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...as subject line. I was in Czech earlier in the year with a pal and his 987, which was my first time in rural Czech, and I thought that the hills looked pretty inviting. Kinda forgot about it until another pal suggested a weekend away biking somewhere, and I had a quick look on Google to see if there's anything in the way of trails. And it seems there are. There's a trail centre at Nove Mesto, near the German and Polish borders which looks like it could be good, but some real life reviews would be great. Fwiw, I used to be a regular at Glenlivet, Laggan, and Tarland trails and coped pretty well...
There are loads of Nove Mestos 🙂 (New Town).
I guess you mean NM Pod Smrkem? We just got back from 2 weeks in Czech with 1 week guiding with Czech Mtb holidays and had a really good time.
There are two trailheads in town, plus a big trail network on the Polish side. We did 2.5 longish / fast xc days with very little duplication (that included some rocky / natural stuff up the top of the mtn). Well built and maintained trails, not rocky like Laggan but techy enough if you ride them fast. Blacks are only black in terms of climbing effort / length, so pretty similar to Stanes reds but better looked after. Would go again.
We also had a day at Kokořínsko which was fabulous. Steep sandstone gorges with heaps of hidden trails maintained by the locals. Our kids race xc so they drafted in an extra local guide (machine of a guy who was dad of two Czech World Cup xco racers). Think we ended up doing 55km and 1400m of up-down-up-down-up-down blasting.
Last guided bit was Trutnov. There is a compact trail centre with a mix of trails. Rougher, rockier with one red comparable to Laggan black. Black trail was very rocky and techy.
We had 5 more days just north of Brno. Nice area and great accom, trailcentres were quite compact and bmx smooth flowtrail type stuff.
You can find a lot yourself, but guides did add to the riding and found the best food, accommodation etc.
There was a write up in STW a few months ago.
https://czechmtbholidays.com/discover-bohemian-tour/
Excellent reply, thank you very much! I've been biking with this pal once before in the Alsace and found the same sort of thing with the trail gradings - I was expecting red to be technical and fun, but it was a mix of fun trails and long fire road climbs. Mainly fire road climbs, if I'm honest. But we worked quite well together in that respect - he's fitter but I'm better, so I tried to up my fitness by keeping up with him on the climbs, and he tried to improve his technique by watching me on the descents.
Sounds like we can easily make a long weekend of it and not get bored, which is precisely what we're after. Thank you!
Oh, and is there food nearby, or will we need to hit up Kaufhalle or whichever supermarket is closest first?
If you are talking about Pod Smerkm Linky I’ve been quite a few times. It was designed by Dafydd Davis the chap behind Coed Y Brenin and it really has the flavor of a UK trail centre. There is nothing particularly gnar but it flows and flows. The guys who run it are all really nice and you get a real flavor of the Czech eccentricity. You can camp at the trail head which has a mall lake if it’s warm enough to go swimming and there are basic showers/toilet facilities. There is also the option of using the trail centre’s own B&B in the nearby town or there are loads of accommodation options for very little money.
NMPS is very like a Stanes trail (maybe Kirroughtree) but 2-3 times the overall amount of riding if you include all the Polish side. The vast majority of climbing was interesting and on singletrack (did very few fire roads).
The bike holiday guides have worked hard to so I don't want to give away all their secrets. There is one fairly obvious mtb bistro to stay and eat in the centre of town. The town itself is a little rustic with a lot of regeneration thanks to the bike trails and tourism - think Welsh valleys but less industrial (shut down clothing factory rather than mining) and generally nicer.
Great replies, thank you guys! Won't be camping in early October but could easily do so in the spring. Think I'll book some accommodation once I've got confirmation from him. Might even stop off at Winterberg on the way back...
Forgot to mention that both trail head centres have Cafés which serve up cheap good food. They often do bbqs at the weekend if meat is your thing. They also serve the famously excellent Czech beer!
Sunnrider beat me to mentioning BKXC on YouTube. His first few Czech videos are Pod Smrkem area. I don't think they did the mountain top natural stuff as it was earlier in the year and still a bit of snow up there.