TRAILCREW SURREY HILLS

A haven for London's mountain bikers, can Peaslake's famous trails still deliver the goods after 25 years? We meet up with some familiar-looking locals to find out

The views are spectacular and the trails even better!

The quaint village of Peaslake in Surrey is the quintessential picture-postcard English village, with hanging baskets, thatched cottages, a war memorial and wizened farmers driving by in their tractors. What's slightly out of place is a bike rack filled with five-figure MTBs and a thriving bike shop with cutting-edge equipment. This is the kind of juxtaposition you find in the Surrey Hills. The trails here span a surprisingly large area, comprising Holmbury Hill, Pitch Hill, across to Winterfold and Leith Hill. They're a bit of a maze, but luckily we've got some locals to show us around today - Brendan 'Brendog' Fairclough, Olly 'Odub' Wilkins and Dave 'Tattoo Dave' Hancock. The first two should need no introduction. Tattoo Dave, meanwhile, is a Surrey Hills legend, who's been digging tracks in and around Peaslake since the '90s, as well as employing his considerable diplomatic skills to try to legitimise the local trails, schmoozing landowners and keeping any rude or unruly riders in line.

Building bridges 

Steve and I are clearly in good hands as we began our route, stopping at Hurtwood's Pond, which is now nothing more than a depression in the ground. "Friends of Hurtwood [the charity who look after the area] want to rebuild this pond," explains Dave. "We [the MTB community] are going to provide the labour to re-line it, as a way of saying 'thank you for letting us use the tracks on their land." It's simple but powerful actions like this that make Dave such an asset to the local MTB community, marshalling riders into action and brokering beneficial agreements that safeguard the future of the trails. "The biggest donors to the charity used to be horse riders and walkers, but now it's MTBers," he grins, "and the chairman is an MTBer."