Wideopenmag’s 2012 season started in the Spanish sun in early February – the weather, the trails and the facilities offered by our hosts at RoostDH were all perfect for launching a team and escaping the UK’s short, cold days. We used the trip to bond as a team, dial in our bikes and get a turbo-charged start to the season’s training.
Almost a full year later, in November 2012, we were back in Spain with RoostDH to top off the end of a great year. The idea was to celebrate an awesome year of great results (50th overall in the World Cup, English Expert Champ, South West Champ, Expert #2 to name but a few!), to round up the season and to get focused for 2013. Oh – and to get loose with a bit of a blow out before the training started again!
Our hosts were our great buddies Ben, Mal and new boy Barry at RoostDH. They have a luxury pad, a fully equipped workshop, a great uplift, hot tubs, pools, hire bikes – it’s the perfect set up for a MTB adventure and a great base for a team.
Despite only being a few months since our last trip – we were stoked to find the trails hadn’t stood still. Some of the old favourites like the SRAM Test Track or Mijas were thankfully unchanged – but loads of the other spots had grown to include new lines, new jumps or even had complete make overs.
We were treated to a new trail (photo’d above) that we didn’t ride on our previous trip that sat just above Malaga. After a morning of spade-work by the Roost team to repair the damage caused by heavy rain the week before we got stuck in to riding and filming. The trail was relatively short and fast and littered with loose, tennis ball sized rocks. Add in about 50 switch backs and some fun, floaty jumps and you had a hell of a fun trail!
The real ‘stand out’ new trail in the area is the Mijas Bike Park – which was recently complete when we visited and is (we were told) the first purpose built and legal mountain bike facility in the area. It was a total contrast to everything else we’d ridden. The whole trail is a man made bermy, jumpy play-trail that’s like a mini version of Whistler’s A Line. It was a huge contrast to the tight, technical, ‘in the trees’ trails we’d ridden earlier in the week and gave the guys a chance to boost some jumps and just have some fun.ย The photo above shows Rich T boosting the MASSIVE double at the top of trail.
Our first visit to Spain was made even better by the addition of valley boys Taylor Vernon and Tom Lloyd. We were stoked that they could join us again for our return trip and spent the week laughing at pretty much everything they said. It’s always a pleasure to see Tay ride and once again we were blown away by how fast and stylish he is – if anyone deserves a gig with the Athertons, it’s that cheeky little pikey! The photo above shows him tearing up the Motril track between Malaga and Granada.
Thanks to Ben, Mal, Barry and Jay at RoostDH for the amazing trip and for helping to get the team and the bikes dialled in for a season of racing. We’re looking forward to getting out again and seeing the riding in the area grow. If you’ve got a week to burn and fancy some of the most exciting, technical, picturesque and just plain damn fun riding you’ll find – give them a look up. http://www.roostdh.com
Thanks to Jacob Gibbins for the photos and to Paul Roberts for the hard work on the video edit.
