LONG-TERM Rider MBUK

TOM’S HOPE HB.130 £6,585

Just in the nick of time, Tom got out to some bigger hills

I’m one of the lucky ones. In that short, non-quarantined window this summer, I made it out to the Alps with my HB.130, and then got home again without having to become a hermit for 14 days (although, of course, I took precautions to keep myself and everyone else as safe as possible). It was a fairly last-minute decision. I chucked the Hope (and a road bike) into the back of my van, jumped on a ferry and cruised down to the Alps, soaking up all the good stuff France has to offer on the way (mostly croissants and red wine!).

I was staying with my friend Sam from BikeVillage, for a week of uplifts backed up with plenty of pedalling to access some of the best natural technical trails that Les Arcs and the surrounding valleys have to offer – and I wasn’t disappointed. While I love the riding around Bristol and the South West, very little beats trails that drop hundreds or thousands of metres in one go, from high-alpine meadows, through dense loamy forests, into either flat-out valley floor blasts