Indholdsfortegnelse for MBUK Ride Guide 2025 i MBUK Ride Guide 2025

Distance 37.3km (23.2 miles) Climbing 911m (2,988ft) The South East is a somewhat congested place. We’re experiencing that first-hand, as the other 20 million-odd people who live in this corner of England all seem to be on the motorway at the same time as us. For mile after mile, we crawl along, watching the ETA on the sat-nav steadily rising. It could quite easily be showing my blood pressure, too. I envisage myself having a bit of a Michael Douglas moment, as in the film ‘Falling Down’, but maybe a bit more middle-class, with a shock pump and clad in cycle attire… Amazingly, we arrive in the lovely little village of Firle at around the same time as Richard Godding and Mark Peapell, a couple of Eastbourne locals whom I…

Distance 22.86km (14.2 miles) Climbing 1,087m (3,566ft) Knowing that we won’t be getting our planned awe-inspiring dawn ride, we decide to grab our towels and go wild swimming instead For our trip to the beautiful Borrowdale Valley we’d planned a dawn ride, hopeful that we could bag a spectacular cloud inversion. The meteorological anomaly is something this location is well known for because it has high peaks that surround a large body of water. Cold air collects overnight and holds the mist, so rising early and heading up high for sunrise means you could be treated to the magical sight of misty clouds below you, mountain peaks popping through and clear blue skies above. Sadly, with the Met Office talking about 20mph gusts and the mountain forecast – something you…

Distance 18.6km (11.6 miles) Climbing 1,103m (3,619ft) It can be a lot more special to go for an early morning ride to see the sunrise, or an evening ride to watch the sunset, which is what we’ve got planned. Being the highest mountain in Wales, at 1,085m (3,560ft), this challenging but achievable peak is on many people’s bucket list. With three different bridleways heading to the summit, it’s also accessible to cyclists, letting you put a real mountain into your mountain biking. However, with an estimated 700,000 walkers climbing Snowdon each year, it’s the busiest peak in the UK. A voluntary ban was agreed between Snowdonia National Park, Gwynedd Council, the CTC (now Cycling UK) and the Welsh Cycling Union, asking cyclists not to ride on the mountain’s bridleways between…

Distance 22.2km (13.8 miles) Climbing 429m (1,407ft) Skye is a stunningly beautiful island, the largest of the Inner Hebrides, and is famed for its breathtaking landscapes, picturesque fishing villages and medieval castles. Oh, and Danny MacAskill’s The Ridge vid. This means it’s a popular place, and we cross the bridge that connects Skye to mainland Scotland among a steady stream of vehicles. We feel like ants in the orderly line before the inevitable swarming frenzy over their prize find, which rather spoils the feeling of a wild, rugged adventure. But our plan is to ride a route that often gets overlooked in favour of the Sligachan or Quirang trails, although it’s actually a lot closer to civilisation than those two. I’m here with photographer Russell Burton and MTB legend and…

Distance 21.17km (13.15 miles) Climbing 887m (2,910ft) With an overwhelming desire to do some technical and remote riding, we indulged ourselves with a trip to Dartmoor. For at least 12,000 years, man has hunted, farmed, mined, quarried and lived here. The place is dripping in history, with folklore, legends and stories of murder, wild hounds and ghosts. This is the largest area of open country in the south of England, providing some welcome rough, rugged and wild moorland for our sanitised minds. The centre and east of Dartmoor is home to arguably the best riding, so that’s exactly where we’re headed, starting near the pleasant little town of Bovey Tracey. With its prevailing south-westerly winds, Dartmoor is often wetter, warmer and windier than much of the UK, hence the local…

Distance 350.9km (218 miles) Climbing 4,375m (14,353ft) For years, Cycling UK (formerly the Cyclists’ Touring Club) have been creating exciting long-distance routes to help people travel the length and breadth of the country on two wheels. One of their latest off-road epics, the King Alfred’s Way, had been on our radar for a little while, so we jumped at the chance to try it. The densely populated south of England may not be the obvious choice for a mountain-bike adventure, but Cycling UK researcher Kieran Foster has created a route that feels very remote, while being accessible to a large number of riders. It also links up four National Trails (the South Downs Way, North Downs Way, Ridgeway and Thames Path), opening up many other fantastic route options. King Alfred’s…

