Field Journal

A Corsican MTB Adventure
Words and Photography by Aaron Rolph // Film by Will Brock

Aaron Rolph and the British Adventure Collective attempt to become the first riders to complete the infamous GR20 across Corsica by mountain bike.

For those yet to visit the Mediterranean island of Corsica, you may be thinking of romantic couples’ retreats, vineyards, and stunning coastlines. For sure it has those things, but it has so very much more. The wild interior is packed with jagged peaks and ancient forests but with relentlessly technical terrain. Out here, it couldn’t feel much further from sipping a piña collada on the beach. Corscia is home to one of the world’s most famous, challenging, and exposed multi-day hiking trails: the GR20. The route dissects the island, north to south. Having never been ridden before in full, the idea of attempting to mountain bike this route from start to finish was instantly appealing, for one big Corsican bike adventure.

An adventure we wanted, one hell of an adventure we got. Now, lucky enough to live in Chamonix and ride in the Alps a few times a week in summers, I was well-versed in exposed technical singletrack, taking a sadistic joy in riding trails where just staying on the bike is an achievement of biblical proportion. We set about picking up the GR20 trail to the south, near the sleepy village of Conca. It was well into the peak of summer and the scorching heat was inescapable – we bled, sweated, and almost cried our way through some of the most relentless and technical terrain I’ve ever experienced on a bike.

Safe to say, things were not going to plan. Starting and finishing in the dark became the norm and as much as I wanted a challenge, we’d come to ride bikes and there wasn’t much actual riding happening. I couldn’t help but wonder ‘To what end?’ Was it worth carrying on just to say we did something hard? For me at least, probably not. We’d taken a good look at this route but I wanted to find great riding, so we agreed to split up – Matthew would continue, determined to push on over the GR20 while Bine and I would aim to find more fun trails we’d heard about in the forests of Bavella.

We were pretty pleased with our decisions, riding some amazing trails and rediscovering our flow. Despite it only getting worse, Matthew pushed on in his noble pursuit to complete half of the GR20. The young lad from New Zealand is nothing if not resilient! When we were all together once again, the team set about climbing and freeriding the highest peak on the island, followed by some truly amazing coastal trails with big sea views that soon washed away all of our toils and troubles.

For sure, Corsica is unlikely to become the next big mountain bike destination, and it’s not for the faint of heart but I honestly wouldn’t have wanted to explore the island in any other way.