MORE THAN JUST XC

The trail network at Cathkin Braes, south of Glasgow, has been expanded as the city prepares to host the European Cycling Championships this summer.

Architrail have built a new start-finish loop for the original XC track, constructed for the 2014 Commonwealth Games, along with a 1.5km blue loop, 0.5km red descent and 0.6km jump track (pictured here being ridden by Duncan Ferris). There’s also an asphalt pump track, built by Velosolutions, and a series of skills features to warm up on. The design process has taken a couple of years and construction started in September.

“The trails are all quite fast and flowy, and made with imported materials, as the site gets super-wet, especially in winter!” says Edd from Architrail. “As the site is quite compact, we wanted to design repeatable descents with one main (blue) climb for all. The original track didn’t include many jumps, so we designed in a dedicated jump track too.”