Congratulations to Hamsterley K-Line and Leeds Urban Bike Park!
We celebrate the hard-working folk responsible for the trails we love to ride with our MBR Trail of the Year competition in association with SRAM.
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There’s no shortage of opportuniy for air on the red trail
Volunteer-built Trail of the Year: Hamsterley Trailblazers’ K-Line
K-Line is just one section of the 14.5 mile red trail. Filled with jumps it’s the perfect section to work on getting some air under your tyres but it’s equally fun if you want to keep your wheels on the ground. Starting at the top of the hill on Polty’s Last Blast and finishing with Nitrous at the bottom there are few trail centres that cram as much good stuff into one hill as this.
Read: Hamsterley Trailblazers’ K-Line
Tailor-made trails for your delectation
Commercially-built Trail of the Year: Leeds Urban Bike Park’s Red
The red trail at LUBP is not your usual trail centre loop, nor is it meant to be. This is a trail that focuses more on fun and improving skills than covering distance. This means you can do multiple laps and work on going faster, nailing the berms and turning rollers into jumps. Think of it as all the best bits of your favourite trail centre condensed into one rapid fire run. Once you’re done with the red trail you can try your hand on the pumptrack, BMX track, jump line or just head back to the hub for a top class coffee and bacon sandwich. Perfect.
Read: Leeds Urban Bike Park’s Red Trail
Telltale signs of a productive day on the trails
MBR Trail of the Year 2019
If there’s one thing we’d all like more of it’s time on the bike. Riding may be what’s on our mind most of the day but more often than not it has to fit around the the general bric-a-brac of life. Time spent riding is valuable and however much you manage to get out and ride here at MBR we want to make sure you get the most from your time in the saddle. From buying guides and product reviews to finding new places to ride we’re committed to improving your riding life. We’re not the only ones though.
There are selfless riders who have sacrificed their riding time to create places for us to ride. Whether it’s scraping in a line and hauling rocks or the less glamorous job of attending meetings and filling in forms we are incredibly lucky to have people who are helping to build new and exciting places for us to ride. These people and the trails that they have worked to create deserve recognition and celebration. This is the reason behind the MBR Trail Of The Year Award in association with SRAM.
Of course with so many great new trails out there we needed your help in narrowing down the trails that were most deserving of the award. As ever we split the award into two categories: Best Commercially Built Trail and Best Volunteer Built Trail and asked you to nominate the trails you thought were deserving of the title Trail Of The Year.
Click logo to go to the voting page now!
In association with SRAM
As well as winning bragging rights both winners would receive custom MBR Trail Of The Year trail markers and the winning volunteer trail group would also be awarded funding for future projects courtesy of SRAM.
Alex Rafferty from SRAM sums it up: “To have such a vast network of MTB trails and trail centres in the UK, we’re incredibly fortunate. Trails that excite and inspire us to ride bikes, they’re the motivation and stoke that inspire us get out there to learn, explore and develop our own skills.
“We’re universally thankful and appreciative for the fantastic work and dedication of our fellow trail builders. And, proud to partner with MBR to congratulate and reward those who have truly gone above and beyond in forever building the best MTB locations for us enjoy together.”
As ever with the Trail Of The Year awards the response for nominations was incredible. All kinds of trails from across the country were put forward and after collating your suggestions seven finalists for each category emerged. We then asked you to vote for your favourites and when the polls closed we were left with two very worthy winners.
Hamsterley and LUBP are each worthy winners of MBR Trail Of The Year awards. Each takes the concept of creating a trail that is fun to ride whatever your ability but their locations couldn’t be more different. Both, though, are much more than just good places to ride. These trails are being used to drive change and to grow the sport and develop new riders while at the same time keeping experienced riders coming back for more. It’s not an easy task but when it works it works well, so it’s no surprise that both K-Line and LUBP Red Trail have won over MBR readers.
Both trails also show that mountain biking and trail building in particular can be a catalyst for bigger and better things – bringing people together, giving a sense of purpose and rewarding efforts, both on and off the bike. Time on the bike is precious but time spent building new places to ride is equally worthwhile.
Trail Of The Year finalists: Commercially built
- Leeds Urban Bike Park -Red Trail, 38%
- Revolution Bike Park – Vision Line, 33%
- BikePark Wales – Enter The Dragon, 10%
- Dyfi Bike Park, 9%
- Coed-y-Brenin – MinorTaur Blue Trail, 6%
- Dirt Factory Indoor Bike Park, 2%
- Nant yr Arian – Blue Trail, 2%
Trail Of The Year finalists: Volunteer built
- K-Line Trail (Hamsterley Trailblazers) – Hamsterley Forest, 29%
- Oakwell Hall (Ride Kirklees), 20%
- Woburn Bike Park (Woburn Bike Trails) – Longslade Trail, 13%
- Forest Of Dean (Dean Trail Volunteers) – Verderers, 10%
- Cannock Chase (Chase Trails) – Follow The Dog, 10%
- Gisburn Forest (Gisburn Foret Trail Builders) – The Long Way Down, 10%
- Innerleithen (Tweed Valley Trails Association) – New York, New York, 8%
Revolution Bike Park – Freeride Trail
Last year’s Winner of Best Commercially Built Trail: Revolution Bike Park – Freeride Trail
QECP Trail Collective – Blue Trail
Last year’s Winner of Best Volunteer Built Trail: QECP Trail Collective – Blue Trail
Blessed Are The Trail Builders
Our winners as well as the other nominees prove that trail building is alive, well and on the increase. As more riders get together and look to create and maintain the trails that they ride week in and week out we all benefit. Mountain biking as a sport is maturing and with it comes progress, responsibility and a realisation that we have the power to shape where we ride, whether that’s with our words, our wallets or our spades.