Who are we?
We are Kristof and Magic Mary!
We are a passionate mountain biking couple that has been together since 1997. Our true passion for the sport only sparked in 2014 when we started training for XC marathon stage races. That’s when we realized that mountainbiking could become a real chapter in our professional life, and it did…
In 2016 our life took a drastic turn. We’ve sold every single thing we owned and moved to Gran Canaria in search of more sun and biking. Less owning, more living. From then everything changed even faster and since 2020 we spend our summers in Norway guiding for CANVAS hotel. We spend our winters guiding in Gran Canaria & Andalucia.
We live freedom on 4 wheels in our camper, so home is where biking takes us.
I’m Kristof!
Before I became a mountain bike guide, I was an interior architect. I had a design studio with 4 interior designers. I published 2 books and was seen on national TV as an interior design expert. But I left all of that behind to pursue my passion: That’s mountain biking and giving people a fantastic time on the bike. I’ve been mountain biking since I’m 15. But after graduating I switched from an aluminum horse to a real live one on 4 legs. And 10 years later back to a carbon one again:-)
After knee surgery in 2013, I started training for XC marathon stage races with a personal coach. A burnout from a life full of stress made me decide to move to Gran Canaria end of 2016, to become a mountain bike guide a year later. From then on, I knew that was my true passion. I met Jan Fasting from CANVAS hotel in one of my tours and since 2020 I’ve been working for them as a guide in the summer. For winter mountain biking, Andalusia and Gran Canaria remain top locations, and that’s where I love to show people around on the best trails. Contact us to go riding!
I’m Marjan (aka Magic Mary)!
I used to work as a nutritionist before I got into bike guiding and was active in different sectors. I’ve worked as a food quality controller, as a coach in a health center and I even managed a professional kitchen. My life also changed drastically in 2016 when I moved to Gran Canaria, where I started working in a bike rental shop for about 4 years. It was nice but since I was behind the cash register I couldn’t be on my bike as much as I wanted to. In 2014 I took on a challenge to ride from Ghent to Barcelona on a race bike in 16 days (so about 100km on average each day).
That’s when the biking microbe really bit me and I kept on training for XC MTB marathon distances. My very first race ever was the national championship in Gran Canaria, and it got me 3rd place! As soon as I had the perspective of working as a mountain bike guide at CANVAS hotel, I switched to only mountain biking. With my past learning curve of technical riding, I really understand how hard it can be to learn it. That is what gave me the patience and motivation to teach this to less experienced riders as well.
