BLACK AND BLUE

...and red. A handful of new trails, a visitor centre, and a Red Bull line come to BikePark Wales

- Jamie Darlow

BikePark Wales will never be finished. We’ve been visiting the UK’s biggest bike park since it opened back in 2013, and the big takeaway is there’s always something new to ride – usually a trail, and without fail an innovative handbuilt section or feature on an old track. It’s a little like the Forth Bridge in that way, constantly being worked on, although it probably has marginally fewer red lines.

This time around, the new stuff is scarred into the hillside and visible at least from the fire roads below, and probably from a low-earth orbit too. The first of the big rebuilds during the first lockdown, the A470 features some 40 tabletops and gaps to carry riders down the hill, mostly in the air, and bridge the progression gap from the blue-graded Popty Ping, to the bigger Insufficient Funds trails. BikePark Wales has had four goes at rebuilding and tweaking the trail since it opened in 2015, but the trail crew was never really satisfied with the flow and progression. This time around it’s been flattened and completely rebuilt, and with the vision of just one trail builder rather than the work of many, it’s a more predictable jump line that now flows perfectly. Ultimately, we think it’s a lot more fun.