Thinking about Spain this year instead of the Alps for a change,looking at some nice downs singletrack,recomendations>?
ciclomontana.
excellent riding & food , I'm going again in june.
hurrah.
J.
seasonally unadjusted. ace trails.
+1 for Ciclo Montana - going for the 3rd time in 1st week of July. Can't wait to try the new Stumpy out on the trails. Might have even tubelessed my tyres by then!! (Probably won't have though)....
Andalucia the place to be then?
Ciclo currently have some late availability for the week beginning Sat July 3rd.
Freeride Spain. Been three times.
Ciclo Montana +1 - Marco is a legend!
If you want something different from Andalucia have a look at the Sierra Espuna.Camping,self catering,cabins,good value and top end hotels are all there.Orange test protoypes there too!
Which week are you going senor j, 6 of us are going on 19th June
A bunch of us are off to the Sierra Nevada on Sunday so I'll let you know in a coupe of weeks!!!
same as Tonyd, except a group of us are going firast week in july for my first MTB trip abroad.
whilst on the subject, do any of you wear knee/shin pads on the single track trails over there????
rc200f8-
i'm there 26 june.have fun.
don't wear marco out(chance would be a fine thing!)
mattymer -
I would advise the use of knee/shin pads and elbow pads.oh yes.
and take a spare mech hanger.
Surprised [url= http://www.SierraCycling.com ]Sierra Cycling[/url] haven't been mentioned yet - great trails, great guiding, great location. No long airport transfers and every ride finishes with ice creams at the beach. 😛
mattymer - if you're going with Switchbacks they say you must wear knee/elbow pads. Apparently just because the rock is so abrasive you could lose some skin on even a small off. They recommend dual ply tyres too if you can stretch to it.
Are you going to Bubion for XC or the downhill site outside Malaga? We're off to Bubion for 4 days then into Fuengirola for the weekend on the beer - stag do, don't ask how we got away with it as I'm still wondering myself!
Can't wait.
Another Ciclo Montana regular here. Mark Papworth (owner, guide) is the best bike rider I'll ever know.
'Eye of the storm, Dudes!'
+1 for Switchbacks. If you prefer descending to biking, they van you some/all of the way up the mountain. Great trails and fun guiding. Our biking gang has been 5 times and always had a great time.
May I add Joy-Riders to the list?
Last week [url= http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/CJBikePics/JoyRidersMay2010# ]Joy-Riders Album May 2010[/url]
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Great trails, excellent accomodation (all en-suite) and more food than you can eat.
Another +1 for Switchbacks. Was out there last week, mucho fun. Its not all DH, we did still manage to fit some climbing and 'hike a bike' in between the epicness of the descents. You will want pads though as the trails want to eat you and your bike.
Going with Sierra Cycling on the 18th June for 2 weeks one weeks guided and the other week leisure riding pulling a trailer with the nipper in!
Hopefully these next 2 weeks will give mw a bit of colour.
Been before many moons ago and it was great then 8)
@matty B - after weeks of umming and aahing I finally ordered a pair of 2.5 UST Minions, you think this is too much? Oh, super tacky too!!! I'm counting on more uplifts than climbing 🙂
tonyd. goin with sierranevada cycling. were doin the pds till website crashed and mbuk had an article about riding in spain so we decided to go there. weather looks like its gonna be bloody hot tho.
mattymertonyd. goin with sierranevada cycling. were doin the pds till website crashed and mbuk had an article about riding in spain so we decided to go there. weather looks like its gonna be bloody hot tho.
Yep, looks hot! Hopefully being a bit higher up will help, 35C in Malaga this week...
Sierra Espuna for me - Mountains with lots of trees! Google for Hotel Mariposa - Gebas. Mark who runs the hotel does some great packages and he has quad bikes as well for the rest day! Got a week planned in October currently. The owner of Orange bikes apparently lives and rides in the area as well.
my turn...
www.basquemtb.com
The riding is great, as good as anything in Andalucia, but with trees.
The food and drink is amazing.
Off the bike, the towns and cities are fascinating, and extremely lively, especially in Festival time.
The food and drink are fantastic.
Beaches and surfing on your doortstep, if you like that sort of thing.
Doug, the guide/owner is a very nice chap.
I dont work for him btw.
@TonyD those tyres should be fine.
I've been in June and it was hot. Make sure you have a 3litre bladder for you Camelbak. Also take some high factor suncream (all day stuff).
It is higher than Malaga/Granada so not as hot but still pretty warm!
I've been cooked on Hike-a-bike before now. Great dry trails though. Just keep hydrated!
I rode La Molina Bike Park in the Spanish Pyrenees last year. Absolutely brilliant. Well groomed trails and no queues at the cable car.
The resort's a bit quiet at night time though and it's very Spanish (ie no English on the menus in the restaurants) so take your phrase book.
Fly to Barcelona and either hire a car or get the train. 3hrs on the train and it's quite scenic.
I'm checking out Les Gets this year though...
+1 for joyriders. looking at Bagpus' photos makes me wish my life away to november! those pica are ace!
really looking forward to going now.
We've had several trips to Spain, the best was with Shaun at RideSierraNevada. The are trees on the Andalucian mountains, plenty of snow too if you make it up Aneto.
Mallorca's worth a look too, if you dont want to be guided and like beaches.
Have fun!
Mountain Biking Spain for me!
Ciclo are ace. Marco and Jacqui are lovely.
+1 for freeridespain
Good times 🙂
went with Sierra cycling last year, great trails and guides and finished every ride on the beach with an ice cream looking at the scenery 😳
Can be riding within an hour of landing at Malaga and mini bus uplifts to start the day off.
This place also appears to attract a lot of single female riders!!!
another one for [url= http://www.sierracycling.com/ ]Sierra Cycling[/url] was there a few years back, ace location right on the beach. Arrived late morning and we were riding that afternoon which included a cake stop 😉
How would you describe Ciclo's riding? XC, Freeride?
+ another for BasqueMTB
Have a look at the feature Mark did a couple of issues back when I was photo gimp.
Doug has a terrific set up and can cater to pretty much any requirement. The riding ranges from smooth and flowy to as technical as you could possibly want. The food is great, the trails are fantastic, Doug is an excellent guide. Nuff said. I'm just trying to figure out how I can swing another trip over this year.
Cheers
Sanny
heavy_rat - Ciclo tailor the riding pretty much to who they have along at the time.
Both times I've been the riding has been what I guess you would call 'technical XC' or something similar, but I suspect that with a little tweak Marco would find something to suit most tastes.
Cheers Stumpy, can't decide between Ciclo and Sierra Cycling. Looking for something where you don't need a full face helmet but kneepads would be appropriate if you know what i mean
Cheers Stumpy, can't decide between Ciclo and Sierra Cycling
Great singletrack rides during the day & lively night life on the coast at night.
Check us out on [url] http://www.sierracycling.com [/url].
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This week happy families on our photos. Last week full-on pads needed option.
certainly recommend Sierra Cycling - been out with them 5 times now (maybe a sixth time soon, if I can get a fun pass from the powers that be)
Sanny and Mackem, thanks for the recommendations! It'd be great to have you out again Sanny. Thanks as well 'Rock' and I'm looking forward to getting you all out again, loads of new stuff to show you!
I've not done any foreign climes biking, but spain seems to appeal to me more than the alps. No idea why - perhaps more consistent weather, but I suspect its because it seems less 'touristy' than the Alps that seem to be riddled with rad dood types. 😳
Andalusia is a really good option when the weather is bad here (April is my favourite time out there), but bear in mind it gets incredibly hot in the summer - not mtb weather.
Dual Ply the way to go then 😉