New research from GoOutdoors claims to reveal the best mountain biking destinations in the UK. The Tweed Valley doesn't make the cut. Swindon does. Th ...
By ben_haworth
Get the full story here:
https://singletrackmag.com/2024/09/and-the-best-biking-spot-in-the-uk-is-cambridge/
Speaking as someone who moved from the fens to the Tweed Valley,.. WTAF?
Although I'll give them the thing about the weather!
Reasearch………hahahaha
they put ticks into a computer and it gave the results, that really is an outstanding piece of reasearch 🙁
Genius. I love how access to a 4* hotel is seen as essential, who says cycling is middle-class...
It’s rubbish for road riding. No hills, boring countryside, and a headwind whichever way you ride! Good for commuting if you actually live in Cambridge and that’s yer lot.
Possibly the most ridiculous thing i've ever seen. Reading in 6th doesn't have a trail in the nearst 8 miles.
It's quite remarkable that someone commissioned, paid for, and then published this.
30+ years mountain biking, I've finally realised I've been getting it wrong all along. Rather than heading out to the countryside, I should be heading to a city. Ideally a flat one in the south east.
Living near Cambridge, I was wondering where all these mountain bike trails are. Or even a hill. Looking at the article I saw this:
One of the best places to go mountain biking in Cambridge is Wandlebury Country Park. The 13.4 km circular trail is moderately challenging and takes three hours and 11 minutes to complete. It’s great for hiking, mountain biking, and road biking. The trail is open year-round and is beautiful to visit anytime.
Looking at the Wandlebury Country Park website I see that "Cycling is not allowed in the park". Excellent research there...
ChatGPT please make me a table of the best mountain biking locations in the UK.
I thought the same and followed the link as I thought STW must have read it wrong (they hadn't! :D) and it explains it's hotels with a 4*+ review rating, not that it's likely to visited by the Sultan of Brunei. 😉
One of the best places to go mountain biking in Cambridge is Wandlebury Country Park. The 13.4 km circular trail is moderately challenging and takes three hours and 11 minutes to complete. It’s great for hiking, mountain biking, and road biking. The trail is open year-round and is beautiful to visit anytime.
Would take about 10 mins to ride the whole loop (not that you are allowed). Not bad for walking the dog or running though.....
Here's the table ChatGPT made for me. I think it's done a better job than the GoOutdoors chatbot.
It’s rubbish for road riding. No hills, boring countryside, and a headwind whichever way you ride! Good for commuting if you actually live in Cambridge and that’s yer lot.
You're in the tail end of the Chilterns in under 30 mins. We normally average 800-1000m of climbing per club ride at the weekend (unless you go dead North into the fens, which we only do about once a year as its very dull).
The density of B-roads and small villages is really high and the surounding countryside in Suffolk, Essex, Herts etc is really lovely.
WTF is a moderately difficult mountain bike trail? Surely Sheffield has more of that than Cambridge?
Rounding round a park = piss easy
Lady Cannings & Parkwood Springs off the top of my head....
sorry mate, you can’t convince me. I grew up in a village 10km south of Cambridge and after uni and travelling for a few years moved back to the city with my wife. I reckon I’ve ridden every b road in the county. It gets a bit more interesting out towards Safron Walden but literally everywhere else I’ve lived is better and that includes Birmingham! Now live in East Sussex and it is 100 times better for cycling than Cambs.
I can't wait for STW to start review 4* hotels
As someone who has lived & ridden in the area since childhood, it’s shite for mtb’ing
One of the best places to go mountain biking in Cambridge is Wandlebury Country Park. The 13.4 km circular trail is moderately challenging and takes three hours and 11 minutes
Over 3 hours to ride 8 and a bit miles! That's about 3mph, AKA walking pace...
Says Sheffield gets 43.7mm rain a year. I'm not doubting the quality of their research or anything, but the Met Office reckon it's over 800mm.
Still, it's working. We're talking about them...
Possibly the most ridiculous thing i’ve ever seen. Reading in 6th doesn’t have a trail in the nearst 8 miles.
Reading is great for road riding - really.
They claim 'methodology' was used. ahahahahaha
https://blog.gooutdoors.co.uk/hobby-trips/#aioseo-methodology
This methodology reminds me of the correlation of Nicholas cage film release vs drownings in swimming pools.
I must be missing something, why would I go to a city as a base for doing 'outdoorsy stuff'?
It really isn't often I'm lost for words, but...
Reading is a great area to ride, especially above Caversham.
I guess people think of Cambridge as the Fens...well that's the northern part of the county, East, south & west are great areas to ride. You don't need burly mountains or man made trail centres to have a great ride, most of the time you'll find it on your door step if you get a map out.
I believe the incorrect piece of this article is that a third of all journeys made in Cambridge are by bicycle, unfortunately this use to be the truth I really can't see it now... there are so many less cycles about in town. Guess it's partly due to the huge increase in population we've had recently from countries that see cycling as a poor persons method of transport as they drive around town in some very crass vehicles we never use to see.
Progress!!
as they drive around town in some very crass vehicles we never use to see.
We need to know more about these 'very crass vehicles'.
What do the Singletrack journo’s think of this? Do you know what GOOutdoors intended to do with these results? Or is it just filler for a slow social feed day?
As someone who lives very close to Cambridge, I can say that this is a completely accurate assessment.
Here is a photo I took a few weeks ago on the Roman Road near Wandlebury, with views across to the Gog Magog hills and beyond to Chapel Hill in the far distance. The weather was fantastic then, but obviously now as the snows are starting to set in it will soon become impassable.
I'm sure some other Cambridge locals will be along soon with some more stunning photos of the mountain biking around here.
Funnily enough @oldnpastit, I was checking out my old photo album from back in the day when I was more of wheels off the ground rider and I came across this shot a mate took at Six Mile Bottom:
Happy days, can't think why I left...
Here's one from a trip a few years ago to Cambridge.
Also as a Cambridge local, I can confirm all the above photos are exactly accurate of the local area. If you've never seen these local trails, well you've just not looked hard enough.
