We catch up with old friend Hans Rey as he returns to Scotland for his current series of talks on his life adventures.
It’s now more than seven years since we took to the trails of Torridon+Skye with Hans Rey, Steve Peat, and Danny MacAskill… A lot has happened since then. Peaty has since retired, Danny has shot to worldwide fame, we’ve expanded our adventures out from Scotland, and Hans has continued to travel the world riding his bicycle – now sharing his life stories with the public as he goes about it. With Hans coming to Inverness (the H+I home town) on his current series of talks we made sure to catch up for a quick blast on our local ‘Mast’ trails.
A mix of H+I guides, the boys from Monsterbike, and a group of local (and not so local!) pinners made for a diverse riding group as we began to plod up the tarmac drag to the woods. Luckily it’s fairly swift with the hill giving you good bang for your buck when it comes to the climbing / descending ratio. It’s been a pretty cold and moist end to autumn and start of winter up north meaning it was a slick affair when we dropped into one of the new, but already a staple Mast trail; a muddy toboggan run towered by tall pines.
Ex-World Cup racer, now bike shop owner, Mark Maciver led the charge, putting his technical skills and local knowledge to good use as the rest of us tried to keep pace. The greasy singletracks were a baptism of fire to the Inverness riding for Hans but he’s ridden all over the world on an encyclopaedic number of trails, terrains, and conditions… meaning it didn’t take long for him to get in the flow of things! For a local hill, ten minutes from the city centre, the riding on offer is pretty ridiculous! Inverness has a fantastic riding scene starting to emerge with a loyal group of local riders building and maintaining the trails – it was cool to share this with Hans, albeit for a few hours!
We played on another couple of trails before the short winter days and fading light called us home for a quick bike wash, coffee and cake. It’s that time of year when it takes a few hours to kick the cold and wet after-ride feeling, luckily just in time to listen to Hans share his stories to a sold out crowd down at Inverness’ Eden Court Theatre.
