak, only to find him turn over on the trail to the
refuge. What a crazy dude to try this track whit a 4×4 car 😲…
didn’t thought he was gone make it down but with a little help from us, he
managed… we pushed him to the refuge and a bit beyond but from there, via con
Dios my friend… 😆
The night at the refuge was top, all alone we started a fire under the 1k
stars hotel. We had lots of food and some Romanian quality beverage 🥃🤩
just enough to get us worm and quite cheerful… In the refuge was quite cozy
and we had a good sleep but wake up early in the morning.
Next day, breakfast with leftovers and then pushbike back to the ridge of
Cindrel mountains, if we could call it a ridge. We did a descent to Canaia
refuge on the other side and then straight back to Paltinis. On our way back we
climb Batrana peak and then made the fun and gnarly descent to Paltinis. This
trail is long very Enduro like and gets easier at the bottom.
All ended up with a beautiful descent to Curmatura, from Oncesti peak, after
meeting up with Alex, a good friend of ours from Sibiu. Check out his YT
channel right here: La vale!
This is the receipt for a terrific weekend ;). Also check out our electric
adventure from last year in this beautiful mountains: Cindrel
electric bikepacking trip, thanks to NevAcademy. Enjoy and
ride safe!
Suru challenge VRR edition!
It has been a while science we got to ride the trails around Suru mountain hut. First time here was I think 4 years back. We did part of the ridge from Scara peak to Budislavu and Suru and then down to the hut. It was a hardcore experience and I bet that we are one in the few groups that did this part of Fagaras mountains by bike….😅💪🍻 look up the old article here: Fagaras enduro and freeride tracks.
You have 2 trails that worth your time, the descent from Suru hut down to Sebes village that is a bit technical at the start but after is full of flow and flat out speed sections and, for the next day you can do the rocky ridge (Chica Pietrelor) that starts right from the ridge of the mountain. For this second descent you have to pushbike 2h from the hut. It is not an easy job but it’s rewording because you will always have a stunning view over the horizon, with Avrig and Sibiu cities and Olt river sneaking at the bottom of the mountain.
The Suru hut itself is nice and cozy, with good beds and great food for which I thank Andrei and I wish him the best.
This came as a pleasant surprise. I knew that Cindrel mountains hold a bunch of great trails but this one was fantastic. Is the type of trail that you could ride a whole week around and not get bored.
And is not the only trail. For those of you loving the all mountain sections and wanting to explore a bit, the ride to Cindrel peak it’s a must. The trail runs right on the ridge of the mountain offering a pleasant view over the surroundings. From Cindrel peak you can take a ride down to Canaia refuge and then head back to Paltinis and link the return with the descent from Batrana col. Last year we did a cool ride with electric bikes around Cindrel mountains that you can check out here: Cindrel electric bikepacking trip, thanks to NevAcademy.
You also get a nice small bike park at Arena Platos where you can practice a bit and get dilled with your bike and skills. The bike park has 3 lines with perfectly built elements.
This ride has become a season opener for us. It seems we always take on this ride at the beginning of the seasons when the snow melts and the trails become accessible.
It is an epic and beautiful ride that goes around Bucegi massif. We usually take the cabin from Sinaia, up to 2000 m and from there we begin our ride with a descent to Padina, then a climb to Strunga refuge where we stop for a quick lunch break. From there a beautiful trail awaits us and takes us down to Simon village. After Simon, we start a 3 h climb to Diham mountain hut. From this point we can take several trails down to Busteni, like Izvoare descent, Muchia Lunga or the fire road that takes you to Gura Diham. All of them are easy to ride and fun.
It is one of the rides we will take each year because of the easy access and the beautiful views along the way. You can find the track of our ride at this link on garmin connect. The trails are also on trail forks. Enjoy and ride safe!
This year was supposed to be the first edition of Bacau Enduro, a stage in CNE (Romanian enduro cup) but, due to Covid problems the whole cup was canceled after first stage, Semenic Enduor.
