How is it at the moment blue and red? Filth fest or just a bit sloppy?

Only really bad when it starts to dry up as the chalk gets stodgy.
When its raining it runs off.
When its dry its dry.
Trail pixies have been doing a fair bit of work – have a butchers on the QECP Trail Collective FB page for details as some sections are closed.

Before today’s rain was running fairly well, may be a bit squidgy again now though.

It was summer on Sunday! So fast and completely clean afterwards. It’ll be wet again now 🙁
It’ll still be fun and it’s only a thin mud layer. Just the bloody cleaning that gets me.

I was out tonight…it was a little bit slippy! Rocket Rons and wet chalk aren’t a great combo!

Going to be that way in a few weeks, looking forward to (hopefully) having a ride round, used to love it as a kid in the mid-late nineties, has the trail changed beyond all recognition or is it still the same? Strave route looks similar, used to love the section after the first climb where you traverse the hillside by the motorway

Spesh GC or Chunky/Smorg seem to be the best combos

The trail fairies have managed to keep the good bits of the old trail with bags of extra awesome, roughly following the original route but with some extra sections including a slightly less brutal start to the first climb. I love the place personally.

^ what Matt bee said.

Haven’t been for a while but with the lighter mornings a cheeky before work pedal now and then might be back on the cards.

Sounds good, I found a little vid and could see it looks like they’ve made the first climb all switchbacks. Really looking forward to heading back 🙂

Hows the conditions over there? should get a ride in at some point next week. Got rons on at the moment. Guess its fairly dry?

I saw phil40 on tues ev. He said it was dry and fast. ( I was at the bottom helping the kids session). I’ll have to get on the trails there soon too.

I used to ride there too in the early-mid 90’s. It was all fall-line descents back then iirc, but the old trails do form the basis of the red, but improved massively. The blue is the most recent with a switchback climb, some more natural contouring, some drop-offs, pump section and a lovely final descent.

Really good work by the QE Collective over the years.

That is the mercurial nature of QE! Just after rain it is awful….wet chalk and mud are a sketchy combo…..but then as Yak says I was there on Tues and apart from a couple of muddy lines most of it was bone dry and fantastic riding!

I really like the new blue, the switchback climb is long enough to make you work, but not soul destroyingly so, and the final descent (not sure if it is fully open yet) is an absolute hoot!

It was all fall-line descents back then iirc

Yeah I remember the last descent being sketchy – straight down the side to the bottom, I’ve a feeling a mate needed skin grafts after coming off there.

Pretty excited 🙂

I loved the last bit under the trees with all the roots at the end of the old orange. Easy to bin it if you were not expecting it though as it was quite fast going into it.

However what they have done to the trails up there is brilliant. If people have not been for years its worth going to see how its changed.

Choose a dry day though as wet chalk can be fun 🙂

I remember some slippery rooty off camber sections that were quite hard to ride smoothly. Will be a good trip down memoy lane

forecast is dry for the next few days anyway 🙂

I’ve a feeling a mate needed skin grafts after coming off there.

Yeah, I was with a mate (MH) when he came off there and put a flint straight into his knee. You could see all the bits- eurrgh! His dad had handily parked at the top of Butser Hill, so I left my mate at the centre with an unusable leg whilst I went to get his dad to take us to hospital.

Just done a couple of laps of the red trail and found a tiny bit of off piste stuff (the good the bad and ugly on strava and half the section above it. In fact I think it used to be part of the orange route, either that or it’s off piste that’s been there twenty years as I’m sure I remember it. Super dry, dusty, sunny and fast.

Was so so good to be back. I was worried it would have been over gnar-duroed or over santized but I loved it, so much of it the more or less natural, rooty flinty chalky goodness I remembered from being a teenager. Loads of line choices, still completely xc. Wish I’d had more time to ride it a couple more times and get lines dialled to ride it quickly. Felt like I was 16 again, bar the fact I couldn’t just go into the shop, load up on sweets and ride all day.

I’m going to go so far and say I prefer it to most of the trails at Afan, even though there’s just the one short-ish trail, and not much elevation, there is more to think about technicality wise. Lots of lovely off-camber rooty high lines. Feel pretty blissed out right now 😆

Just hit my usual mix of red & blue trails after work.
11 Strava personal bests and another fistful of 2nd best times. It’s riding so well! Just the right kind of dry, a little bit of give to it rather than full on dust, the grip is spot on.
So glad I shut the laptop a bit early! Today is QECP at its best in my opinion. Reminds me why I love it, which is something I tend to forget in the depths of slippy, slidey, squirmy winter.
Think another ride tomorrow will be a must before the rain comes back.