The Forest of Dean has been chosen as ‘Best Trail Network’ in the December issue of MBR Magazine.

The magazine described the area as having “a smorgasbord of tasty natural trails, providing you can sniff them out… Now, however, with the construction of the new waymarked Verderer’s Trail, there’s even more reason to get pedalling not just freewheeling…”.

never been myself.

I doubt that would stop many folk disagreeing though 😉

Been wanting to get there for sometime now but just not got round to arranging anything.

Guess it’ll get silly busy now though 🙄

It certainly seems to be flavour of the month at the moment, a lot of press releases and FC bigging it up. Hardly the Stanes though and not comparable to the likes of Afan/Glyncorrwg or C-y-B.

It certainly is attracting a lot of visitors at the moment; I think a counter on the Verderers registered something in excess of 12,000 passes for the first couple or three months of it being officially open 😯

I’m just waiting for the local backlash; it’s still quite an insular area, Foresters don’t like to lose control of their patch and it’s only a matter of time before the antis get vocal in the local press again. Having said that, quite often the most vocal antis are the incomers who have bought into their tranquil picture-postcard idyll.

I like the look of the trails, planning to get there on a family visit in the new year.

let everyone have the verderers so it keeps the masses away from all our best hidden stuff 😉

Funnily enough, an older “gentleman” mentioned to me that it was a lovely day, and that it would be even better if it weren’t for those damn bikes! (I was obviously a cyclist so he was clearly trying to annoy me)
I replied that I’d only come in the hope that I could run some walkers over, and that I hope to see him around.
Childish I know but made me chuckle.

I’m just waiting for the local backlash;

forester born and bred, live within a couple of miles of the cycle centre,

not heard a bad thing about the verderers in the local club, even though some of it was the paving over of the Enduro route

on a personal note, I am a little disappointed all the revenue from the visitors seems to be going to the few with the current economic climate and the lack of opportunities in the FoD,

The blue trail’s been really well designed. Beginners can ride slowly & roll the trail features (rollers & berms mostly); add some speed & it gets really good fun. It’s not comparable to CYB/Afan/CwmCarn as the surface is fairly smooth, but then it’s a blue & not a red/black

Red route (a 2.5 mile loop to bolt to the beginning of the blue) is more natural, with roots, rocks & mud.

And then there’s a load of DH trails. And that’s just the “official” stuff.

The car park & cafe are a real mixture, with 8″ travel bikes parked next to hybrids. I’ve seen 6″ FS “All Mountain” bikes on the blue trail and 4″ HTs on the downhill runs. And everyone enjoys themselves.