Situated at the highpoint of the Hambleton Hills, the new green-graded mountain bike trail at Sutton Bank in North Yorkshire starts next to a signpost pointing to the ‘Finest View In England’. It’s a bold claim, but there’s definitely a huge panorama across the Vale Of York waiting for riders who’ve slinked through the trees and crossed wide open spaces on this newly armoured, 4.5km loop in the North York Moors National Park.
The ‘Cliff Trail’ is the first of three new routes to be constructed by the National Park. It’s part of a plan to build a purpose-built trail system that acts as a stepping stone between forestry-style trail centres and wild riding. All the new trails will link directly into the area’s vast natural bridleway network with a 12km blue-graded ‘Fort Trail’ close to completion and an ambitious 28km red-graded ‘Paradise’ route under construction and scheduled for June 2014.
The trails are formed from a mixture of existing bridleway routes (drained and surfaced where needed) and brand new purpose-made sections. The emphasis is put on sheer distance and absorbing the scenery rather than the BMX-style berms, jumps and drops of other modern trail centres. With Adrian Carter (founder of the Pace brand and Dalby Forest front man) behind the scenes we’re expecting good things.

It’s the official opening of the cycling centre tomorrow, so get down there between 10am and 4pm to be part of the fun.