RED ROCKS FOR FAMILY

When we talk about the famous Red Rocks or "terres rouges" in Luxembourg, mostly it reports to tricky rides with lots of technical parts. But sometimes people want to have a peaceful morning ride and just appreciate their time on the bike. Today my challenge was to accommodate people from Brussels that don't really use to ride bicycle... in the woods!

This group, composed by step doughter, boyfriend, step father and a friend, came to explore what they didn't expect. To make it more easy, they've rented 4 eBikes to make the tour. Today they did 3 experiences: riding bikes in the forest, discover red rocks and ride an eBike. You can imagine the satisfaction at the end of the tour.

As usually for our Red Rocks rides, we start at "The Seven Hotel" where we have a perfect access to the trails. As our guest really don't know the spots, we started with a ride through the animal park just on top of the Gaalgebierg. This harmless start brought us to the Ellergronn where we reached the "Mine Prince Henri" through easy cycling forest paths. People was just amazed of the feeling of riding eBikes. Emma and her boyfriend, that really don't use to ride bikes where completely enchanted to be able to follow father and friend at the same pace without coughing out their lungs. They followed any uphill with smile.

Patrick, the leader was completely crazy on his bike... after a long recovery, this was the first time on a bike since january. Normally he uses a regular bike, but he's thinking to invest into a new one, and today was for him a sort of testday for electric bikes. When I see how motivated and fast he was... I guess he will adopt one quickly.

People think the red rocks are flat, but no! Absolutely not. Red rocks have some short an steep uphills where even experienced bikers fight sometimes to reach the edge. Due to the massive excavations, the red rocks are a difficult terrain where beginners often come to their physical limits. Hiring an eBike can make things more easy and explore the "Minett" safely with one of our guides.

After riding through the Ellergronn, we went to the side of Schifflange to visit the bikepark and the the wonderful singletrails over there. I advised the people that the beginning of the tour will be more easy and fast rolling but the second part will be slower and less accessible. Indeed we could feel the difference directly after crossing the main road on top of the "Kayler Poteau".

The group followed me carefully but despite their awareness we had to count some crashes, stupids of course, but that's exactly what I told them at the start briefing. The area moves a lot and every day rocks can appear where you don't expect them. If you look around and miss a small rock, the crash will be imminent. At the end we laughed about this crashes except JC that called me 2 days later to tell me that he will be out for the next 10 days, so we must postpone our next ride.

At the end, people had an amazing experience on bike and in the nature. For the belgians it was a day like no others and the locals discovered new landscapes in Luxembourg they didn't know. At the after ride drink we could exchange our feelings. I like to feel people's enthusiasm and feel it's happiness. This means I did a good job and there is no better satisfaction.