Can I defeat the MTB head game after crashing at Dolomiti Paganella Bike Park?

This summer’s MTB holiday was in Italy. We were staying at Molveno. A beautiful little town on the edge of The Dolomites in Trentino, north of Lake Garda. Covering the area between the 3 towns of Fai, Andalo and Molveno are the trails and lifts of Dolomiti Paganella bike park.

This was my first visit of the trip so I went straight for the top trail, which was likely a mistake. It was my first ride on my new bike, around 30ºc and I’d been well over 2000m in altitude for a week. I was super tired.

Anyway, this all conspired against me to have a mare of a run with a few little dramas tat really got in my head. But I thought I’d make this wee video to show that everyone has an off day!

#mtb #mtblife #dolomitipaganella #mountainbiker #dolomitesmtb #mtbitaly #ravensoutdoor #bikesboardsboots #alpsmtb #mountainbikeholiday

Thanks for watching! Please drop a thumbs up and subscribe if you like this video and please consider following me on Instagram too. It all helps me make more. You can listen to my outdoor focussed podcast for free

Follow on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/ravens_outdoor
For my podcast on Spotify click here: https://t.ly/_w7D3
Read my blog here: https://www.ravensoutdoor.co.uk/blog

So, it’s not easy to put a video like this up because I I think I’m a good bike rider. Um, and this trail’s just got the better of me. Not in a technical way. I just I I don’t know. I’m not feeling it. Okay, here we are. Route 806, 6.7 km, 1,000 m vertical drop. If you’re going to come out here, might as well do the hard stuff, right? Oh, I’m expecting a puncture today. I have to say this is well spicy. Anyway, we’re in Dom Paganella Bike Park and we’re immediately challenged. I don’t know if I’ve done an intro to this video. It’s way too intimidating up here. But we’re on the 806, I think. Guard the line. which is 6.7 km. You heard that right. 6.7 km black trail. This is going to be a tough one. I really really hope this goes well. There we go. Gra my knees are going to be feeling this later. I’ll tell you that. Oh well, here we go again. Oh, is that a No, that’s a roller. Okay, here we go. Oh, that was silly. I’ll leave that in. Look how shiny that rock is. It’s cuz I started from there. We bit front brake and that was that. All right. Well, you know not to do these things, don’t you, Alan? Get this rolling again. Let that be a lesson. Stay off that front brake. Oh, missed that line as well. like these big rock edges. pedal strike. Okay, both my tires and suspension are too soft. Oh, right. This is not an environment where I want to have a fall. So, I think I’m going to switch lines onto supernatural. I think that’s just too many incidents. Too small space. Don’t [ __ ] knock your confidence though, Alan. Just ride normally. Yeah, bike’s too soft. Keep getting pedal strikes in places that I shouldn’t be getting pedal strikes. Pretty annoyed right now. I really haven’t fallen off on a bike for a long time. I am not stoked to be pushing my bike. All right, let’s go. Oh man. And what am I doing stopping here again? Right. This has got in my head now. Actually pissed off with myself. [ __ ] hell. Allan, you were worse than this yesterday. Way worse. Oh, feel like I really hurt my finger. Yeah, I did. Think it’s probably okay though. See if the swelling goes down or comes up rather. Right, I’m going to go down supernatural. I think so. It’s not easy to put a video like this up because I I think I’m a good bike rider. Um, and this trail’s just got the better of me. Not in a technical way. I just I I don’t know. I’m not feeling it. And I’ve had too many slips and slides and too many hesitations to carry on it. So, what I’m going to do is I’m going to take a red trail to the right and um called Supernatural. Um, I just hope it’s a bit more compliant and then when I’ve spent some time on the bike, I’ll uh come back up and give this another go. All right, so let’s do Supernatural. My father looks sick. also new Flash. My rear suspension was locked out. [ __ ] hell. Okay, so we’re on Supernatural now, which is [ __ ] terrifying, quite frank. Alpine reds are [ __ ] savage, honestly. Okay, what it was supposed to be a really good sort of day. Beautiful weather, by the way. What a what a view. It’s not [ __ ] is it? Uh, yeah. what this was supposed to be is turned into something a little bit different is that I don’t crash often and I don’t have difficulty with things often. So, it’s it’s pretty sobering. Um, forget the grades of these alpine trails. We were riding crazy yesterday. It’s like mega stuff. Amazing. But these shiny rocks and big um jaggy boulders have got me worrying about punctures and ring things and stuff like that. So going to put some air on my tires. Um just see if it’s a wee bit better. Anyway, this isn’t inspiring content, is it? Okay, the reason why that drop off was horrible is because it was on the black line. I didn’t take Supernatural. I’m still on the black line and I’ve just decided that it’s just got to happen. So, I’ve given myself a we shake and we’re off, I think. Cheeky highline. get around. Perhaps would enjoy this if it got a bit steeper. That was mostly in control. We dealing with rock features like that. They got these hard edges that you can’t see over. You don’t know if it’s a a pedal crank bashing really bad step over or a roller. So I’m here gad line goes to five and get left back up there or I can go back to andalo which I think I’m going to do. Come on. Oh, never mind. The possibility of a mechanical up here is like really high. That was sneaky, but probably sensible. Oh, [ __ ] right. Spot a line. Pick a line. There we go. This is plug probably flattened out to [ __ ] the camera. Let’s keep it rolling on. There we go. Stay off those [ __ ] rocks. Right off the brakes. There you go. That was good fun. Okay. So on that way off from earlier, I caught my finger in between the tree and my bars. It’s starting to swell a wee bit. Sort of relentless punishment versus relentless breaking is [ __ ] wild. That’s good though. That’s fun. I mean, it’s great, but these rocks are slippy, man. Like really slippy. You cannot touch the brakes when you’re on them. Oh. Oh, this is horrific. Got some shiny rocks to deal with. I need to square these rocks off like that. There we go. Perfect hump. Perfect. Let’s go high here. Get down into this. Get up there. Most people I know would absolutely hate this. It’s very difficult. Very difficult. Difficult. Difficult. Lemon. Difficult. I should probably think at this point. Oh. Oh, no. No. I’m doing okay. 78. Okay, let’s keep it rolling. Descend. Get the confidence up there. It’ll do. [ __ ] hell. I was going to say I was going to have a rest, but here’s a road. Oh, well enough for 5 minutes. Okay, that we end and little line choices through there. It’s giving me back some confidence. So kind of feeling okay now. I am tired of my arms after all the fasa and then now pretty crazy weak. No, that’s just bad line choice. I was actually looking to go on a we adventure up there and find a difficult way down, but yeah, that one’s not for me. Right, back in a second. Right, we’re back in the room. Um, time to go again. had a we rest. But um yeah, hands are hands are starting to get tired. Um and my left hand which is get caught up in that we crash. It’s a bit sore. But uh yeah, we’ll keep going. spend my life convincing people to look ahead of them. But it’s it’s almost impossible here. So tired. See, there’s the line up there. Look down into there. The energy I’d push up and do it, but I don’t. It’s pretty bad. I’m pretty bad on 787.