All the info you need to make the most of a weekend in the Surrey Hills and enjoy glorious singletrack within spitting distance of London
A maze of fast- lowing woodland singletrack, suited to all skill levels and just a stone’s throw from London, makes this area perfect for a short getaway
We’re going to be interspersing our regular Big Rides and route maps with occasional Dirty Weekender features, where we focus on the mountain biking available in just one area and bring you recommendations for a top weekend of riding. First up are the Surrey Hills, where a short drive or train journey (or a reasonable bike ride) from London can see you lose yourself – quite literally, in some cases – in a maze of superb singletrack trails through pine forests and beech woodland.
The Surrey Hills are often thought to be in the North Downs, but they’re actually on the Greensand Ridge, which runs parallel, and the two offer significantly different riding. While the North Downs are chalky and scattered with beech trees, Greensand is a sandstone ridge with extensive pine forests. There’s some great fun, flowing riding here, and to top things off, the Hurtwood – a sub-section of the Surrey Hills and the Greensand Ridge that covers Pitch Hill, Holmbury Hill and parts of Winterfold – has ‘right to roam’ access, meaning that mountain bikers can freely ride any existing trails here.
With all this great biking within easy reach of London, it does get extremely busy. Despite being sheltered and draining well, the high number of trail users still leads to mud, wheel-swallowing puddles and erosion, so it’s best to go when it’s dry, which is also when the trails are the most fun to ride.
Lose yourself
The trails are generally not too technical, but of course they get more challenging – and fun – the faster you go. There
THE GREEN SAND RIDGE’ S EXTENSIVE PINE FORESTS HAVE SOME GREAT FUN, FLOWING RIDING, AND PART OF IT HAS‘ RIGHT TO ROAM’ ACCESS
are also some steep, rooty and technical tracks to seek out if you want them. The three main hills – Pitch, Holmbury and Leith – are completely covered in amazing singletrack. Some trails are rocky, many are rooty, and nearly all of them are twisty and a ton of fun. Although there’s a lot of trails, the sheer number of them and the scale of the area make it quite difficult to navigate and daunting to explore. So, read through this guide and be prepared to explore, get lost, read maps, follow a GPX or book a guided ride. One thing you can be sure of is a funfuelled singletrack adventure.
Damn fine descents
For our exploratory ride around Holmbury Hill, we met up with Danielle Sheridan from Singletrack School, who has run skills courses and guided rides around these woods for over 10 years. Danielle knows these trails back-to-front, as do her three dogs Flint, Twig and Dill, who’ve come along today. What I didn’t know was that our photographer Russell has some significant dog issues – cynophobia, in fact.
The day’s first trail is actually named after one of our furry companions, Twig. It’s a nice way to get started, wiggling between the trees on lovely flowing singletrack with rhododendrons making bright splashes of colour. The bracken’s just high enough to obscure our view down the trail, so we have to rely on the rider ahead (or their squeals) for indications of obstacles or particularly tight corners. At the end, we make our way back up the hill to descend on I Should Coco. The start is similar to Twig’s (no great surprise, as they run parallel), but the second section is straighter, offering a fast blast all the way to the bottom. Next, we climb across the hillside to the start of Barry Knows Best, which is super-popular and can be like the M25 on a bank holiday. Being midweek though, it’s more like a German autobahn today – bliss!
Sadly, we don’t have time to ride all the trails I’d planned to do over on Pitch Hill, where the tight network of singletrack offers a wealth of riding that’s pretty easy to find too. There’s always time for a pitstop at the delightful Peaslake Village Stores though. After fuel tanks are replenished, a climb up Radnor Road starts the journey back up to the top of Holmbury Hill. The summit has far-reaching views to the north and south, as well as being a good marker to find the start of the superb Yoghurt Pots trail. This may have been around a long time but it’s still a firm favourite of mine, with a wonderful medley of corners, berms, jumps and dips that keep coming at you before spitting you out the end. I’d normally cruise straight into Telegraph Road here, but forestry work and winter have taken their toll on it, so instead Danielle leads us up to the left, to join a bridleway, of all things.
This straight, narrow, stony slither of a trail between dense bushes offers a fun contrast to the others we’ve ridden, before it dives into the trees, squirming between the trunks, and we race down a sunken gully, leaping off lips as we go. It’s a long run, and an excellent way to finish our day, as we emerge at the Holmbury car park by the YHA. Being midweek the cafe here isn’t open, but there’s a pub around the corner which is, and we’ve thoroughly enjoyed having the trails almost to ourselves – even Russell, despite having to share them with the dogs.
THE THREE MAIN HILLS ARE COVERED IN AMAZING SINGLE TRACK. SOME TRAILS ARE ROCKY, MANY ARE ROOT Y, AND NEARLY ALL OF THEM ARE TWIST Y AND AT ON OF FUN