Distance 30.5km (19 miles) Climbing 798m (2,618ft) If you like a bit of prime moorland singletrack and enjoy your own company, the heather-covered North York Moors will be just be the ticket. The wide open spaces of this northern National Park occupy an upland area far enough away from any big cities to keep numbers down, and there are hundreds of miles of tracks and paths to go at. This area has to be one of the few places in England where, on a gorgeous August day, you can cover 30km on (mostly) bridleways and see only a couple of people over several hours. The vast moorland forms a big part of the National Park, eventually dropping into the Vale of York to the south and the Cleveland Plain to…

Distance 37.78km (23.5 miles) Climbing 1,280m (4,199ft) For most people in the UK, the Scottish Highlands are a long way away. You also have to pass a lot of good, popular riding locations on your journey to get there. But I have a theory that you get more fun and enjoyment from a place when you don’t have to share it with lots of other people. This would explain why crowded beaches are a bit of a letdown, regardless of how lovely they are, while deserted ones tend to be magical. And why the remote Doethie Valley in Mid Wales is always a fun place to ride, even if the trails aren’t running well. So, in my opinion, the long trek north is well worth the effort. The Scottish Highlands…

Distance 36.92km (22.9 miles) Climbing 885m (2,903ft) What comes to mind when you think of Dorset? For me, Max Dawkins, it’s a mix of the bucolic (picture-postcard villages), the democratic (the Tolpuddle Martyrs, who became famous in the 1830s for their role in the early trade union movement) and the Jurassic (this is the place to head in search of fossils). But riding that’s dramatic and terrific? That wasn’t on my list. Until that is we’d spent a day battling the Isle of Purbeck… Photographer Russell and I meet up at Corfe by the castle ruins. For the unfamiliar, Corfe Castle is a legendary landmark of the area. It was originally constructed in 1086 – William the Conqueror was obsessed by castles! – and was built from Purbeck stone. Even…

Distance 37.7km (23.5 miles) Climbing 1,150m (3,772ft) The Lake District became the UK’s second National Park in 1951, less than a month after the Peak District became the first. Pick a peak time and the place can be heaving –its rugged landscape, carved out in the last ice age, attracts close to 50 million visitors annually. But come out of season and it’s much quieter, and cheaper too, and when out riding you might even bag a fellside all to yourself. One of the drawbacks to visiting in the autumn or winter is the weather. Let’s just say there’s a good reason why there are 25 lakes here. (To be accurate, there’s only one actual lake – Bassenthwaite; the others are meres or waters.) Our latest trip coincides with the…

Distance 36.13km (22.45 miles) Climbing 865m (2,837ft) While it may be the quintessential Brecon Beacons route, ‘The Gap’ isn’t what it once was. As the capability of our bikes has improved and the trail has worn in, the descent to the north is no longer the gnarly rock fest it once was. So we’ve decided to mix things up, with a new route of our own to try out. We’re starting from Talybont-on-Usk – one of Wales’s designated ‘cycling hubs’, which has developed a Village Hub and Bike Wash to put it back on the MTB radar. Built by the community with lottery funding, it has toilets, showers and changing rooms, along with parking, making it a convenient place to start rides from. There are printed route guides available, a…

Distance 20.76km (12.9 miles) Climbing 751m (2,464ft) The Laggan Wolftrax centre opened in April 2015 to provide first-class facilities for the established mountain-biking trails in the area Like all good road trips, the day’s events begin with the two finest words in the Oxford Dictionary: breakfast buffet. We’re staying at the MacDonald Aviemore Resort and pile our plates higher than the Cairngorms’ ‘peak peak’ of Ben Macdui (1,309m). Today’s mission awaits on the western edge of the Cairngorms and offers an enduro-style ride. The ride will begin at the Laggan Wolftrax trail centre, followed by rocky and technical trails. It’s easy navigation before venturing onto wilder, remoter routes with jaw-dropping views thrown in. The day will close with superb natural stuff, sculpted and used in the Scottish Enduro Series, before…