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Rode the XC loop today.
What a great little place, rode the warm-up (fun, but a bit flat) Red (great, different to my usual South Walian TC hunts, might tighter, loads of roots, very steep in parts) Blue long-version (steep, but featureless figure of 8 farm track).
Could maybe do with an extra sign post or two, but we didn’t get lost. 18k all in, about the same as Cwmcarn, but 600m vertical it’s twice as much climbing in the same distance.
I like Hopton too, some great bits of trail there. Different to what's in South Wales but has great flow. Had a wander down the DH stuff one day, bloody hell some of it's tough! Starts mellow enough but one track just gets steeper and steeper the further you go. Happily admit to hugging a tree on one corner! Eastridge is close and has a similar vibe, surprised both aren't more popular but I guess Church Stretton sucks a lot of people in instead.
I found Hopton a really nice little trail center. Surprisingly steep drops to the sides of some of the trails and very interesting for the area it actually occupies. There’s a couple of bits of muddy roots that are very different from any other trail centers I have ridden.
It’s a great little trail centre. Packs an awful lot of variety into a small circuit. Challenging both physically and technically, immense fun.
Seeing this thread - and due to a major faff meaning we had less time than expected - we rode the trail centre rather than Eastridge/Stiperstones. Agree with P-Jay - very flowy and fun, some nice natural feeling section and some steep climbs.
We accidentally rode one of the black routes which was lots of fun. Very dry tho, could see it being a bit more of handful in the wet. Didn’t bother with the blue.
We were testing my mate’s new ShockWiz. Now that’s a clever bit of kit.
Blue skies, not too cold, dry trails, damn fine day to ride bikes 🙂
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I like Hopton. Used to do quite a few uplift days there. The xc loop is lovely though. Some stiff climbs here and there and a few little cheeky bits if you know where to look.
I love the section into the quarry and out. 😊
We saw a bit of cheeky stuff but as we’d got lost once and hauled back up what we assume is the uplift fireroad, we decided to save exploring for another day. There’s a lot of fun in what is quite a short loop.