[fatdoc]

Ok, short posts as I'm
1. On i phone
2. In pain

Mini blog type thing post over the week:

Day 1:

Track called Ridiculator. Fuck me..

Sand singletrack steepens to 4 heinous switch backs.. Gnar loose sand shoot.. To 25 2 to 3 ft perfect flowing jumps and the step ups in thevideo.... Ace!

Cost of the day for me..

Ripped race shirt, fully twated kidney ( spine protector saved me fro
 yet another spine fracture), totally destroyed rear brake... Off for credit card rape in lbs tomorrow :-(

For those who thought it looked a bit gay:.. This is FULL on

Btw fatkid (aka gay roadie) is so far unscathed:-0

Tomorrows installment hopefully less painful !

I'm coming here again.. This is the shit

Forget morzine... This is WAy harder..

Right, off for even more meds

[fatkid2000]

I'm no DH rider but this place is awesome learnt loads. Jon as expected broke equipment and himself and broke his lucky gloves!

[fatdoc]

Day 2:

Now obvious this will be a repeat venture.. 10 hrs of uplifts, 3 mtns... Tracks varying from über fast plenay style with more jumps to wooded glades to high mountain forest singletrack.

Despite bruised kidney I had a ball!

Lbs fixed my brake, bled it and delivered it the track ( 20 mind away) in 2 hrs for 15 euros :-0

Yesterday was a bit on-offy but ok, today was something special,

A long weekend here will get you greater than 10 runs a day, really varied tracks and no obligatory drops/jumps of greater than 4 foot.

Btw fatkid can now do the above!!

Beers and food awaits, adiós

[fatkid2000]

Now what fatdoc forgot to add was my incident with a new DH stem. I bought a new stem from LBS and got a few euros knocked off. As the doc's bike was at the menders he decides to fit my new stem. All seemed well - however upon entering a 50 degree loose sandy shoot with a quick berm at the end the handle bars slipped and rotated down. This had the effect of pulling me feet off the pedals, slamming my full face chin guard into the stem. My legs managed to loose some skin thanks to the pedals and that was the end of my first run.

So today's lesson don't let the doc undertake maintenance on your stead.

The rest of the ride was superb all in amazing scenery.

[fatdoc]

Err... Yeah. I forgot about that bit 

His full facer kinda saved a bit of a nasty face into stem interface incident

I did apologise mind

[erm, sam]

Sounds er, fun/heinous. I like the shoolboys on acid breathless delivery style.

[Dolly]

you got any pics FD ?

[Bubba]

Sounds great Jon, don't kill yourself now!

Got any helmet cam footage?

[fatkid2000]

Day 3 update-

Fatdoc spent the day watching Jerry Springer and Oprah and some pr0n due to his injuries. To his credit he has made us dinner.

Back to the riding. I spent alot of time hanging off the back if my bike with my arse on the back tyre. Lots of steep rock gardens, shoots and technical single track. A really good day with 7 hours plus of uplifts four tracks one of which is used as a SRAM test truck.

No new onjuries to report and another enjoyable day.   

[tlr]

You boys be careful out there. Don't worry about bodily injuries, but for god's sake don't break your bikes. The predicted parts price rises seem to have happened - RRP of an XTR chainset is now £430, an XTR rear mech is now £123. Even a lowly LX mech is £60. 

I fear Jon's days of biking may shortly be over.

Luckily I had just managed to sort all the bits for my new bike out before the rises, just got a chain to order tonight, and then sit back and wait for all the parts to appear. (and then faff for a few days trying to get it all to work...).

Glad you are having fun.

[fatdoc]

Back in wifi zone!

Had last 2 days off.. Details of AM ride coming from fatkid shortly. ( he's getting a beer from the bar)

I havnt bust the bike up too much & have awesome helmet cam of greg minaars training track at zubia... Will combine it with a mates to get a cool
Film

I do seem have broken a couple of ribs though!!!

Right, rabbit stew just arrived (£5) and I need a beer...

Be home sat, riding again week on sunday

[fatkid2000]

Right we have been away from wifi for a while and we have a few tales of woe. Wednesday was spent sessioning on the greg M training track. Which was great fun and loads of lines down it.

Wednesday night we moved up to the sierra Nevada mountains to the village of Bubion which is really pretty.
Anyway back to the riding jc missed Thursday due to his rib injury catching up with him. He seems pretty convinced be has broken a few ribs. Judging by his moaning I think he's probably right. The ride was a full all mountain day - a lot of time in the snow and a forty minute push. The descents were fairly technical and one was loose shale. It was a very hard day and we were all shattered at the end.