This does not mean that we cannot shred the CNE stops so we headed to Bacau to check out the trails. Cristian Totu, the main shaper here was kind enough to greet us and show us the trails. The community is a small one but very friendly and the trails are fun and kind of tricky, just like Ciocanu Enduro trails. They seem easy but they bite you when you least expect it. From a competitive point of view, the fit racers will have an advantage here because of the pedaling sections but you also have some technical sections that surprise you after some full speed ones. It was very dry and hot so is better to ride the trails in spring or autumn conditions, but we managed them in the August heat too. The access for the peak of the trails is quite easy, you can pedal it all the way up. They have 3 trails ready, all similar but with different features. You will find berm, rock gardens and jumps, all in a progressive way and all fun. Overall they are quite fun trails and if you ride with the locals you will have a 100% authentic experience ;).
Thanks Cristi, Andrei, Ana and Danut for the great time and the beers we had. Can’t wait to ride with you guys again! Cheers mates and we owe you one for setting up these places.
You can look up the trails on trail forks!Enjoy and ride safe!
Sorry to say this, but it was a veritable mudfest this year. We made jokes about the forecast but the weather was way worse than the forecast so we ended up riding 3 days on soaking wet trails.
Too bad for this beautiful place that got to experience such weather in a contest weekend and the trails got to suffer quite a lot ….
This is a shame because here are some of the greatest trails in Ro and I wanted to ride them so bad, just as I remember them.
It was a bit harsh on the organizers too. They found the courage to hold the event, even though the times are not the nicest (Covid and all) and the weather kicked their moral as well.
It was fun the first day in training but being in contest on this kind of a weather, man, it’s too harsh I tell you.
I had to do it just to learn that next time when the forecast comes true and looks like this, I’ll turn myself in an action sports photographer for the time of the contest 😆, it’s safer for me and for my bike, and I still do something more useful than racing 😅🤷♂
Otherwise, the place is great for riding trails, just beautiful. Some nice trails with good dirt, all on a beautiful Mountain with a beautiful lake at the bottom just in the perfect place for you to cool down after a gnarly descent 🌬💪.
Hope next year we get rid of all the troubles and have a perfect enduro season, fingers crossed.
Until next time, cheers to the guys from Bike Attack Resita for holding the contest and check out the trails on trail forks. And don’t forget that the trails are there the whole year, so go visit them, you’ll have a blast riding there 🤗😉. Congratulations to the winners for pulling hard and hope their bikes are ok! Ride safe and enjoy!
P.S. For accommodation in the area, if you don’t look for something fancy, you can check out Haus Hubertusplace, it’s a very nice hut with a great garden where you can even camp 😉 Great food also!
Don’t stay home, it’s a trap. After this pandemic period, the weather went crazy, lots of rain, If we were to listen to the forecast, we should have stayed in home for the last couple of weekends. But as I say, if you snooze, you lose so to avoid this, we headed to Straja for 3 days ride in the area. We heard some rumors that the trails are in perfect conditions and that we would have shuttle there so we seized the opportunity.
We were quite right and the guys from Straja Extrem Park hooked us up with a shuttle for 2 days. It’s a blast to ride the 2 long trails from Straja. Baloo trail is nice and flowy and Wolves trail it’s a bit more technical but with loads of natural flow. Both are very long and you can feel your whole body worked up by the end of the trail. You don’t need more than 5-6 descents to declare yourself pleased for the day.
But this ain’t all, there is more in the area for you to ride. Don’t miss Valcan trail, this one is without a doubt the funniest of them. Again a berm jem and longer than the other 2. You really feel you’re alive. We hit it like 8 times and didn’t get bored :D.
What we want to tell you is that the combinations of the 3 long trails are for sure the recipe for a terrific weekend ;).
For accommodation we went to Allma mountain hutas usual. Nice cosy place where you feel directly @ home. You can cook yourself anything in the kitchen and hang out in the living or on the great view balcony. We always stay here once in Straja, you can see the place in the picture bellow.
Ok, so this article is just a hint for how and where to spend a nice weekend riding with your buddies. All trails are on trailforks. More ideas are to follow so just stay tuned 😉 Enjoy and ride safe!
Vertical Riding Romania 