MTB Ainsa! XC & Enduro Riding at "Zona Zero" in the Spanish Pyrenees.

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MTB Ainsa! XC & Enduro Riding at "Zona Zero" in the Spanish Pyrenees.
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Posted: Jan 31, 2019 at 15:48 Quote
This month saw the birth of Ainsas very own Cycling Club! The "Club Ciclista Zona Zero" was created and adopted its constitution at a meeting in mid January.

The club will cater for Men & Women Road and MTB riders of all ages and as well as organising the usual rides, it will also arrange rides specifically for Ladies, rides for Children and Social/Family rides.

We've joined the club and we're looking forward to an exciting year ahead!

This month saw the birth of Ainsas very own Cycling Club The Club Ciclista Zona Zero was created and adopted its constitution at a meeting in mid January. The club will cater for Men Women Road and MTB riders of all ages and as well as organising the usual rides it will also arrange rides specifically for Ladies rides for Children and Social Family rides. We ve joined the club and we re looking forward to an exciting year ahead
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Posted: Feb 3, 2019 at 0:32 Quote
Yesterday we spent the day in Binefar (a town nearby) attending a First Aid course presented by the Red Cross.

It's a 20hr course spread over three Saturdays and covers all the usual stuff. We've both done first aid courses before, but some things have changed a bit and you need to have an up to date certificate for your MTB guiding license to be valid.

It's all in Spanish but we speak enough Spanish (and remember enough from previous courses) to follow it without any problems. The course instructor speaks a bit of English too, so anything important or new that we don't get, we can check with him.
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Posted: Feb 6, 2019 at 23:30 Quote
There are several Zona Zero routes out of Ainsa - this one heads south up a trail that passes the Vultures Dining Room, heads up to the Partara viewing point and then down the Partara Express!.

People rarely stop and look over their shoulders when they climb this trail, so they miss this view. Part of my job as a guide is to tell people when to stop and look behind them :-)


#lovemyjob!


There are several Zona Zero routes out of Ainsa - this one heads south up a trail that passes the Vultures Dining Room heads up to the Partara viewing point and then down the Partara Express . People rarely stop and look over their shoulders when they climb this trail so they miss this view. Part of my job as a guide is to tell people when to stop and look behind them - lovemyjob
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Posted: Feb 24, 2019 at 10:25 Quote
In December I had the chance to ride with a young French rider who has some sponsorship and is turning Pro.

He had arranged with Pedro, a local pro photographer in Ainsa, to do a photo-shoot for him and they asked me along. We used a bike shuttle to uplift to some nice locations and spent a couple of hours riding and "posing"!

Uplift services by Els

View from the top
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Posted: Feb 24, 2019 at 10:31 Quote
Riding from the mountaintop village of Tella down to the village of Hospital . . .

Going Down

Going Down
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Posted: Feb 24, 2019 at 10:33 Quote
Trying to keep the speed up . . . .

Trying to keep the speed going.
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Posted: Feb 24, 2019 at 10:34 Quote
When you love what you do!

When you love what you do
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Posted: Apr 27, 2019 at 13:58 Quote
This morning the Zona Zero Cycling Club held a Skills Session for the youngsters before heading out for a ride… .

Great to see so many volunteers ready to promote safe cycling :-)

Skill Training
Skill Training

Skill Training
Skill Training

Skill Training
Skill Training

Skill Training
Skill Training
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Posted: May 8, 2019 at 13:32 Quote
Recently I joined Rafa, Ramon & Tito and help accompany a group of the Zona Zero Cycling Club Juniors on an MTB / Enduro Ride.

We started in Ainsa at the sports center and rode some of Route ZZ-006 "The Trilogy of San Vicente". The route was clean & dry and the sun was shining - it was a really nice ride.

The youngsters had climbed around 400m by the time we'd finished. They were strong on the climbs and fearless of the descents! They made us adults work hard!


Rafa took several opportunities to stop and explain to the youngsters "what was coming next" and how best to tackle it whenever something a bit tricky came along. He's a great teacher.

It was a pleasure joining in and helping out and I look forward to the next ride.

Well done to everyone who took part!

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Posted: May 11, 2019 at 23:42 Quote
This little technical section is part of ZZ-018 The Paths of Mondebueno and Madalena.

It’s part of a little 1hr “after work” route I’ve made up from home and i love it!

Technical Climbing Fun
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Posted: May 15, 2019 at 23:29 Quote
Last Saturday I bumped into Sebastian from France on the trails of Zona Zero. We chatted, rode together and now we're friends! This is how we roll in the Pyrenees :-)

The trails were dry and the sun was shining . . . .

Spanish is our common language - so "Google Translate" came in useful!

Ready for the descent
Ready for the descent

Ready for the descent
Ready for the descent
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Posted: May 18, 2019 at 12:20 Quote
Guiding Rodney from Zaragoza yesterday on a cracking XC route around the trails of Zona Zero!

We did a bit of everything - some technical climbing, fire roads, singletrack and some pretty demanding descents.

It had been raining, so the trails were slick - but it was great fun.

We climbed around 727m over 32.37km in 2.5hrs of riding . . .

Today we're going to do a similar ride . . . but with more climbing :-)

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Posted: May 19, 2019 at 0:18 Quote
2nd Day of Guiding with Rodney yesterday … and the sun was out :-)

We did another cracking XC route with more technical singletrack climbing and some pretty tricky descents.

Today we climbed 728m over 29.85km in 2.5hrs of riding….

We actually climbed 1m more yesterday than on Friday and rode for 16 seconds longer - how’s that for consistency?

View from the Mirador
View from the Mirador

View from the Top
View from the Top
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Posted: May 19, 2019 at 20:56 Quote
My last day of guiding Rodney from Zaragoza today.

He’s an American married to a Spaniard and he’s lived here for 30 years. He has a great sense of humour and is about the same fitness as me - so it’s been great fun.

Today we kept it short & steep and climbed the track from Ainsa up to the Partara summit. The first half of the trail is technical and has a mental gradient - more than 10% in places. The second half of the climb is a bit easier, but only a bit!

The view from the top, which I’ve posted on here before, makes it all worthwhile though and coming down the “Partara Express” is just magic :-)

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Posted: May 24, 2019 at 12:07 Quote
I Love my Job!

MTB Guiding at Zona Zero in the Spanish Pyrenees, Ainsa, Spain :-)

I Love my Job

 


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