At basqueMTB we do a few things differently. We have a core team of guides who are fully contracted to work for us. They work full time and we have really little turnover of guides. The guides are a real part of the whole experience. Additionally all of our guides are local, that makes a massive difference to your holiday, between us we have almost a hundred years of experience riding in these mountains.
It is the basqueMTB team who make your mountain bike holiday special. These guys were local riders, trail builders, bike testers and racers before they joined basqueMTB. They really care about your holiday and making it a special experience for each and every guest. You won´t find our guides racing down the hill leaving all the guests behind to make their own way down, we will be looking after you and helping you get the most out of your holiday and, if you want, develop your riding.
Doug
Doug: “El Jefe”
Doug has been biking for as long as he can remember and has been helpless as the addiction has taken over his life. Doug met Amaia in a seedy club in Edinburgh and fell for her Basque charms and moved to the Basque Coast with her in 2008.
Doug is the founder of BasqueMTB and one of the main guides. He holds a SMBLA mountain bike leader guiding qualification and has been riding XC and DH around Scotland for years so will ensure that no matter what your level you are properly looked after and kept excited! He can also offer some coaching to help you get the most out of the challenging local terrain. Doug is also a keen photographer and snaps lots of photos during the trips ready to share with you.
When not biking he can often be found digging new trails in the hills behind his house.
Antonio
Antonio: “Silver Fox”
Antonio has been guiding for basqueMTB’s for several years now and holds a local guiding qualification and first aid certificate. Born and bred in the Pyrenees he has been biking since before mountain biking was mountain biking and his knowledge of the wider Pyrenees area is breathtaking. He has forgotten more trails that most people will ever know, however that might be due to his affection for red wine!
Antonio’s English is improving every day and he is always a fun and charismatic guide with a wealth of local knowledge.
When Antonio isn’t guiding, and once everyone is safely home, Antonio can be found hanging around bars eating red meat, drinking red wine and being right about everything.
Borja
Borja: “Murdoch”
Borja started out driving the basqueMTB van but we quickly trained him up to guide as well and got him his local guiding qualification and first aid training. Borja has a lot of experience organising road biking trips and he keeps us organised looks after a lot of the details during our trips. Borja is fast, proper roadie fast and he runs 130km mountain marathons for fun, so he often gets the fittest groups to guide.
Borja is from Pamplona and has been biking in the Pyrenees for almost as long as Antonio. He speaks fantastic English and knows lots about the mountains, having climbed most of them.
When Borja isn’t guiding you can find him shaving his legs and running marathons before a light breakfast.
Eñaut
Eñaut
Eñaut hasn’t got a nickname yet. He will get one! Eñaut came to work with us when he did the last stage of his Spanish guiding qualification with us back in 2018. He was absolutely fantastic and I spent the next two years offering him a job. Finally at the end of 2019 he accepted!
Eñaut, (“enyaut”) is a very Basque name, so you wont be surprised to find out that he is from the Basque Highlands, near our base in Hondarribia. He has always been involved in some kind of sport, after many years playing rugby, he got into cycling due to an injury. Eñaut has been working for years in the Pyrenees as a white water guide and know the mountains really well. He has also been working on the TransNomad enduro race in the Pyrenees as bike patrol.
When Eñaut is not riding, he is either climbing or running in the mountains, but never with an empty stomach.
Igor
Igor: “Wolfie”
Igor has been with us since 2016, he was the latest addition to the team until Eñaut joined. We have trained Igor up and he is a valuable and well liked part of the guiding team. He is fast but he will look after you!
Igor comes from a competitive cycling background. He races World Cup DH up until 2007 and competed all around Europe. He also competed at the very top level in trials and is a sponsored BMX rider. If you want to see some smooth lines then you want to follow Igor for a bit, amazingly he does seem to crash quite a bit too!
When not guiding Igor likes to puff up his hair and pretend to be Teen Wolf or climb mountains with his dog Rey.
Amaia
Amaia: “The Real Boss”
Amaia is a local Basque girl who grew up in San Sebastian. After studying business in San Sebastian she visited Scotland, planning to stay a few months to improve her English. She stayed for several years until she hooked a good Scottish boy and dragged him home! Amaia is our advisor for all things cultural, the more refined things about the Basque Country.
From 2020 Amaia has given up her proper job and has joined the basqueMTB team full time. As our business has grown and got more professional there is a lot more paperwork and we need to make sure we are doing things correctly. She will be doing our accounts, handling accommodation booking and trying to make sure that we do everything as properly as possible. This frees up Doug to ride his bike more with our guests.
Amaia doesn´t bike, so when not biking she loves visiting the local towns, cities and shops.
Let Us Show You A Great Holiday
Find out more