World Cup XC & Los Parapetes

This was our last day so we were willing to make the most of it. The weather was with us for the first time in a while and it was almost warm in the sun. We only had one more thing on our list that needed to be ticked off and this was the ‘World Cup XC Course’. It’s quite a grand title for what it was. The trail was no more than a smooth family walk type path, undulating through the trees. Being near the ski resort meant that there were big patches of snow on the trail, and although fun was not the easiest of stuff to ride through. We didn’t get very far if I’m honest. I was shocked at the fact that there is all this world class riding around us and they consider that a World Cup worthy XC course. After a while playing in the snow we decided to pack it in. To make the most of the day we decided to check out a piece of trail we had been eyeing up above G.Sierra from our venta on the opposite mountain the day before, as well as get some nice photos and video footage while the weather was good. Sue had ridden the first section a few days previously, and enjoyed it. The trail started at the top of a col above G.Sierra so I volunteered to fetch the van later on in the day.

The first section of trail was absolutely superb, starting off steep and loose and then turning into the fastest, flowing piece of trail ever. After this was a short push up to get onto the ridge above G.Sierra. Once on top it was a pleasant pedal across the top. Whilst looking about the edge of the ridge for the trail a herd of goat swarmed our bikes, nibbling at handle bars. We decided that the trail must begin at the top of the next rise. Between us and the next hill was a fantastic straight line descent, littered with rock and ruts. At the next rise was a set of concrete bunkers obviously used in the civil war. Below these we found out trail, clearly disappearing over the crest of the hill. Things started of super fast, swinging around a few flowing corners before dropping over the crest into a series of loose switchbacks. The trail was much of the same all the way down but it went on for ever. Toward the bottom we were both showing signs of tiredness and were making too many mistakes. The gradient and surface of the trail was very unforgiving and it would have been easy to come off badly. We decided it’d be best to get down alive and took it extra easy.

At the bottom we stopped at a venta for our caffeine hit, and the realisation of this climb began to hit me. Little did I know at the time but the climb was 8km in length and over 800m of ascent. I’ve never gritted my teeth quite as much as I did on this climb, but the thought of stopping and having to start again kept me going right to the top.