In a sobering moment of icy clarity, I knew I’d screwed up. The smug grin that I’d been walking around with for the last few weeks vanished in the blink of an eye: a few seconds later my brain gave up looking for a solution and concluded that I was probably just going to die…
With a mediterranean climate, year round sunshine and unspoilt mountains and beaches, Corsica is a dream travel destination for eMTB riders. The perfect location then, for French brand Lapierre, to launch their new, Shimano equipped, Overvolt AMi 727. Their concept couldn’t be faulted; get a handful of journalists, a bunch of sick bikes and 10 times World Downhill Champion, Nicolas Vouilloz and mix it with 3 solid days of riding radical terrain. Keen to ride some warm and dry trails after a very cold and snowy winter, I was all over it like a fat kid on cake.
A quick scan of Wikipedia shows average February temperatures of about 14 c, which is about as warm as a Scottish August. Packing would be simple; shorts and T-shirts and because I’m British and always prepared for the worst, i’ll throw in a light windproof. Why, oh why, didn’t I get a weather forecast? The warning that unseasonably cold weather was due to hit Europe and to bring warm kit, came too late for me as I was already travelling, panic set in, shit! I tried to be positive; surely the Mediterranean, even at its worst, couldn’t be that bad? Unconvinced by my own reasoning, I mentally prepared myself to face down the weather system dubbed ‘The Beast from the East’, armed with only a summer jacket and a stiff upper lip…
Who’s idea was this?
The weather quickly deteriorated: ice caused delays in the UK, snow shut Nice airport, a white-out in Toulon as we waited for the ferry… who’s idea was this?
It was -8 c as we stood on the slippery edge of the marina waiting to board our 40 ft catamaran, the crew busily trying to remove 6 inches of fresh powder from the deck, to sail us in style across the bay to the trail head.
We crossed the crystal clear waters of Ajaccio Bay like freezing E-MTB vikings. Our assault on Corse Mountain began by leaping from the unstable deck of our drekar, carefully timing our jump to the sand so as to avoid a day riding in subzero conditions with soggy shoes. We were greeted by a bizarre scene of mediterranean sand with a fluffy white crust and children in ski suits making snowmen on the beach. After quickly topping up our caffeine levels, we started the climb up to our lunch and battery change rendezvous. The steep, rock and sand ascents of the Corsican foothills immediately suit the long travel AMi 727, as we scramble for clean lines and traction on tracks that would be impossible on a traditional MTB.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t take long before the snow thickens to a point where even Nico is struggling to make the climbs and the grueling slog of eMTB portage begins. Pedal assist is next to useless on these frictionless gradients, so we resort to heaving our bikes upon our shoulders and begin kicking steps in the snow to find sure footing as we ascend.
Under the punishing weight of a 23 kg eMTB and with the sun blazing down on the protected gully, the -3 c temperature feels more like 30 c. Luckily, it’s a good crew and the shared hardship is made easier with jokes and banter that help drag us up each climb. After a long trudge, we finally hit the mountain cabin restaurant for a well earned lunch stop, only to find that the owners couldn’t get up the hill to open it! Not the news that wet and cold riders on their last fumes of fuel want. A quick scout around in the snow drifts reveals a plentiful supply of pallet wood, so a blazing fire is quickly improvised and we all huddle around, stamping our feet in an effort to warm up rapidly cooling, wet bodies. Our guide shows his worth and produces some local wild boar sausage and goat’s cheese, which we warm on the flames and wolf down greedily.
As we descend on the opposite side of the mountain towards our base camp in the seaside town of Porta Pollo, it’s like a different day. The snow gradually releases its grip on the mountains and we find open singletrack, interceded with short, punchy climbs. Lower down, the final runs into Porta Pollo are fast and the conditions are actually excellent, the rocks are dry and the sandy loam is loose and grippy at the same time. Everyone is stoked to be able to open it up after so much technical ascent and the, ‘whoops’, are only broken up by the sounds of brakes and bikes drifting corners.
