Having suffered weeks of freezing cold, snow and turbo-training boredom, I had the perfect winter antidote last week with a trip to the Sierra Nevadas for some of the world’s best mountain biking with Freeride Spain
Day 1 began with a 2 hour road climb chasing Eoin and Simon (Freeride Spain guides) at a blistering pace up the mountain, with a reward of coffee and tostadas outside on a terrace in the sun at the top. From there the fun started as we joined up with other guests and hit the local singletrack. The riding here is phenomenal, technical rocky descents on traditional shepherd’s tracks that even in January are bone dry and fast. I resurrected my old bike as a freeride bike equipped with wide riser bars, 120mm forks and fat tyres, and after a bit of adjusting to it, I wasn’t thinking twice about riding big rocky drops that would have seemed scary before. After more climbing we descended through 3 pretty traditional white washed villages, ripping through the steep, narrow cobbled streets and down flights of steps sending locals scattering as we went, before another obligatory coffee stop in a sunny square. Every trail leaves you pumped full of adrenaline and smiling ear to ear, it seems impossible that it could get any better yet it did every time. It’s a good sign when coming to the end of a 5 hour ride today that all I could think of was how much I was looking forward to doing it again tomorrow!
The next day we did ‘adventures of Ryan’, climbing up to 1900m (where it was still warm enough to sit in t-shirt and shorts despite it being January). There were spectacular views of the snow capped mountains one way, and down the valley towards the sea the other. More steep, rocky descents through the terraced fields barely meeting another person until we passed through a tiny village to fill the bottles with chilled water from one of the many ‘fuentes’ that save you carrying loads of water around. The area is really unspoilt and traditional with very few tourists and incredibly friendly locals. The riding is so enjoyable that the training benefit becomes merely a side effect with memories of the brilliant descents at end of the day making you totally forget the hours spent climbing.
‘Google mountain’ – another brilliant ride with lots of spectacular scenery. From a distance the mountain here look like they won’t change much, all dry and dusty, but the variety of terrain we’ve taken in has been amazing. Long hard climbs were rewarded with long descents, and with 5 of us tearing down chasing each other it was exciting stuff. The day ended with a descent through a huge gorge along a dried out river bed. There was no trail as such, but it felt like skiing on a bike, surfing over loose stones at high speed on the verge control – a very weird experience but great fun.
‘Coast ride’ – we began the day with a 1.5 hour road climb to get to the start of the ride – with smooth, wide roads and cars that beep with encouragement rather than to run you off the road, it’s a great spot for road biking if you’re that way inclined. After a quick caffeine fix enjoying the heat and the views, we met the other guys for a great mountain bike ride down to the Mediterranean Sea. With legs beginning to tire it was good to have some tricky technical climbing to mix things up a bit, and the descents included a loose, dusty downhill course as well as some super rocky farm tracks that left me feeling a bit battered riding a hardtail. As we got closer to the sea the temperature increased nicely and biking tan lines have started early this year!
After 23 hours of pedalling with thousands of meters of climbing and descending was an awesome week. The trails are even better than I remember, the weather was perfect, coffee beer and tapas in local bars hit the spot every time, and I must be a lot fitter and faster than before I arrived. A huge thanks to Si and Emma at Freeride Spain, I can’t recommend them enough. Now unfortunately it’s back to the reality of winter, suffering withdrawal symptoms already.
