5 GREAT PLACES TO RIDE IN 2021

The best new trails, biggest pump tracks and freshest rebuilds for the year

1 VERDERER’S TRAIL, FOREST OF DEAN

This year, 2021, the Verderer’s Trail at the Forest of Dean celebrates its 10 year anniversary. It’s the trail that changed the face of FoD’s Cannop Cycle Centre, shifting the demographic of the riders who visited by drawing in new, family and trail-riding crowds alongside the ranks of gravity addicts. How many riders does the 11km blue trail see? A year before it was built, 906 laps were completed on all the trails at Cannop in the month of August. But by August 2012 the trail counters showed 8,174 laps. And last year 65,000 sets of wheels rolled on the trails. The figures speak for themselves and like it or loathe it, this was the trail that made the FoD.

It just so happens we do like it, thanks to endless flow that’s addictive enough to have riders going for lap after lap. But after years of pounding, those flowing sections had become great lumps of braking bumps, with rubber and water rubbing out the smooth lines. This year, though, there’s been extensive maintenance to renovate the surface, bringing the Verderer’s back to life. The skills area at Cannop Cycle Centre has also had a revamp.

Forestry England has invested around £80,000 to carry out the improvements, with Back on Track and the Dean Trail Volunteers on the tools.

2 DYFI BIKE PARK