Fitness and Ability Levels for Our Trips

Your holiday time is precious, and we are committed to providing you with an exceptional experience. It is crucial that the mountain bike adventure you select matches your preferred level of challenge. Please be truthful about your skills; images or GoPro videos can sometimes create an illusion of easier trails. Local riding conditions can vary significantly, and each holiday destination offers its own unique challenges.

The skill level indicated reflects an overall rating for the trails, but be prepared for sections that may test your limits.

We prioritize matching your skills and fitness with others at a similar level. If there's any uncertainty, we will reach out for a conversation before you book your mountain bike holiday. This isn't meant to be an interrogation; it simply helps create the best experience for everyone involved—yourself, us, and your fellow riders.

Mountain Bike Fitness

Given that many people book their mountain bike holidays up to a year in advance, you have ample time to focus on your fitness. To accurately assess your preparedness, consider how frequently you ride, the duration of your rides, and the typical elevation gain and loss you encounter. Our mountain bike holidays are not competitive; the priority is your ability to comfortably participate in each day’s activities while keeping pace with the group, which we strive to maintain at a conversational level. Most importantly, enjoyment is key! Below is a guide for evaluating your fitness level.

Low

You ride infrequently, maybe once a fortnight.
You struggle to ride for more than two hours.
Sustained climbs of more than 15-30 minutes generally put you off the ride.

Moderate

You ride once a week.
A typical mountain bike ride would be 3-4 hours.
You can climb 300-500m at a reasonable pace but more than that in a day sounds hard.
On technical descents you would typically stop for a break if the descents are long.

Good

You ride two or three times a week.
A typical mountain bike ride could last all day, including breaks.
You can climb 1000m at a reasonable pace but more than that in a day sounds hard.
Long, technical descents are no issue at all and you enjoy descending without stopping very often.
Pushing and carrying up to 90 minutes can be tackled, it might be hard but for one day you can manage.

Excellent

You ride more than three times a week.
You ride as long as you can. Long days are no issues. Back to back days don’t worry you.
Long hard climbs are no issues.
Long, technical descents are no issue at all.
Carrying your bike for up to 2 hours on repeated days is fine.

Mountain Bike Holiday Skills Levels

Providing guidance on this topic can be challenging. The best approach is for you to share the types of trails you typically enjoy riding. This allows us to research and review videos to better understand your preferences. Our holidays are not competitive; while we maintain a steady pace during descents, occasional pauses to regroup are perfectly fine.

Once we learn more about your experience and skill level, we can pair you with riders of similar abilities to ensure an enjoyable week for everyone involved.

If you prefer not to wait for others, we recommend discussing this with us before booking or gathering a group of friends who are familiar with each other's riding levels.

Below are the skill levels we use to categorize our trips:

Novice

You have recently started riding or not done a lot of riding yet.
You stick to the blues and easiest trails at trail centres.
You don’t have much singletrack or natural trail experience and normally ride on wider paths.
You can easily ride all your local loops but these do not feature technical terrain.
You can control the speed and handling of the bike on hilly terrain.
You generally walk any technical, steep or loose sections.

Intermediate

You have been riding for a couple of years and own a good quality mountain bike.
At a typical UK trail centre you are happy on the reds.
You are comfortable on singletrack with some rocks and roots.
You are comfortable with a variety of trail surfaces.
You can attempt tight corners, and moderately steep chutes you will sometimes tackle but you might walk occasionally.
You are comfortable with higher speeds on less technical tracks but when the tracks get more technical you prefer to keep closer to walking pace.
You would not attempt even small jumps or drops. If it can’t be rolled you are going to walk.

Intermediate+

You are a trail mountain biker with several years experience riding in different riding locations and mountainous areas.
You have experienced and feel comfortable and in control on most types of terrain in different conditions: singletrack, double track, muddy, dry, loose, bedrock, wet etc
You’ll have a go on moderate technical features, such as small rock gardens, small drops and steeper sections with some rocks and roots.
You know when to walk when the terrain is too difficult or dangerous or the features are outside your ability.
You mountain bike two or three times a week throughout your biking season
And the ‘+’ part of ‘Intermediate+’ means that you will be aiming to tackle more of those moderate technical features

Advanced

You consider yourself an experienced mountain biker, someone who has been riding regularly with other people for many years.
You love technical trails and have experience in alpine terrain.
Steep and loose trails don’t phase you, and you can ride tight switchbacks and steeper corners.
You are fully in control on all kinds of single tracks, dry and wet and up and down.
You are happy tackling pretty much anything on a trail and there are very few occasions you would get off and walk.
You try to ride the trail at speed, using jumping and pumping to maintain speed.
In a UK trail centre you are happy to be on the blacks.

Expert

You have ridden technical terrain for years and are able to ride all kinds of technical demanding terrain. You look forward to pushing yourself on steep trails (dry and wet) that are rooted, rocky, packed with technical features.
Big jumps or drops don’t feature on our guided trips, however you are comfortable on small jumps and drops.
Very steep chutes, up to nearly vertical, don’t phase you.
You are happy riding sections with exposure and can judge when it is time to get off and walk as well.
You are used to handling yourself on big mountain days. Riding within your limits and taking care of your bike and body while moving through technical terrain at speed.
You have ridden in a variety of well known places around the world and probably raced Enduro or Downhill at some point in your riding history.