At the end of the last trip over to the Basque Country Doug from Basque MTB and myself got involved with a travel cycling feature for the Guardian. You can check it out today in the paper or here online.

The riding in this part of the world is second to none with flowing, technical, singletrack trails which drop down through forested mountains all the way to the sandy beaches of the ocean. The ride that we did for this feature is one that we always end both the ‘Basque Country’ and ‘Backcountry Pyrenees’ trips with.

We rode along the Basque coast into the fabulous city of San Sebastian where we toured the bars eating the delicious pintxos (Basque for tapas) and trying the odd glass of wine, high end sherry and even real ale! As you can appreciate, we have a really hard job some days!

If you’d like to sample the great riding, whilst picking up some tips to make you a better rider, as well as the fine food and culture of this area then we run several trips throughout the year. See the Trips tab above.

Thanks to Benji Haworth for the Guardian photo.

 

 

Ed is not dead!

After last year’s Internet phenomenon, “The Chop” vimeo.com/79572828 which had over 32,000 views and a showing at the Kendal Mountain Festival, Ed Oxley aka Great Rock is back with more stories from the hills.

“Despite an apparent beheading at the end of his last film, Ed has returned! Come with him as he joins Andy McKenna from Go Where Scotland go-where.co.uk/ on another journey of discovery, not this time into the strange alternate universe of Accrington, but instead into the wilds of Scotland. Ed searches for the ‘Peaty’ he’s heard so much about but never tasted – but what will this search lead to?

A story of bothies, bogs (both sat on and rode over) beer electronic cigarette forum, bikes and something Peaty….

The first from a series of four longer videos scheduled for 2014, this story of adventure chimes with Ed’s plans for the rest of the year, with the new guided trips in the UK called Northern Rock and trips abroad, in the Basque Country and the French Riviera adding to the renowned UK skills courses.

For 2014 Great Rock is joined in adventure by these sponsors:

Chromag – shore-lines.co.uk

KS Seatposts – jungleproducts.co.uk/

Santa Cruz Bikes –santacruzbikes.co.uk/

Shimano – madison.co.uk/

X fusion –upgradebikes.co.uk/

Magic Rock Brewing – magicrockbrewing.com

Alpkit – alpkit.co.uk

Shot and edited by Benji Haworth benjimedia.wordpress.com/

Many Thanks to Andy McKenna and a certain World Champion for helping to make it happen.

Music by The Black Angels