Mountain biking was one of the least-documented sports activities when we first came here with only one guide published for the whole of Sardinia. Starting in summer 2008, when Peter started mountain biking, and initially with help of from mountain biker experts who’ve written guides and route descriptions, we set about fixing this. We really got going in 2010, first with the T-track then with the formation of mountainbike Ogliastra, then with work starting on the new mountain bike guide for the whole of Sardinia. We have documented mountain biking routes & trails where we live in Ogliastra, Sardinia, and created route maps, descriptions including plan and profile views, videos and gps (gpx) and kml files so that we can describe these routes to people staying with us. If you want, we can lend you a Garmin GPS with the routes loaded, as well as maps and plastified route cards like the one in the photo above. Or now many smartphones support GPS navigation and detailed maps for them cost less than a pizza!

We now have a range of over 50 mountain bike (MTB) routes, from easy rides in the valley and in the rolling forests on the granite hills to rocky, technical singletrack climbs and descents suitable for experts on the limestone Supramonte. See on the right just some of the routes starting from The Lemon House , download one example of gpx and kml files here, and a two-page pdf with details of all the routes prior to starting work on the 2011 guide here. The descriptions for the guide are subject to copywrite, but we can provide details and suggest rides to guests at The Lemon House. You can see the routes we’ve uploaded (with translations in English) to the Italian site mtb-forum.it here.

T-track

One excellent mountain bike route in Sardinia should have been the 250-km T-track (trasmudas in Sard, transhumance, trail). But, after its design in 2006, waymarkers were only placed on the easier sections (firetrails / secondary asphalted roads) and the more technical sections that needed to be cleaned or built either don’t exist or are impractical. The map on the right is from Rete Ogliastra Supramonte’s site; we have overlaid the parts of the route we’d checked as of May 2010 (the ones nearest to The Lemon House). There is a provisional more detailed paper A3 map of the route, although the route shown on the map doesn’t always correspond to where the way-marks actually are. For instance, the map shows the route passing east of Monte Scoine, when in fact the way-marks pass to the west, climbing the unmade track we descend on the route described at the bottom of the page. Using the Ente Foreste paths, we have created three 50 km day rides, from Lotzorai, Urzulei and Talana, which you can link up and ride in two days, staying at Urzulei (or we can come and pick you up and bring you back to The Lemon House.) The routes descriptions are here and the leftmost banner photo shows how the three routes link up.

See the Flash Gallery below for photos of the ride you can download above and other rides starting from The Lemon House. This EASY-MEDIUM 30km MTB ride from The Lemon House goes to Osono where you can visit a Tomba dei Giganti prehistoric burial site. See route overlaid on Google Earth on left and download gpx and kml files here. You then climb 600m on a narrow road and then forestry tracks, and enjoy a fantastic view over the coastal plain, before coasting back home via an exhilarating descent on an unmade road. Or climb up a bit more and come down the “Scaleddas” singletrack.

Back to Mountain Bike ….