WORDS HOLGER MEYER PHOTOGRAPHY SEBASTIAN DOERK
There’s a hectic bustle going on at San José’s airport exit. A man tugs at my bag: “Taxi?” It’s pitch black. Something must be up with the time zone…
It’s 3am, yet our ticket says that we weren’t supposed to land until 7am in Costa Rica’s capital. If that were the case, the sun would be up and our guide would be here to pick us up. Instead we’re standing around, completely lost, hardly able to keep our eyes open and trying to keep at bay the men shouting ‘Taxi, taxi’. An athletic looking guy wearing a baseball cap and bike shorts is making his way through the crowd towards us. It must be him.
ADVENTURE
Sponsored uplifts - rural Costa Rica style.
He looks as tired as us, but laughs and stretches out his hand. It’s Paulo, our guide. When we finally put our bags in his pickup, the Costa Rican explains that it was just by chance that he checked our arrival time online before going to bed and saw that our flight would land four hours earlier.
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About Singletrack
Chipps suggests that you wake up and smell the broad beans.
International Adventure - Costa Rica. This tiny Central American country has a hidden network of beautiful singletrack. Holger Meyer teams up with one of the country’s best riders to get to the good stuff.
Room 101. Charlie the Bikemonger dons wig and prepares to hand out justice. In the dock this issue are secret trail snitches and over-biked canal riders.
Trailhunter - Gettin’ Grizzly. Tom Fenton goes off the beaten trail centre at Grizedale forest to find out what exactly makes a ‘must-do’ trail.
Singletrack Recommended. Only the products that we fully endorse, make it into Singletrack Recommended. This issue we have forks, wheels and a shock pump.
Column - Jason Miles. Being a winning endurance racer is fully achievable, reckons Jason. Being a tidy one is a completely different thing.
Bike Test - Twentyninegnars. 29in wheeled bikes have come a long, long way in the last decade. We check out three mid-travel trail monsters from Evil, Orange and Pivot.
Interview - Intense Cycles’ Jeff Steber. The charismatic founder of Intense talks product development, company expansion, carbon evolution and why he’ll always be at home with his TIG welder.
Classic Ride - Northumberland. This most empty of English counties gives up some singletrack treats for those willing to make the journey.
Kit Bag - Bothy Bags. Tom Hill unpacks his overnight bothy bag to show what he takes out on a mountain night in the hills.
Grouptest - Flat Pedals. Flat pedals are not created equal. David Hayward’s been testing 16 and has whittled those down to his favourite four flat pedals.
International Adventure - Menorca. Antony takes an off-season winter jaunt around the singletrack of this Mediterranean island best known for its summer beaches.
Column - Dom Perry. How come, at the end of a riding week, it starts to feel like work?