Pro Blogs - Jack Reading: Trip to Spain

December is by far my favourite month of the year! As well as my birthday, Christmas and New Year celebrations to look forward to, a trip away on the downhill bike to somewhere hot has become compulsory! Last weekend I took a 4 day trip to sunny Malaga with a bunch of mates to stay with the RoostDH crew! There were 12 of us in total - I had my buddy Matt Hurst on board for his first DH trip which he topped off in style hitting a 30 foot road gap!, as well as media legend George 'Gee' Milner. Then there was Col Williams and Tristan 'Trig' Mayor of Fli Distribution (O’Neal UK), UK Elite Will 'Dog Nose' Jones and his girlfriend Annie Matthews, Tom, Mink, Jamie, Alun and Blake. It was a good mix of riding abilities and personalities so it was set to be an entertaining weekend!

We arrived at lunch time on Friday and with minimum faff riding began at about 1pm on the tracks we know as ‘Sram’ and ‘Shimano’. As with the actual companies, the Shimano track is better!! As the day neared its close we headed up to the top of ‘Antenna’ track, my personal favorite in Malaga! This was an awesome way to finish the first day. The track is long, rocky and dusty, with every type of trail that you can imagine at some point on the way down!

After a relatively uneventful first day Will Jones managed to run head first through one of the glass French window doors at the RoostDH accommodation! Quite literally, SMASH!! (He wants to be the next James Bond haha). The poor RoostDH fellas had only moved in a day before and already we were damaging things! As funny as it sounds he walked away with some nasty injuries (and just to clarify, he DIDN’T mean to do it)!! He’d cut the palm of his hand, which was going to be very annoying for the next 3 days riding, his head, his ankle and also slit his left nostril, hence the new nickname, Dog Nose! However without too much complaining for the next 3 days Dog Nose ‘manned’ up and rode it out until the end!

We all had an amazing trip. Personally it turned out to be a great way to see how well my strength training in the gym was going. Normally over 4 days hard riding somewhere like Malaga I’d have a number of crashes, especially towards the end of the trip when my body would get increasingly tired. However this trip, despite pushing it really hard, I didn’t have a single crash! I felt so strong and composed on the bike and it makes me realize how important it was for me to get my strength training started as soon as the racing finished at the start of August. I’ve put on 5KGs in muscle in the last 2 months and need to keep working on it! Big thanks to my coach Nick Jones at DNA Sports Performance for all the guidance and support! Although I felt the benefits this trip, I did notice my strength on the bike dropping off during the last day or so, therefore there is much more work to be done before the start of next season.

Reverse GoPro footage of Jack Reading following Tristan Mayor, Motril DH track, Malaga, RoostDH

A special mention has to go to my bud Matt Hurst! He started the weekend struggling to control the rented DH bike that was worlds apart from the XC bike he is used to riding back home, and by the end of the weekend he looked like he completely belonged on it. Everyone noticed him rapidly improving on the technical style rocky, twisty, loose, dusty trails, but then when he hit a 30 foot road gap 3 times on the third day, and I must add with great style, he really surprised everyone, including himself I think! Good work buddy, great to see you improving and I think its time for racing next year!

It really was a wicked trip so thanks very much to Ben, Mal and Barry at ROOSTDH for their services and we’ll definitely be back! I’d recommend them to anyone, a very professional outlet at a great venue! Now I’m back to cold England and its time to enjoy the rest of December! However training will continue to be a major focus with targets to be met. I’ll kick the 2013 season off at the start of February with some Innerleithen Enduro action, then get the DH bike on the clock around March/April!

Photo Credit: Gee Milner

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