Does mountain biking in the Alps make you think of serious bikers in head-to-toe Lycra and wrap-around sunglasses, pedalling up near-vertical slopes, calf muscles bulging?Me too. Or at least it did, until as a 100-per-cent virgin mountain-biker – the last time I owned a bicycle, mountain bikes hadn’t been invented – I was persuaded into a pair of padded cycling shorts and handed a smart set of two wheels in Ischgl, Austria. True, while me and a small band of similarly inexperienced bikers were still fiddling with our gears, a whole raft of Lycra types shot past the bike hire shop and headed for the hills. But that was the last we saw of them – they may have been sweating it out among the peaks, but we were far too busy gliding along gentle trails by the side of clear streams, through pine woods and alpine wild flower meadows to worry about them.

 Once I’d got the hang of the gears, and realised there was no need to go up anything steeper than a road hump unless I wanted to, I was free to drink in the fresh air and relish the 360-degree panorama of soaring peaks all around us.Ischgl is at the centre of hundreds of kilometres of marked bike trails, known as the Silvretta Mountain Bike Arena, with rides from the easiest routes along the bottom of the valley to the toughest, steepest climbs. Like skiing, the trails are graded blue for easy, red for moderate and black for difficult, so there’s plenty of options for all abilities and fitness levels and you know exactly what you’re getting into before you set off.
Bike hire shops in the town are geared up to provide you with the latest wheels, helmets and even cycling gloves. The only extra things you’ll need are a bottle of water and a picnic in your rucksack. On our leisurely meander along the riverbank, I spotted several perfect shady picnic spots, where you could fill up your water bottle and dangle your feet in the pure-as-Evian stream.But it’s worth making it as high up into the mountains as you can – you can slot your bike on cable cars and chairlifts – for the views, mountain lakes, meadows and swathes of alpine flowers. Stop for lunch at the Panorama Restaurant at Idalp on the mountain, where you can stoke up on pasta and Wiener schnitzel on the terrace and – though maybe not for the serious mountain biker – enjoy a cold beer.

As well as your cycling gear, be sure to pack plenty of clubbing kit too. Ischgl is well known among skiers for its bar and club scene, and it’s a mecca for singles during the winter. Normally the clubs are closed outside the ski season, but in recent years the club owners have decided to open throughout the summer as well. Try the Fire & Ice bar to get you in the mood, and later the Pacha club, a branch of the Ibiza nightclub with the distinctive cherry logo on the door.Food anywhere in Ischgl is good, substantial Austrian dishes that don’t skimp on the butter and sauces, but treat yourself one night to dinner at the Madlein, the resort’s designer hotel. It’s worth a trip to gawp at the stylish interior, all muted tones and granite-like surfaces and not a dirndl skirt in sight, a world away from the lacey curtains and macramé of the typical Austrian family hostelry. Dine on delicacies such as salmon stuffed with shrimps, with a carefully chosen wine to match, rounded off with an edible work of art made of exotic fruits and chocolate.At the other extreme is a very different sort of night out. If you fancy an evening under the stars, join in one of the barbecue nights, when everyone heads for the ‘fire pits’ up the mountain – not too far up, so it won’t get too cold. Sit around the coals and impress your fellow bikers with tales of your exploits in the saddle. They’ll never know you haven’t been on a bike for 20 years.