After doing France 3 years in a row, we fancy a change and Spain has come up as a suggestion.

Last year we went with The White Room and had a splendid time so we’d like something along those lines but in Spain perhaps.

Something along the lines of:

van or lift up the hill, miles of pristine and seemingly endless singletrack, lunch, van or lift up the hill, miles of pristine and seemingly endless singletrack, beer, food, beer, bed then start all over again the next day. 😀

Any MTB company suggestions for the above?

Not sure about spain, but just over the border in the Pyranees orientale there are a few around Font Romeau. Altitude adventure, Flow (i think). Dont know anything about either but the area is wicked for biking.

Alternatively you could try the bike parks, La molina (spain)Valnord/Granvalira (Andorra), Les Angles/Ax les thermes (france). All good.

Just back from a week with these guys – loved it!

http://www.ciclomontana.com/

These guys are on the new Find DVD, looks lovely:
basque
tenerife looks cool too:
tenerife

I’m looking at exactly what Luke is looking for?

Ciclomontana are great – they can tailer the week to more uplift or more all day rides. Some of the descents are amazing – very technical stuff.

Just got back from a week with Joyriders, I can highly recommend them

http://www.switchbacks.com

Very very very good riding,

Bubion is at about 1500m, the van gives an uplift to about 2000m each morning, bit more climbing tot he trail head, then decend down untill about lunchtime.

Climb on road/fireroad to another trail head, then the afternoon trails tended to be less steep as your at a lower level, probably more comparable to what you’d ride in the UK, but still kilometers of stuff you’d think were the best in Britain if they were only a few tens of meters long! Van picks you up at a caffe/bar/pizzeria at the end of the day and takes you back up the hill to Bubion.

I’ll definately be back next year!

Another vote for Joyriders here.

Switchbacks is great, but if you’re after entirely uplift riding, you’ll be disappointed. There are a couple of good long hike-a-bike climbs, as well as some long grinding road/trail ascents.

If you’re riding something like a 6″ trail bike with DH tyres, it can be flipping hard work.

And we flew with Ryanair, which was a level of misery in itself.

I was on 2.5 dual ply supertackies, the climbs hurt, but with the exception of the one upto flowtastic* we’re all rideable.

* 1 hour carrying bikes up a goat track, if your fit you’ll ride short sections of it!

The reward for the climbing is you get to ride a lot of trails that are either inaccessible by road (flowtastic is worth the climb several times over!) or are a bit cheeky (riding off the fire roads is illegal in the national park) so uplifting to the singletrack isn’t an option.

These guys are on the new Find DVD, looks lovely:

is this out yet? been looking forward to it.

i don’t know basqueMTB personally, but i can certainly vote for the terrain (i’ve lived here for 2 yrs) and i know doug gets deeper into the heart of it than i do.

ps. cider>beer here…

I assumed you were asking about the summer. If not then Switchbacks either the all mountain in Bubion or the downhill in Malaga.

South of spain will be brutal in summer though.

I wouldn’t head to the north at this time of year, it’ll be cold / wet / risk of snow. Summer, definitely.

South of spain will be brutal in summer though

Only if you’re a bit of a northerner, Real Men (TM) can cope with a bit of heat.

Might check out Spain in Feb/March

bob_summers – got my Find DVD a few weeks ago
Find

http://www.basquemtb.com

More singletrack and variety of trail than you can shake a stick at. Great food. Lovely people.

Get’s my vote every time.

Cheers

Sanny

van or lift up the hill, miles of pristine and seemingly endless singletrack, lunch, van or lift up the hill, miles of pristine and seemingly endless singletrack, beer, food, beer, bed then start all over again the next day.

Sounds like us! http://www.sierracycling.com
You didn´t say when you wanted to go. I would say avoid Southern Spain in July/August. The rest of the year the weather & tracks will be perfect.

ciclomontana are great and I don’t think you will get better value for the money….

Hi vic,

We rode with Switchbacks in Spain a few years ago and loved it, would highly recommend it, but, as mentioned above, there is a fair amount of climbing, certainly a lot more than you did with us. More like one of our backcountry weeks.

Ian at Altitude Adventures (also mentioned above) is a mate of ours and I know he runs a very similar operation – again, a wee bit more climbing though.

Stevo

another vote for ciclo montana……..how do they do it for the money!!

what Sanny said. Went out a month ago – its not buff alpine singletrack on the whole, but its pretty dam goood and challenging (if you want) riding.

Another here for Ciclomontana.

Bolt

The Find stuff in Tenerife was filmed in February this year. Gives you an idea of what the weather is like in winter.

Think it takes some beating to be honest. But then I’m biased.

To get a better picture of our days: we shuttle up for about 10/ 12kms then climb for about 3-5 kms to get warmed up. We then pad up and descend for a few hours all on lush technical singletrack to a cafe for coffees. Then the afternoon starts with a short 20 odd minute climb followed by more descending for the rest of the day. Then if that wasnt enough for you the van can do more shuttles to above Bubion for even more descending into the village for beers and tapas. Now if that is ‘too much’ climbing then I think we are all getting a bit soft;D
BUT if you like the going down part of this only, then there is always http://www.switch-backsDH.com for those who want to be spoiled.
Happy Days

I have a problem with Ciclo Montana…and that problem is that I went once, then the next year, then the next year…

I want to go in 2011 but her indoors doesn’t half moan about my cycling holidays…!

Ciclo is bloody great, although I’m not sure you’ll get lift days every day…oh, and we went in July last year and it was quite warm…!

I went with David at Biking Andalucia earlier this year and had a great (if wet) time. He is based in Orgiva, the Driving over Lemons town so it is quite social as well. He tailors the riding to the group/individual so most of what we did was local trail riding – but as Steve Peat has been out with him I guess he can give you plenty of big DH’s. Extremly cheap too

I went with Switch-Backs this October and bumped in to thisisnotaspoon while there

*waves*

The climate was great the time of year. Warm, but not too hot for a northern monkey like me. You’ll sweat as soon as you start pedalling uphill but once you’ve found shade the relief is apparent! The uplifting is invaluable and means you’re not completely spent at the end of each day. Very relaxed and very, very, very nice trails.

In addition, Michael will provide astute, succinct and memorable tips and tuition 😀

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUHFXAdGx7Y[/video]

We have done trips in dec and march to Malaga (Belamadena) for the last few years, on teh cheap, 6 to 12 folk with our own uplifts.

Drop me a line if you want some pointers on how to do it cheap, that way you can go twice for a lot less than one organised trip.

Ciclo montana 8)

another vote for switchbacks fantastic weeks riding. will go back as soon as i can

I’ve booked to do Switchbacks DH for a long weekend next year can’t wait.

*waves*

How’s the hand?

Still pretty knackered although I keep riding on it 🙄 It’s improving though!