Meribel and the 3 Valleys may be better known to most of you as an extremely popular skiing destination, but the resort is investing a lot of time, money and focus on building their summer destination offer.
Mountain bike lift pass sales swelled to 37,000 in 2013, an increase of 43% on the previous summer, mostly due to the resort playing host to the finals of the French Mountain Bike Cup and the World Cup MTB Trials. Meribel has already hosted the 3VTT in July this year and the UCI MTB World Cup later this month is expected to bring around 40,000 visitors over the course of the 4 day event - the biggest on record.
Each year for the past 5 years, Meribel has invested around 100,000€ on new mountain bike trails and features, and they have been striving to make the mountain biking on offer more family friendly to encourage even more visitors - it takes a long time to develop a world class mountain bike resort. 150,000€ has already been spent on hosting the UCI MTB World Cup, and there have already been talks of the resort hosting future UCI (International Cycling Union) events.
If you're looking for somewhere a little different to Mountain Bike this year or next, take a look at these stats and see what the 3 Valleys has to offer:
Meribel Valley:
- 25km of dedicated DH trails (5) 1 new for summer 2014, 39km of Enduro trails (5) 4 new for this summer, 12km of XC trails (2) 1 new for this summer and 7 fire road (4x4) trails for those just starting out to explore the area.
- There are 3 green-graded trails, 2 blues, 4 reds and 3 blacks
- The longest of the downhill trails (graded black) takes you from the top of the Saulire down to Brides les Bains and is 17.5km long with 2100m descent.
Val Thorens, Les Menuires & St Martin:
- There are a total of around 100km of trails made up of 2 green, 6 blues, 5 reds and two blacks - the longest and most difficult of which is a whopping 35km enduro trail with 1840m of ascent and 1840m of descent.
Courchevel:
- There are a total of around 41km of trails, made up of 4 blues, 2 red and a black. Again this black trail is the longest at 15km and has 50 of climbing and 1430m of descent.
Take a look at the 3 Valleys Mountain Bike Trail Map and follow Meribel Bike Park on their new facebook page.
There's still time to bring your bike over this summer, lifts close on 29th August and a 1 week adult Evasion pass for the 3 Valleys is only 51€ (a little over half what you'd pay in the Portes du Soleil!)
Or if you're more of a fan of watching others hit the trails, then the World Cup action starts on the 21st August. We'll see you there!
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