As you perfectly know, our members practice all disciplines of mountain biking. We want this sport to become even more popular around the world. The more people start mountain biking, the better and safer the trails become! We love mountain biking and we have a lot of fun doing it. That’s why we visit different places and countries to share our passion with people and show that sport is also fun!
We keep up to date with world news and news about mountain biking and share them here. We also organize many events in and around Montreal. We believe that sport brings people together and this is an undeniable fact. If you think that sport is not for you, you simply haven’t found your true love. The proof is in the thousands of riders and freeriders who have made friends for life.
Interesting routes for cyclists
Every self-respecting freerider knows well the MTB spots in the Chilean Andes, American Rockies and so on. Slightly less popular but equally cool places for mountain biking can be found in the heart of Europe, in Poland.
Well, mostly when someone says Polish mountains, Zakopane comes to mind. And indeed, Zakopane is a very cool place with lots of MTB trails through the forests, but in general it is a typical tourist resort where even though you have lots of trails to ride, you can’t do it because of the amount of tourists! They are everywhere! It’s a shame that Sudetenland is much less popular, although on the other hand for us cyclists it’s pretty cool! Right? We don’t have to fret about tourists and we have much more space to ride.
Sudety MTB Challenge
Yes, Sudetes is another cool spot on our must go list! For a few years now, the Sudetes have been hosting a famous competition called Sudety MTB Challenge. The organizers have been looking for a suitable place for the race for a long time. At first, the whole event was supposed to take place in East Germany or near the northern border of the Czech Republic.
After months of investigation it turned out that there is no better place than the south-western region of Poland. What convinced the organizers to choose the Sudetes was the combination of wilderness forests and very well prepared trails. The forests in Poland are mostly public, the race routes could be set up anywhere. Naturally, the local flora was protected. This is what Jordan from MtbRaceRoll told us about the event:
“(…) Damn, this was pure mountain biking. Great trails, amazing terrain, beautiful view and really good cyclists riding along with me. (…) The trails in the Sudetes go through historical sites of battles, wars, etc. (…)”.
And so began our adventure with visiting Zakopane, but on the way we had a chance to see the wonderful Krakow!
Through Krakow to Zakopane
Since the nearest city to our destination, where the international airport is located, is Krakow, that’s where we started our adventure. As we all know, travelling with bicycles is not easy. It is definitely not a small hand luggage. Fortunately today there is no problem to pack bikes and other accessories, useful for every sportsman, to a plane, a bus or a ship.
We wanted to get to the beautiful and perfectly suited for mountain biking trails located in Zakopane, and by the way visit other cities in Poland.
We landed at Balice airport, near Krakow. From there, packed to the brim, we took advantage of the VIP Krakow transfer to city center, because we wanted to avoid unnecessary problems with packing our bikes, and in this option we were served exclusively. The chauffeur was really helpful and immediately recommended what we could quickly visit in Krakow and how to get around the city. It turned out that Krakow Direct not only offers Krakow airport transfers, but also organizes group tours of the monuments and surroundings of Krakow. If not this time, we will definitely use it in the future!
On our one free day, we took a quick tour of the city center, where we saw St. Mary’s Basilica, the Cloth Hall, Wawel Castle, and took a short but very enjoyable cruise on the Vistula River. In the meantime we ate delicious dumplings from a local restaurant and drank aromatic coffee while walking around Kazimierz. Unfortunately we couldn’t afford to stay here longer, but it’s just a motivation to come back to this city once again!
Time passed by and we set off on a further journey to the south of Poland to our destination point. The competition was at hand. The Sudetes were waiting for us, and we for them!
Take off!
For all the participants it was a day full of excitement and positive emotions. While racing in the Sudetes, the participants could admire the beauty of multicultural villages from centuries ago. Of course the whole race was not only a bike race but also a great history lesson. After this event, the Sudetes have become one of our favorite places to ride. Next summer MTBClub is planning to organize our own mountain biking competition there. We hope there will be many takers.