STATE OF OUR TRAILS

Over the past 18 months, riding has been a lifeline for many but a mixed blessing for the state of our trails; we sound out some of the biggest stakeholders to find out what lessons have been learned

- Sim Mainey

Ride a trail enough times and it becomes a part of you, imprinted on your memory alongside all the important information and trivial junk that takes up space in your brain. These trails are so familiar, their detail so baked into us, they’re ridden on muscle memory as much as by sight. But sometimes memory and reality don’t quite tally.

Trails are constantly changing. Sometimes this is seasonal; autumn throwing leaves on the lines, winter’s endless rain filling ruts and holes with water, or summer’s dust making it harder to scrub speed. These changes require a slight recalibration but are generally factored into the mental map we have of a trail. It’s when larger changes happen that the map, rather than being a guide, becomes a liability. Relying on the lines in your head rather than those in front of you usually leads to unexpectedly cartwheeling down the hill wondering what just happened – just ask Mathieu van der Poel about his line off the rock drop at the Olympics.

WEAR AND TEAR

This last year and a half, over the course of the pandemic, my local trails have been going through changes, with every ride requiring amendments to my mental mapping. Part of it is the seasonal year-in, year-out stuff, but there have been some bigger, unexpected, changes, too.

Well-known trails have seen more traffic than usual, growing deeper and wider. Riders with time on their hands, thanks to furlough or working from home, have taken the opportunity to get out more, but with travel restrictions in place, their riding has been limited to, and concentrated on, a much smaller area. At the same time, we’ve had an influx of new riders on the trails, eagerly discovering what’s on their doorstep and keen to get out and explore. The trails are busy, and in parts, they are showing a lot of wear and tear.