Opinion
Currently the trails at Flegere form a great starting point for the future; they need riding in so that the surfaces settle down a little, and there are definitely some improvements to be made and some finishing off to be done.
However, in defence of its handful of weaknesses it is only fair to remind readers that the trails opened a mere fortnight ago - and this opening was delayed due to significant problems with snow on the higher parts of the trails following severe unseasonal weather which caused the terrible scenes of flooding in France back in June.
To get the place turned round and ready to ride at all is quite an achievement - and makes some of the failings a lot easier to understand. We ended up really falling in love with Planet Mars in particular - it made us want to go back time and time again trying to perfect our lines, before delivering us to the mid-station with a dirty great grin across our faces.
With the addition of Flegere Chamonix now has enough trails to keep any rider entertained for a week - if you stay in local accommodation you can get a visitors travel pass which lets you use the trains and buses (both of which accept bikes) absolutely for free. All of the main man-made riding sites - Flegere, Vallorcine and Les Houches, plus the proposed Le Tour trails - are all served by the Mont Blanc Express train service which runs hourly, 7 days a week. This means you can easily ride all of the trails in a day.
The trails here are long, challenging and rewarding, and compare very favourably with those in the competing resorts nearby. Hopefully this is the tip of the iceberg - and looking at the trail map there is a development earmarked for the Le Tour area further up the valley. In all likelihood this is just the start for Flegere itself too - there's a lot of available mountainside which the trailbuilders could still put to good use - and hopefully we'll see some plans for further trails to add to the existing three.
With the addition of the new Chamonix Bike Park the town now has every right to feel that it's able to offer world class trails whatever type of riding you are looking for, and hopefully this is only the beginning of even greater things to come.
Thanks to Martin Hills from Singletrack Safari Mountain Bike Holidays for the review.
http://www.chamonix-bikepark.fr/blog/
