FARMER JOHN, GRENOSIDE, SHEFFIELD

When Ride Sheffield decided to bring their trails up to date, dirt sculptor and fixer John Thorpe brought in Ollie, JP and Alex the Greek, and together the Greno gang hatched an audacious plan...

- Sim Mainey

Anyone who's built a mountain bike trail will tell you that it's equal parts love, art and labour. So what happens when some of the best A trail builders around get together to bring one of the UK's most-loved trails bang up to date? Caution - masters at work.

A banner strung between two trees reading "Trail Closed' is not what any rider wants to see, but in Grenoside this is a good sign. The trails in Greno, as it's more commonly known, are hugely popular thanks to both their close proximity to Sheffield and because they are just straight-up fun. Events like Peaty's Steel City DH race have not only cemented their reputation as one of the area's riding hotspots, but actually been responsible for creating the trails in the first place, as Steve Hardcastle from local trail group, Ride Sheffield, explains.

"We first ran the race in 2011 to help Sheffield and Rotherham Wildlife Trust raise funds to buy the woods when they came up for sale. The first year the track was very different and after the successful purchase we agreed with SRWT the creation of three dedicated trails in the woods. These were built in 2012 by Bike Track on a shoestring budget. We've done bits of work over the years but never had the funds in place to do work on the scale we're doing right now."

Ten years is a long time for any trail to go fundamentally unchanged. Wear and tear have changed the feel of the trails, but much else has changed, too. The kind of trails riders are looking for and how trails are designed and built has moved on. Rather than just tweak what was there, and with Bike Track tied up with other projects, Steve and Ride Sheffield decided to get a totally fresh perspective on Greno.