THE DIRT SCULPTOR

If railing berms and flowing through jumps is your thing, then you’ve got to check out Black Mountains Cycle Centre. This lowkey Welsh bike park is home to some of the finest soil sculpture in the country and it’s all thanks to the creative mind and spade skills of Shaun Bevan. In the past year, Shaun’s put in some serious man hours at the farm to create new features on his latest project, ‘Bomper’ – a super-flowy rat race of vertical berms and pristine jumps.

“I’ll have a rough idea of what I want to build, but I do a lot of my design work in the digger,” Shaun explains. “I go with what the hill’s telling me and freestyle most of it! The challenge is to get things near perfect first time though, because once a trail is cut in, I can’t get the digger back in there. What makes it trickier too is that I do most of my building in the winter when it’s too wet to test ride, so I’ve just got to hope it’s right. I’ve been building trails for 15 years now though, so normally it’s not too far o !”

When he’s not digging at BMCC, Shaun works for trailbuilding firm Trailcraft. “I split my time 50/50,” he says. “It’s normally pump tracks and tarmac work there, so it’s nice to be in the woods here doing my own thing. I always wish I could build things bigger though. If we build a jump over 3m here, we run into planning issues. The farm always ask me to tone it down and I’m like, “Nah, raise it up!”

For more on BMCC or to book a day there, head to www.blackmountainscyclecentre.com.