Corsican cuisine is all about wild boar, goats cheese. Vegans may want to pack sandwiches. Chestnuts are everywhere too and the wild boar are raised on them and they even put them in local beer, Pietra, ‘Good for pigs and good for you’, according to our guide. At the brasserie, Le 20140, the welcome wagon is firmly rolled out: large amounts of Pietra and Vin Rouge disappear during the evening meal before the night becomes a little rowdier as the neon green liquor Get 27 and chilled Pastis is liberally passed around the bar until the wee hours.
I awake a little confused and it takes two coffees before I begin to function. It’s day two and, luckily for me, it isn’t the forecasted -11 c! It’s still freezing but we’re hitting the sheltered enduro stages directly above Porto Pollo. Criss-crossed with rocky and steep ascents, it was the perfect spot to test the Lapierre and take on the climbs that would be a challenge on a trials motorbike. Commitment was the key to unlocking the slabs and steep chutes but line choice and smooth power delivery was the only way to clean them. Back in the UK, I mainly used my eMTB to maximise time riding downhill, so this terrain and style of riding opened my eyes to a whole new world. Watching world class riders cleaning previously impossible lines on their state-of-the-art E-MTBs, just shows how much potential remains within our sport.
Hammering back down was just as challenging, if more familiar. The steep and technical trails are a blend of Finale mixed with Madeira and push the limits of the eMTB and rider alike. Sand, loose rocks and boulders make up most the surface but there is loam aplenty under the trees and, even in the wet conditions that we rode in, the trails were grippy and quick draining.
The evening’s repast is consumed at the excellent Restaurant Le Frere, where everything is grown locally. Unsurprisingly, wild boar and cheese are their speciality but it’s fantastic fuel for hungry eMTBers after a day of hard riding.
It’s our last day and we’re back up the mountains behind Porto Pollo to drop down the trails that will return us to Ajaccio Bay. The first climb up to the ridge takes us through farmland and some fast singletrack, a welcome change of pace after the last few days. Topping out leaves little time for admiring the view as we rush to change batteries and load up on food before beginning the biggest downhill of the trip. When a 10 x World DownHill Champion warns you that the next hour or so will be, ‘Very technical and challenging’, you take notice. We plummet in train down a steep, narrow and loose gully, before the trail opens out and steepens further: this chute shoots us straight into a series of natural, sandy berms and you can smell the adrenaline up the valley as we drift through each bank at full speed. A shout of, ‘SENDER!’, precedes a big rock drop and before we know it, we’ve hit the road as the bottom, shaking out forearms and wrists and smiling from ear to ear.
The clouds turn grey as we roll into the beach resort town of Porticcio. Stoked on a fine morning’s riding and glad that we missed a soaking, we fill our bellies with Crepes and coffee and watch the heavens open as rain hammers down on our bedraggled bikes.
I realise that I’d managed to do so much more than just survive!
We opt for the passenger ferry across the bay for our return journey to the ferry. Huddled inside the cramped cabin, the group’s motivation to ride again is being washed away by the torrential rain. For many British riders, 10 c with heavy rain is perfectly acceptable summer riding conditions and, seeing that we’ve hardly pedalled since the top, I decide that there is plenty of riding left in the day and press gang the others into one last ride in the hills above us. As we reach the summit, the sun comes out and the sparkling waters of Ajaccio Bay are framed by the snowy mountains behind it and I realise that I’d managed to do so much more than just survive!
Cycling is popular in Corsica and there are trails almost straight out of the door of most of the towns and villages. The eMTB revolution is being eagerly embraced by locals as the solution to accessing so much steep terrain, so you’ll be welcomed on the trails and get no heckles concerning being lazy or cheating as there is just no such thing when riding in Corsica.
This article is from E-MOUNTAINBIKE issue #013
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Words: Thomas Corfield Photos: Stéphane Candé
