Here’s the edit from the recent 3 day skills holiday trip to the French Maritime Alps. We still have a couple of places available for the next trip on 13-15 March. Check the Trans Provence Skills tab above under Courses for more details.

Just back from the south of France where I’ve been running a 3 day Alpine skills course with Ash Smith the organiser of the Trans Provence race. We started by looking at how to develop a better body position on the bike and improve cornering technique and the skill of pumping the trail. Day 1 was spent on flowy trails with plenty of corners as well as some techy rock sections.

On Day 2 we upped the game and went to Special Stage 25 of the Trans Provence race, out by the coast near Monaco. The trails here are rocky, steep, sometimes with exposure and really quite technical. This is big mountain riding for sure. After a full day in the mountains we descended all the way down to the beach in Monaco for beers and a look at how the super rich do things.

Day 3 we rode a fantastic loop which had it all: flowy hard packed trail, rocky tech and balcony singletrack. The skills part of the day saw us tackling difficult switchback turns like you will find when you go riding in any alpine area. The trip finished with a return to the fast flowing trails of Day 1 where the group could really get a sense of how far their riding had progressed.

There are lots more photos on Flickr. Just click here.

The next course is on 13-15th March. See the Trans Provence Skills tab under Courses above.

Here’s the latest news from Great Rock. I was going to shoot a riding video out my local muddy trails, as a way to illustrate how I’m looking forward to heading off to all the foreign destinations that I’ll be working in this year. But everything was covered in freezing rain making Calderdale pretty much unrideable. Instead I got Victor, our new dog, to do an introduction, then previewed the foreign trips and finished with some product reviews.

Included are Endura MT500 jacket, On One winter soft shell, Teko socks, Gore Oxygen bib 3/4, Continental 2.4 Rubber Queens, Maxxis Beaver 29, plus previews of other kit that will be getting used and then reviewed soon.

 

Here’s a video from a reconnaissance ride that Benji Haworth and myself went on last week for our upcoming ‘Stop Taking Crap Photos’ course. We wanted big hills with good riding and great landscape views, and we knew just where to go. Setting off from Coniston we had a great Lake District ride up and over Walna Scar Road to Stephenson Ground. Our aim was to scout locations and brew up ideas, as well as having a good day’s riding and getting some photos and video. Video is ace. Photography is ace. They each do a different job as you can see from this short edit.

We didn’t see many people during our day out, apart from a paraglider who nearly landed on us and a fellow ‘high trails’ mountain biker, who serendipitously rode into one of our set up video shots.

If you’ve got the photography bug but are finding it hard to achieve worthwhile photos during your group rides this course is for you. You’ve got yourself a nice camera. A new digital SLR that is more than capable of shooting high quality images. You want to be getting more than just ‘snaps’. You want to be taking striking, evocative, exciting photographs.

For more info on the course click on Stop Taking Crap Photos under the Courses tab above.

It’s all glamour here. Just spotted that we’re in both the February and March issues of MBUK. In February the ‘Edventure’ video made by Whitenosugar Productions was listed as the number 1 best way to waste some time with on the internet. Funny to see it beats Danny Hart who only makes it to number 5!

Great Rock is also recommended as the best choice for guiding around Calderdale in the March issue of MBUK, in a feature on the best riding in the Pennines. There I am riding the original Ragley Ti on the rocky trails of Whirlaw Common!