Whoa! This isn't some Disneyland bullshit place for dorks who suck at everything. Hear me now and…read morebelieve me later, if you went on the mountain biking tour I went on, Mickey Mouse and cotton candy would be the furthest things from you mind.
Besides being a proper bike shop, GardaonBike offers daily mountain bike tours of Lake Garda. As a matter of fact, they are so expert at tours that they have a chalkboard outside saying which tours will set out when and how hard they are graded on 1-5 star scale (wait a minute??) based on fitness/technical difficulty/and one other category (I forget which).
I called the previous day to reserve a spot. I opted for a full day tour which I definitely remember as 4 out of 5 on the fitness scale. Once there I was outfitted with a full suspension bike (that I was quite impressed with) as well as a helmet.
Our group consisted me, a dude who was pushing on a tree for like 20 minutes before we left (advanced stretching), our guide, and the owner of the shop (who was going for fun).
We set out. Uphill.
Not easy. As a matter a fact after about an hour, the tree pusher (from Isle of Man I learned) offered me power bar gel stuff, as he was concerned I would give out. Soon after, the owner told me that if I keep pushing so hard I'm not going to make it. Later she gave me some power gummy bears which were quite delicious.
We rode for maybe 6 hours. Some tough climbs and a technically challenging decent. Properly wound up, once back at the shop, I took the bike out for a few more hours as the rental actual goes till 6PM. See! I didn't give out.
Highly recommend.