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Spanish Training Camp

Cait — Sun, 16 Mar 2014 19:25:51 +0000

Despite the mild winter in Swissland this year there is only so much mud, bike cleaning and kit washing I can take. A week in the Alpujarras in southern Spain was the perfect solution. Epic climbs and even better technical rocky descents, warm sun, good food and of course rocket fuel coffee. The Enduro 29er passed the Spanish switchback test and scared me a few times with the speed it wanted to be ridden.

Suffering major withdrawal symptoms but spring has arrived in CH and the racing season is on the way…!

escaping to the sun

Cait — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 19:25:20 +0000

Under the disguise of a family holiday I escaped for a Christmas pilgrimage of mountain biking and coffee in the Spanish sun last week. We stayed in Lanjaron in the Sierra Nevadas, an area I know well but that gets better with every visit. With dusty trails and 20°C in December I can’t think of anywhere I’d rather be.

The trip was made all the more exciting by the arrival of my new long travel hardtail – a Ragley Mmmbop with 150mm travel forks, fat tyres and wide handlebars. Not wanting to do things by halves I went all out freeride and got a quick release seatpost and some baggy shorts and there’s no looking back. The bike is a bit of a beast to lug 1000′s of metres uphill when you’re used to dancing around on a lightweight carbon thing but it’s rock eating abilities on the descents makes up for it.

Tello descent

Eoin riding Brutus for Men

Google Mountain ride

urban mtb in Pampaneira

Eoin spent most of the week getting sideways at every possible opportunity until he broke his bike and disappeared to join the Spaniards in the bar!

Google mountain ride

Its not just the biking – the relaxed sociable lifestyle, the food and drink, the weather and the language make it an amazing place to be. I’ve spent the last 3 months attempting (fairly unsuccessfully!) to mould myself into an uber-efficient German speaking Swiss working machine and I’m pretty sure the last week has just undone all my hard work. Thank god!

cortado sampling

Thanks to Freeridespain for the use of their back garden. More photos here.

A week is nowhere near long enough, it could be 4 months before I wear shorts again, already thinking about the next visit…

More FreerideSpain photos

Cait — Fri, 13 May 2011 19:24:50 +0000

I finally got around to sorting out the rest of my photos from Spain. Epic rides make for epic views. I’ll stop going on about it now for my own sanity as much as everyone else’s. Ireland is cool too!

More photos in the gallery section here and here

Inspirational images

Cait — Fri, 06 May 2011 13:25:49 +0000

The coast ride. 1000m climbing, 2000m descending, lots of big rocks, tight switchbacks, technical climbing, loose singletrack, amazing views, roasting hot weather and finishing up with a swim in the Mediterranean sea. Needless to say this is a pretty amazing ride!

Unfortunately the photos don’t tell half the story. freeridespain.com

A day in Granada

Cait — Tue, 03 May 2011 14:24:29 +0000

Combining hard training with working as a guide in a place with giant mountains can get pretty tiring and days of can be few and far between, so when one comes I’ve learnt fully make the most of them. Recovery is priority so rather than exploring the area and enjoying the sun a rest day normally involves lazing around watching dvds or reading books in the shade, fixing piles of punctured inner tubes, eating lots and drinking copious amounts of coffee.

This means that despite several trips out here over the last few years I’ve never made it into Granada, a very cool city which is only down the road. Yesterday I thought I’d better make the effort and go but rather than traipsing around tiring myself out seeing the tourist sights, we spent the day cafe hopping, people watching and food sampling.

Coffee and tostadas with tomato. More coffee. Sun. Falafel and baklava in the Moroccan quarter. Beer and tapas. A sunny terrace. Garlicky olives. What a life. Fresh and ready for more riding…

Life is tough

Cait — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 14:13:01 +0000

Last weekend I returned to Lanjaron, one of my favourite places on earth, to spend a few weeks working as a guide for Freeride Spain. Living the dream or what!

Yesterday I was on the road bike for the first time in a country with proper mountains – road riding shouldn’t be so much fun. Heading from views of snow capped mountains all the way down to the Mediterranean sea and back up again. 5 hours with over 2500m of climbing, 30 degree temperatures, dozens of hairpin bends, and 70 kmph descending on super smooth roads – it was a good day.

Today it was back to the mountain bike for some gnarly singletrack descents, hurtling through whitewashed villages at high speed, and more savage, sweltering hot climbing. Cyclist tan lines are coming on nicely.

Some images from a typical day:

Freeride Spain – part II

Cait — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 12:55:48 +0000

‘Google mountain’ – another brilliant ride with a big variety of terrain and lots of spectacular scenery. Long climbs were rewarded with long descents and with 5 of us tearing down chasing each other it was exciting stuff. Someday I’ll be as fast at Si and Eoin going downhill! 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 of being in control – a very wierd experience but great fun.

google mountain descent

Eoin nailing it

nice view

Eoin & Si mon halfway up the climb

Simon showing how its done

spot the rider

reward for all the effort

‘Coast ride’ – EÓin and I began the day with a 1.5 hour road climb to get to the start of the ride – with smooth, wide roads its a great spot for road biking if you’re that way inclined. After a quick coffee fix 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!

road climb

technical climb

nice trail!

windmills at the top

riding in the sun

more singletrack

After 23 hours of pedalling with thousands of meters of climbing and descending its been 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 its back to the reality of winter, suffering withdrawl symptoms already.
Full set of photos from the week are here.

view from the apartment

Freeride Spain training camp

Cait — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 19:49:04 +0000

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! Swapping the cold grey weather for a week of blue sky, hot sun and dry trails with Freeride Spain has been the perfect winter antidote.

Yesterday began with a 2 hour road climb chasing Eoin and Simon (Freeride Spain guide) 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 resurected my old Maxlight as a new freeride bike equiped with wide riser bars, 120mm forks and fat tyres, and though it took a bit of adjusting to, even after one day I wasn’t thinking twice about riding big rocky drops I would have barely considered possible 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.

Eoin on the climb

looking across to Pampaneira

coffee!

Bubion coffee stop

descending through Pampaneira

Eoin descending the streets

snow capped La Valeta

Today Eoin and I rode the ‘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. We rode 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.

typical January weather!

rocky singletrack

trail along drainage channel

Spanish singletrack

More to come, can’t wait!

More winter weather

Cait — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 18:56:54 +0000

Last week deep snow and ice made a return to Dublin causing utter chaos in the city and forcing me to spend more time on a turbo trainer than any sane person would admit to! Training has seemed like more of a test of mental strength and determination than the usual enjoyment, but luckily sanity was somewhat retained with one urban mtb ride where snowy roads in the city could be ridden like trails. It was too cold to stop and take many photos but Phoenix Park was amazing – pristine snow, blue sky, and almost empty except for herds of deer.

Phoenix Park

Christmas Day in Dublin

My flight home to England for Christmas was cancelled and my brother and I got stranded in Dublin. We enjoyed the deep snow and sunny weather and had a second Christmas in York two days later.

This week has been my annual international training camp in Yorkshire. It may be a pro mtb destination for the world cup in May but December is not the best time to come. Although it has been a relief to ride a moving bike since the roads are clear of snow here, the weather has meant more mental strength training to endure the cold and wet. Yesterday I was soaked and feeling like an ice cube after an hour, so by the end of five hours… At least there is proper tea here to warm up afterwards!

Yorkshire Tea

frozen river in York

Two cold rides left before international training camp part two – a week in the Sierra Nevadas in Spain with Freeride Spain. Great hosts, huge climbs, THE best technical descents in the world, rocket fuel Spanish coffee, good weather – excited is an understatement!