During the night I woke up with an extremely painful left knee and seem to have developed pre-patellar bursitis and can barely walk let alone cycle. So between the two of us we have one fully functioning human. So a week hard riding has taken it's toll!!!  

[fatdoc]

Goddamn the food's here!!

Even after half a rabbit we're turning down repeated plates of tapas... Sun streaming through the bar, bikes packed.... Between us we'll just about be able to load the taxi to the airport and get the luggage off loaded!!

Hey ho!

[fatdoc]

Finalreport to follow tomorrw, fatkid is in hosser in sheff, his knee has exploded:-(

Mad journey home... Fully odd week all in all... Will give some thought to a final opinion once I've eaten / slept and considered the whole trip...

[fatkid2000]

Well we're back I'm currently sat in the northern's A&E which the wife forced me to attend. Fatdoc can feel his ribs moving - which the kids are finding funny. My knee is bigger and less moveable.

Anyway the bikes are home both with no major damage unlike their owners.

So would we go again - well I would yes but not with the company we used and I'd rather go to France. Fatdoc will give a longer review I'm sure but we both felt the company was over stretched and disorganized. For example on the last day of riding which we both missed - the 'riders' had a 4 hour push through snow, due to poor route planning.

[fatdoc]

In summery>>>

I'd not go up to Bubion with this firm / operator. There is snow up on the top trails till June, it gets blisteringly hot in mid summer, at this time of year there is too little support / guiding actually on the rides as the firm has spilt it's base of operations between the XC hills and malaga DH. A LOT of the  XC rides are too snowy at this time of year and later on it's not too hot for us temperate types.
The promised tuition never materialised.

The whole enterprise was too ad hoc and on the hoof for my liking. At the end of the day I spent a ton of cash and for that I expect at least some sort of planned itinery / a warm place to sleep [ which it damn well wasnt... and i resent the cost of the accomadation with wood fuel on top]  / get what we expected in terms of rides. This is of course personal preference, I accept I have a rather focused mindset even when on holiday...but even where we were staying was not totally sorted until we got there & our transport back to the airport wasnt finalised until 36hrs before the flight. I simply dont run my life that way.

 There was no real on the ground sussing out of the trails that were ridable, et even I gleaned which ones were by hobbling around the (amazingly beautiful) village and asking about! there was shit loads of good stuff there..

Now, I know i missed a couple of days coz of an injury, but that's no biggie... i doubt i'll ever ride 5 days in row on an MTB holiday.. I never have! I'm usually not fit enough and in need of at least on day off just chillin away from work etc...

The DH / uplift around malaga was a larf... personally the hill with the sandy tracks on wasnt up my street though the bottom half was great fun. the other tracks were way easier and TBH that was fine by me. The order in which we visited the tracks was way off, as the first track on the first day was the hardest by far... basic bad planning.


I would go to spain again, this time on personal recommendation of guide / operator only.. as the firm we went with was recommended all over the web and IMO didnt deliver.

[fatkid2000]

Well after a week of large amounts of antibiotics and NSAIDS my knee looks normal and is just about functioning. Luckily I managed to avoid an overnight stay at NGH - even though the wife and I had to battle through to get my knee seen by an orthopaedic surgeon. When we actually got to see the surgeon on-call he was bloody good and could totally understand my worries. I doubt I'll be riding for at least another 2 weeks.

Back to holiday review.

I agree with everything FD has written.

The accomodation in Bubion was awful - it had not been heated for at least 4 months through the coldest winter there for at least 15 years! We sat around in duvet jackets and we were all freezing. For the first 2 nights I slept in a duvet jacket and beanie and it was still cold. BTW I feel the cold! To get the place hot we had to buy are own wood. We were suppose to get breakfast and lunch provided but there was little food provided - well certainly not enough for long ride days.

I agree that the company was badly organised. The guide in Bubion was told what to take us on my the company owner, even though the guide knew some of the routes were covered in a couple of foot of snow. If we had headed down there was loads of snow free trails.

Despite being in the run up to a badly septic knee I was fitter than the guide which I found odd.

And the transfer back to Malaga airport was summed up by FD when were both stood in queue  as the worst car journey of his life.

Next time I go to Spain - I may look into the riding around where my Dad lives near Valencia.

[fatdoc]

I'm up for that!