One of the newer trail centre in the UK as far as I’m concerned, Llandegla is somewhere I’ve ridden a few times on both a fully rigid hardtail and a big freeride bike. It’s an odd place in that respect for me since I feel either way you miss out on something you would get from the other option.
It was a short drive from Delamere to Llandegla’s visitor centre. The car park was rammed full and the sun was out. Not bad for the beginning of April! A chap was taking money for parking at the gate, he mentioned it was nearly always really busy these days. That’s what comes of building proper trails in easy reach of some of the country’s biggest cities I suppose.
Chatted to a really enthusiastic guy in the car park while I was fitting my new cassette (bling!) who said he rode there a couple of times a week. He had a pretty nice Trek full sus ride, probably quite well suited to the trail. I was also told that the blue trail was worth a ride, something I’m still not sure about, as the red / black I was intending to ride isn’t what I’d call a tough trail.
Bike fixed, big smiley face in wonder of my now working gears, it was time to charge up the first slope out of the car park for a quick session at one of the skill centres. These are new sections built at Llandegla to give people a taste of the skills they may need. The first one featured some nice lines with small drops and some fun corners, and further along were a few sets of nice dirt jumps.
The first part of the red / blue is a more or less uphill 4 or so kilometers. Most of this used to be in the woods and could get really bogged down in the winter with mud. Massive areas of the hill have been deforested though so in the spring sunshine the gravelly trail surface was spot on as I hauled myself to the start of the red / black single track.
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| Looking East from the end of the first climb, awesome clouds! |
The red is a trail in its own right, with black extensions throughout the forest. Aside from the dirt jumps just about half way round I hit all the black sections, as they’re not tech, but really fast if you let the bike go. Tech in a different way I suppose as the challenge comes from letting the bike go and taking the obstacles the singletrack throws at you.
Without trees, I couldn’t tell how much of the trail was new since the last time I’d ridden there, the view was great and the trail was good too, although ludicrously rocky with my hardtail. You see, while a hardtail is definitely best for the hills, a full sus is by far better for the black descents as you can lap up the speed and go even faster. Each time I go there are people on big bikes pushing up the hills. Lets just say they do not have smile on their faces at that exact moment! Can’t say I envy them. A short travel full sus rig would be right on the money.
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| View to the West in the middle of the deforested area, trail begins to get good here as the memory of the grind from the carpark fades. |
Storming around the very most final last bit of the entire trail, laying the bike down into a massive berm coming out from under the bridge on the 4x track my rear wheel hit a rock (probably it’s hundredth of the day) and made a nasty metallic thumping sound. I knew straight away something had gone more wrong that it should have for such an innocuous piece of trail and back at the car the rim was indeed quite smashed up. A 2” flat spot had appeared and one of the braking surfaces was bowed outwards quite a way.
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| Because everybody loves helmet hair |
Becoming a well established trail centre, while it doesn’t have something for everyone, it’s pretty accessible. Dirt jump / 4x / pump track riders could easily spend a few hours here, and I’d say it was worth an hour or so’s drive in that case. For me, the trail seems like marmite. I’ve spoken to people who love it, but I can’t recommend it as much as they do. The first climb is too long and could easily have some single track sections along the way, the last few k back to the car park are equally poorly thought out. The black descent in the middle of the ride is a lot of fun but, to me, not technical enough in terms of rocks and roots, size of the “jumps” etc. Maybe I’m just hard to please? Will any trail ever live up to A-line and Dirt Merchant? I live in hope!
A great day out, a lot of miles covered, quite a bit of wrench work already done, and I was already anticipating plenty more before trail no.4.
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