This evening I went out for a 2 hour ride on the mountain bike. I was supposed to be meeting other people but due to me being pretty stupid I made it appear that I wasn’t feeling up to it, when I was actually just being a wimp.
Anyway, as expected my chain broke, I had a pretty mad crash into a river in which I landed in nettles and twisted my bars a bit and now look like I have cellulite worse than your average 45 year old fish-and-chip attendant, but otherwise a pretty good ride really.
The last week or so I have been mountain biking over in Spain with Freeride Spain. Cheap, direct flights ~£160 + £30 for the bike, £300 all in (accommodation, food, guiding, transfers, banter) and about £100 spending money - which was pretty comfortable.
Most of the earlier rides were not extremely difficult, the group I was with were of very mixed ability so I fitted right into about the middle of the pack - although I was the only one on a hardtail. The first day it rained which suited me just fine, when everyone else was cursing and swearing at the rain and wind - I was right at home, and also really appreciated the additional grip that the wet terrain provided. Got to the bottom first a few times too (well, after the guide) which was really cool!
In general it was a very mixed week for me, had some good days and bad days, and the harder rides towards the end of the week really did knock my confidence, I concede. I knew the Granada ride was beautiful, but also extremely scary. The singletrack climb is very committal - if you are not “on it” you will be stopping and pushing a fair bit. I having an ok day but still was very difficult. Think a corner with a rocky off-camber step up, and a huge drop to the left.
Got to the top in one piece though, it was just the guide (James) on a hardtail and another guest (Rob) on a £3k Turner full suspension bike. The next bit was really good for me, tight corners through woods and such a blast! We eventually get to lots of rocky contouring singletrack (mostly downhill). Again a bit hit and miss for me, although I gave it a damn good shot. Two over the bars crashes and a complete bail, and all I have to show for it is a 2cm scratch! (Thank god). Touch wood I seem to be reasonably good at crashing.
I’m going to have to practice big (> 1ft) step ups, the guide was really really good and proved to me its not all fancy bike and suspension! Definitely food for thought, thats for sure.
Was practicing the lingo at every opportunity too, I’m convinced that a few mistakes were made, but I was surprised how smooth everything was going with a very basic grasp of the language. I needed my dictionary to change money at the bank, but everything else was sweet! Aye.