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THE WINNER!

f you’ve been following our Blues Cruise series, you’ll know we’ve been on the hunt to find the UK’s best blue-graded trail

– an engaging loop that offers as much entertainment for seasoned pinners as for off-road beginners. After heated debate among our team, invaluable suggestions from our readers and expert input from our contributors, we narrowed it down to a shortlist of one trail each from England, Scotland, and Wales. Then, with Saracen supplying us with bikes and support, we took Luke (an experienced oldtimer) and Julia (our newbie) to ride each spot and determine an overall winner.

Drum roll, please! We’re awarding the title of Britain’s best blue trail to... Glentress. Even the climb at this popular Scottish centre is entertaining, as it twists through beautiful woodland, with widereaching views over the Tweed Valley and multiple line options for those who want a challenge. The Blue Route descent, meanwhile, includes everything from sweeping turns and arcing berms to varying surfaces, opportunities to get air and changes in atmosphere as it carves its way through the forest. This trail really gives you a sense of what mountain biking’s all about.

However, it was one close battle. Glentress’s Blue Route isn’t quite all killer, no filler, with the upper 8km loop not being quite as entertaining as the lower one. We’ll let it off, because you can tackle the bottom on its own if you fancy a shorter ride (just make sure to add in ‘Berm Baby Berm’!), but it only beat the Forest of Dean’s Verderers Trail and BikePark Wales’s Beast of Burden/Sixtapod/Willy Waver by the slimmest of margins.

We felt the climb at BPW was a touch too demanding to make it a truly fun loop, especially for beginners, and while the trails there are thrilling to thrash it down, there’s less variety in terrain. As for the Verderers, the refurbished sections are a blast, and the way the trail undulates, rather than heading straight up and then back down, is less intimidating for newbies. Still, there aren’t quite the same possibilities to get creative. All three are fantastic places to ride, but we could only pick one winner.

A big thanks to Saracen Bikes and all those who helped us find Britain’s best blue. Now go and try them for yourself – you won’t be disappointed!

“The Glentress blue is class. Some of it’s really fast, and it has ‘Berm Baby Berm’ on it, which everyone loves!”

CRAWFORD WALKER MBUK reader