Adventure beyond the race tape.

When the mist clears a real sense of adventure is driven home.

If you could write a dictionary of common misconceptions, then the prerequisites of adventure are: 1. ass-numbingly long flights, and 2. ass-loosening restaurant dishes. But what if adventure can be found closer to home, maybe just behind an EWS race track, just a short budget flight away in a place that has great food and beer, no risk of stomach trouble and has big mountains to boot? You know, somewhere such as Ainsa in Spain?

The Canal del Cinca is a classic long balcony traverse through the steep sided Cinca valley.

Ainsa was put on the global mountain bikers’ map by the EWS in 2015 and again in 2018. The popularity of this ancient town—or specifically the enviable 1200 Kilometres of trails that sit on its doorstep and are managed by Zona Zero— have led to a ten-fold rise in mountain biker numbers since that first EWS tape was unrolled down one of its trails. And now some 30,000 riders come to wash down good food with locally brewed Tronzador beer and thrash down descents in the tire-tracks of their EWS heroes.

Rafa and Pablo rail some classic Ainsa local dirt that helped put it on the EWS map.

Tronzadora beer is the riders brew. A percentage of the beer's profits goes towards local trail building projects.

But there is more to Ainsa than beer, EWS tape and its fast, dusty tracks. Look beyond its stone ramparts and you’ll find even more riding and diverse experiences to be mined from the rugged, steep mountains that harbour this Medieval town. ​

Rafa and Pablo lost in a sea of rocks in the Sierra y Canones de Guara.

​In June I teamed up with guiding outfit Blacktown Trails for a taste of the adventure potential to be found in the mountains around Ainsa, going way beyond the race tape. On a road trip between the Pyrenees’ highest summit Pico Arneto to the north East, and Huesca to the south West, a tumbling landscape of unforgiving peaks and steep river canyons became the backdrop for six days of exploration and hard-earned descents.

Bedrock outcrops flavour the riding in the Guara... and they taste sweet.

Pablo knows how to earn his turns. Hiking is key to mining the gold on Comodoto and opening the area to adventure.

With Blacktown’s guides Pablo Irigoyan Claver, Rafa Molina and Emilio Garcia leading the charge, we dipped into a diverse spectrum of landscapes and a year's variety of trails, from the fast, loose shale of the barren mountains above Benasque to the twisting, tormented rock gardens of the Sierra y Canons de Guara.

Rafa drops into the abyss on Comodoto.

The region is not short of climbs, but the scenery will help take your mind off the pain. And when it doesnt, there is beer.

Mid summer snow just adds traction to the otherwise dry and loose Sierra Negra descent.

Rafa and Pablo wait for the rain to ease before a 700 metre push up to the Sierra Negra trail.

No matter what your plan sometimes the mountains have other ideas. Luckily Rafa is a patient man.

Abandoned village doorways make easy bivouac spots. Pablo scores an opportunity.

Pablo is as handy with a camp stove as he is with a bike... which is lucky if you're hungry for food or trails.

Surrounded by glaciers and tumbling rivers we slung our bikes onto our backs for arduous hike-a-bikes into the backcountry, and when unseasonal snowfall scuppered our plan to camp high on the Sierra Negra, our pre-arranged gear-carrying mules went light, hauling just our bikes instead to its 2700 metre high summit for a snowline descent.

Heading up to the Sierra Negra plateau and into 1200 metres of descent as reward.

Evolution and tradition: Muleteer Alvaro Yaque's mules usually haul the overnight bags for trekkers on trails trodden for centuries.

From the 2700m high Sierra Negra, Alvaro Yaque and Rafa Molina look out towards the Pico Arneto, the Pyrenees' highest summit.

And we emerged from our six days dirty, tired but grinning and swearing to return, aware that we’d only scratched the surface of the adventure potential of this area. Leaving the race tape behind we had merely eaten the crumbs from a seemingly limitless adventure buffet, and it has left us hungry for more.

Plenty of playtime options on the Salto del Roldan trail.

Tunnel vision at the bottom of Comodoto Peak descent.

Dwarfed by enormous rocky outcrops, Rafa and Daniel begin the long, winding descent that is the Salto del Roldan trail.

In a place like Ainsa, adventure doesn’t have to mean long-haul flights and stomach upsets, it just means ducking the race tape and heading off the beaten track. No timing chips, no trophies, no fuss; just you, your bike, a solid group of friends and some world class backcountry singletrack.

Cloud 9 above Benasque.

Putting the VW's 4-motion capabilities to the test to reach a high trailhead.

Ainsa's local trails provide a warm up before diving deeper into the backcountry for Rafa and Pablo.

When wild camping, keep an eye on breakfast. This cheeky fellah ran off with the camp's muesli.

The towers of Salto del Roldan are named after the legend of a guy leaping between them on his horse. Riding its namesake trail without grinning is no less believable.

Words and pictures: Dan Milner
All the info about our Ainsa adventures here. !