Malaga, Spain
Well I flew off to Spain the other week and left behind cold and rainy Britain to fly to cold and rainy Spain! Actually it's not too cold but there is no mistaking how wet it is here!! The flight over was pretty sweet though, it's always cool flying out the clouds and into this crazy kind of area where it is always clear with a floor of clouds that look like you could jump right out on to them!
On the way over to Malaga just before the sun went down.
As you have all seen and heard by now the team is running O'Neal clothing and Manitou suspension for the 2013 season and being out here in Malaga is giving me the opportunity to test them out and try some settings. The forks are a lot different to what I'm used to but after talking with Ben about set up and fiddling about with a few things I'm feeling much better on them! Riding out here is great, it has been raining pretty much since I got here but I'm still having loads of fun riding with everyone and I'm getting used to the Norco Aurum now and getting some confidence back.
I flew out here on my own and met Ben out here so I've been doing my own mechanics (some how!) which is great experience and it's good to learn how these things work; also I feel a lot better when I know exactly what I've done to my bike. I'm going to have to pack my bike up for the journey home as well so wish me luck with that!
Everything stuffed in the box!
The set up out here in Malaga with Ben and Mal from Rosst DH is brilliant! There is always food kicking about so you're never hungry and the meals at night are certainly delecious!! Thank you very much Ben and Mal! There is plenty big guns here as well, the Athertons and Beamount are here testing and training pretty hard and of course Reidy is here too, not to mention myself ;) haha. Riding with all those guys is definitely pulling me along and getting me to grips with the speed I need to be going and manning up! Ben was absoloutely flying the other day! I was under the impression that people only ride DH when they come out here but the uplifts are so good here you can get about 6 or 7 runs in the morning then do some fitness training ot go to the gym in the afternoon so thats been good to get in the gym with some of the top guys and have a laugh.
Athertons heading out for a road ride.
The battered Roost uplif vans, these things are great!
Working on the Aurum in the evening. It was great to get to know the in's and out's of this bike.
View of the Roost DH place from the balcony.
The top of one the DH tracks at a place called Torrox, the track finished prety close to the see was open and fast the whole way!
Sorry for the appaling quality of the photos, my phone has a poor excuse for a camera!!
Cheers for now,
George