caitelliott.co.uk » mountain biking Spain

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: