MTB in Northern Spain

Looking for some recommendations if you would.

we went to Ainsa a couple of weeks ago.
its an amazing base for a MTB holiday, really do recommend the area.
its given us a bit of a taste for the place.

before we go and book there again, is there anywhere else i should have a look at?
ideally we’d want a base somewhere with enough riding from the door so we didn’t have to travel to ride. We’re more days out in the hills XC kinda riders rather than winch and plummet enduro gnarr…

We would probably get the ferry to Santander so looking at something sort of within a 4/5 hour drive from there.

so over to the collective wisdom of STW. Where should i look at!

We’re more days out in the hills XC kinda riders rather than winch and plummet enduro gnarr…

We stayed near Ondaroa on the coast then Coolio in the Picos.

All the riding we found was pretty much straight up wee roads and tracks, a few brutal single-track climbs. Then plummeted down, usually overgrown, great single-track. Some frustrating sections that were so overgrown as to be impossible or got lost, some bits where we winched up 300m road climb to have 100m off road descent then pick up a steep farmers concrete path fir the last of the 200m of descent.
A real mix of frustration and stunning views…

The vague dint in the wall of green above and behind my bike is apparently the trail…

Should have been single-track….

Not pictured: a bike being thrown into a bush 15 minutes earlier as the trail once more just headed straight up fall line, concreted over instead of winding single-track, 35*c and humid….

After another ‘straight up the fall line’ effort

The walking, that was first class though.

Great pics Matt , we are off to Potes very soon.  Just ordered a few walking guides. I think our cycling will be road/gravel oriented, i need to research that a bit more.

We’ve stayed at the campsite at the bottom of the Fuente De gondola https://maps.app.goo.gl/z43LZy3QyH4ureD16

You can take bikes up on the first two lifts of the day. I reccomend topping up your tubeless fluid and rim inserts. That ground is super harsh on wheels.

https://imgur.com/gallery/S117wun

San Sebastien … Luchon? Luchon is obviously in France, but very near the border. BasqueMTB for San Sebastien and AQR for Luchon.

Didn’t realise AQR were still going. Off on holiday in November. Half a week in Tremp and half a week in Ainsa

Did Backcountry Pyrenees with Basque MTB a few years back, superb from start to end. Quality of riding was amazing, no duff trails at all, all week. And the group worked well with me hanging off at rhe back taking it easy with no pressure. Would recommend.

Wow, Luchon looks very interesting indeed.

Anyway, I’ve holidayed (as opposed to bike tripped) many times in the mainly French Basque country with cross border raids and would recommend, but you need to know where to go. I’ve done just one day with Basque mtb further towards Asturias and would recommend. Picos and foothills I’ve cross biked. Great great area but I didn’t find a huge amount of mtb. And this summer we went further west to A Coruna and back to Santander. I was intending to mtb but took my xbike after finally doing a bit of research. Found good riding particularly round river Sil (Ribera sacre). But v v xc. 

I think that adds up to riding to be found but I’d not over sell it

If you’re looking to guide yourself and dont want uplift then a lot of the towns on the French side have marked routes.  We rode with AQR out of Luchon a few times.  If they’re not running trips any more I might be able to dig out gps logs of the rides we did (mostly starting and ending in Luchon itself,  maybe a few from a different start point).

Theres great riding in the Basque coast area of Spain (Basque MTB is based there).  Some old mountain paths, some ‘built’ and the Hondaribbia-San Sebastian ride along the coast (you can return by train) is one of my favourite days out on a bike anywhere. You’d need route tips or guiding the first time you did it though.

Trailforks seems much more use in France/Spain than the UK – I find it much more useful than the ZonaZero app in Ainsa and I’ve found some great riding in France by just seeking out a little cluster of trails. However, nobody ever takes anything off as reliably or updates conditions so I’ve also found stuff that’s clearly been unridable for years after storms or logging.

You can usually arrange odd days guiding from Basque on the coast (depending on the time of year) if you want to self guide the rest of the time.

Mc Trailrider did lots of great video’s from Northern Spain a couple of years ago, it looked amazing.

Thank you all.

Luchon does look very interesting. I’m going to have a better look at that.

I was thinking of self guided. We found the zona zero trail network fantastic and actually there were loads of rides in the garmin website

The only thing we felt about that was they seem to grade up (what is considered blue there was definitely what we would think of as a red)

I’d seen some of Mctrail riders stuff from the area, that’s basically why we ended up in Ainsa!

Personally much prefer the Spanish side – better weather, more varied scenery and better (and cheaper) food.

@martyns if you fancy an actual guided holiday out there, keep me in the loop ?