RIDERS ON A STORM

When gale-force winds ripped through North Wales’s Llandegla forest, all seemed lost, but Jim and Badger’s OnePlanet Adventure trail centre is bouncing back

- Sim Mainey

As a nation we’re obsessed with the weather. Which is odd, as our weather can best be described as degrees of mild – cool-mild, warm-mild, mild-mild, usually all in the same day. For the most part, Britain is averse to extremities. Not that it stops us tuning into the weather on TV, downloading multiple apps to cross-reference forecasts, or talking about it at any opportunity. Like now, for instance.

For mountain bikers, a weather forecast is just as important as a map when planning a ride, and deciding where to go and what to wear. Rain has us reaching for the waterproof jacket, freezing temperatures see us packing an extra layer or two, and wind, well, wind often has us reaching for a magazine and another coffee.

A strong headwind is a cyclist’s nemesis. Its ability to sap your power, throw you off-line and make riding tricky, tiring, and in some cases downright dangerous, can’t be mitigated against with a change of clothes or a different set of tyres. A windy day can ruin a ride. It can also ruin trails. When a barrage of storms hit the UK last year, Llandegla Forest in North Wales took a series of blows that it’s still recovering from.

Badger and Jim are the owners of One-Planet Adventure, who own and operate Llandegla’s visitor centre and the trails that are laced through the forest. Both are locals who have grown up with the forest on their doorstep and, like so much of the bike industry, they are riders first, businessmen second.

“We went to see a government business adviser to help us with a business plan for buying the trail centre, and when we told him what we wanted to do, he said, ‘Well that doesn’t sound like a good idea,’” recalls Jim.