So,
the gf parents have just rented a home out for a year in benalmadena, just outside malaga. The house itself is barely 2 miles from the bottom of a large mountain range which goes on for miles. Anyone have any experience of what biking is like out there and what trails to go on??

There’s tons of riding in the hills behind Benalmadena. Don’t know too many of the names of the areas – we just went and explored, climbed on the road from the back of town, straight into the mountains, and descended on some amzing rocky singletrack back down to the coast.

Hills are riddled with moto enduro trails all the way along the coast with some big descents down to Marbella.

Mijas, Nerja, and Rhonda are probably good places to start looking on the maps. 🙂

Great train service too so you could easily cover some ground, then train back to Ben’dena.

went with joy-riders.com based out of their estepona operation. thoroughly enjoyed the riding there. did 4 runs of the trail in this vid ojen – 4km long and fantastic use of the gradient. great guys and i’m sure if you’re looking for an introduction they do day guiding ( though obviously you may be tacked onto a group they have running ). they do what i would describe as ‘technical xc’, though they can get as gnarly as you like i expect!

Get hold of the Bikefax guide. There are loads of trails to get you going from the Cablecar and all along the mountain. There is also good singletrack on the other side near Alhaurin. Sierra Biking are around there as are Seasonallyunadjusted (who are better if you like to ride ‘interesting’ trails)
If you have a car check out El Chorro and the Sierra Nieves – the best riding in the area though you will need someone to show you the best stuff – it’s not in the guidebook.

Second the recommendation for the Bikefax guide.

You might also be interested in doing part of the TransAndalus long-distance MTB route which passes through Antequera, Ronda (unfortunately it doesn’t go as far as Rhonda :wink:), and El Chorro. Maybe you could get the parents to take you to one point and pick you up further on.

Bear in mind that you can’t take bikes on the train line between Málaga and Fuengirola – which is a pain as you could have used it to get to Antequera and El Chorro.

speak to jim at http://www.seasonallyunadjusted.com/ he does day guiding as well as the holidays. Got loads of good biking in that area.

Cheers guys, plan to maybe just shoot over there for a 5 day break now and again with just my bike, her parents only bought it for tax purposes so never really use it, maybe 2 weeks every few months. I was hoping there would be loads of biking out there. Next time, bike may travel with me