I’ve been intrigued and slightly in love with this Alps- Maritime region of France ever since my very first visit to this area for the Trans Provence race almost 8 years ago. It is still a relatively unknown area to most and there are still so many trails, area’s and little villages to explore, that it just seemed fitting to team up with good friend and Trans Provence owner Ash & Melissa Smith to host our Soul Trails women’s bike & yoga trip in Sospel. Our group came from all over the place to explore the Sospel mountains. From top left we have Cynthia from Toronto Canada, Shelagh from Calgary Canada, Ivana from Switzerland, Charley from the UK & Ariane from Switzerland. So great to meet these women from different cultures from such different riding backgrounds, and with such different skill sets, with each one of them bringing something else to the table, something that we can all learn from and use to improve our own riding & enrich our lives.
Another stellar group of ladies on the Soul Trails Sospel riding week with Ash Smith showing us all the goods, Sven Martin capturing all the moments making us look really good & of course Bry Watt - our coffee brewer, girly music playlist creator & best, safest driver ever. Cheers everyone!
Food, drinks & snacks are just as important to a group of women mountain bikers as the trails are. That is a fact. I think most women ride purely because that means they can eat & drink a hell of a lot more! Jokes aside, we do believe in providing healthy, hearty, fresh food on our guided trips and thanks to Pascale from La Chapelle St Gervais and Melissa from Trans Provence, we ate like royalty and I think we all had to go and ride a fair bit more after the trip to get rid of some of those decadent desserts ;) We even had a special night where we had live music during our dinner. Truly unique. Cheers!
We had a wonderful space for our morning yoga practise. The weather changed abruptly to Fall and there was a definite chill in the air, which made for a wonderful opportunity to practise yoga indoors in this beautiful vaulted room in front of a fire place. A first for me, taking hot yoga to a whole other level. We also had the pleasure of practising with the house cat Laura, who insisted on her own mat every morning and practising some of her moves on the guests. What a treat & what a special place and environment to be based out of. Of course in true Trans Provence style, our last day started high up in the Sospel mountains (in a massive thunder, lightning & rain storm) and we rode all the way down to the Med in Menton where we had to have a swim of course!
Thanks again to everyone involved in making this week a truly special week. An extra special shout out goes to Juliana Bicycles for all the swag - the hoodies & beanies kept everyone nice and toasty and to Lululemon for kitting out every lady with a sweet new yoga mat & of course to Sven Martin for putting up with all of us girls and capturing all the bangers ;)
Next up, Soul Trails New Zealand :)
Peace out,
Anka
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