Fm4’s Chris Cummins with the guides Tim and Jenny of Pure Mountains in the Spanish Alpujarra mountains
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@chrisccummins
Foreign Guide just because it’s winter in Austria there’s no need to put away your mountain bike just yet I’m here at 2 800 meters in the Sierra Nevada of southern Spain I’ve just come up about 1 200 meters of climbing we’ve come up the last bit on a path of those
Shards of flint rock absolutely exhausting but wonderful here in the Spanish sunshine I’m here with my guide from The Guiding group pure mountains Tim Tim you sadistic bastard that was a hell of a climb well look some people enjoy it and it’s gonna be flat for a while and then I promise you
It’s about 1200 meters or they’re about downhill on single track through the trees and you’ll finish at the house now and we’re the crazy guy here Matt you’ve come all the way up here to 2 800 meters on a bike with flat pedals and uh and just one gear what is this
Contraption and what’s it good for I wasn’t good for a lot of pain I think that’s what it’s good for uh it’s a single speed 29er so the wheels are slightly bigger than normal it only has one gear no derailers so you either get up the hill or you walk that’s it basically
Stunning scenery of your yellow Rocky it looks like the sort of setting of a cowboy film it’s a it’s really wonderful now I’ve got to gather my breath gather my courage and see if I can make it down to The Farmhouse for lunch so we’re coming down some steep single
Track what I think is wonderful about mountain biking is that if you do it in a different area it seems like a totally different sport we’re going over these shards of Flint they look very sharp and that’s the scary thing I keep thinking if I fall they’re going to hurt what do
You do when you’re going over these rocks they seem to be able to move under your feet what tips can you give me Tim to keep me alive till the farm it’s a tricky surface for people who are new to that sort of sharp flinty type Rock but
The techniques are almost exactly the same regardless of what surface you’re on if you’re spotting two or three meters in front of you you’ve got a certain amount of momentum you don’t use too much front brake because that can be a bit painful when you hit the ground
Um look forward and just have confidence that the bike you’re riding is actually able to do it 99 times out of 100 will be absolutely fine and coming off is almost always a question of going too slowly and being slightly too nervous about what might happen come to the Switchback
We’ve come to a tricky technical bit some switchbacks which uh is a mountain bike speak for those tight Corners up to 90 degree Corners Jenny I’m not very confident at how to get around here Jenny’s my Switchback coach what should I be doing with my body and my bike you’ve you’ve just got
To the edge which will quite quickly the same as skiing really you’ve got to look around the corner the way you want to go and just keep your weight a little bit off the back of the saddle and look around the corner and just let go of the brakes a little bit
And flow around the corner I’ve made it to the bottom the best part of one and a half thousand meters a vertical drop just in single track that was absolutely amazing first over the shards of Flint then through these forests over it’s got a Seas of pine cones it was absolutely amazing
The Chris Cummins ride guide