It’s official, the UK has gnarlier trails than the continent, with a greater percentage of black and red-graded tracks than France, Spain and Italy or even Switzerland.

That’s according to the groundbreaking State of Our Trails Report released by mtb advocacy group UK Trails Project (UKTP) led by Dave Evans, which showed a fairly even split between all trail gradings across the UK. Across the channel though things are very different, with the rest of Europe building a preponderance of blue-graded trails, and a tiny fraction of black runs.

The far-reaching report took a year to complete and relied on thousands of surveys and interviews with riders, land owners and managers, with the goal of bringing better land access and understanding of our sport.

Citing data from Trail Forks, some 17% of the UK’s trails are graded black, with Switzerland, Spain and Sweden well below 10%, while Norway and France hover around 10%. The UK’s trails break up into 29% blue-graded, 29% green, 25% red and 17% black, according to the UKTP.

I love Swinley’s swoopy trails, they make the most from a pretty titchy hill… but they’re not techie despite the red-grading on some

50 shades of black

Like many statistics this needs to be taken with a huge handful of salt though, UKTP points out this data is indicative rather than absolute, as it’s user generated via Trail Forks. Besides, a black trail in the Alps is almost certainly going to be more technically challenging than your average UK severe trail. That inconsistency applies in the UK just as accurately too: Swinley has a brilliant red-graded track I’m happy to let my six-year-old on, but the red AC DC trail at BikePark Wales is another matter.

There’s a serious point to the data though, because it shows the UK is really well catered for when it comes to variety in trails. It lets riders pick the trails they ride based on their ability, fitness and desire on the day, UKTP says, and allows for progression as kids and new riders step up.

It’s not fully understood why the UK is so well endowed with severe graded trails, although UKTP’s analysis is that harder trails demand less maintenance and were therefore built out of expediency.

There’s another question thrown up by the State of Our Trails Report too, are there really enough easy-graded trails in the UK? We’ve long understood from destinations like BikePark Wales and Cwmcarn that blue and green trails get most of the traffic and best represent the abilities of most riders. If that’s true then most riders are actually under-represented by the current trail stock in the UK.