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We are holding our AGM on Wednesday 10th January at 7pm at The Plough in Wanborough.

Place marker for your diaries for a chiltern away day, led by Robert Wine.

This will be a ride around some of the best of the Chilterns taking in Wormsley Estate (Getty owned), quaint villages like Turville, and nice, wooded singletrack. Nothing technical, but a good mix of up and down (repeat several times), a bit of Tarmac, trees, roots, horses, mud.

It’ll be about 35km/700m and when it’s dry it’s got lots of fast flowing paths; if it’s wet, well, we may just change the plan a bit.

This is an all abilities everyone welcome ride around Swindon’s Cycle paths and park land.

You can expect around 17-21 miles at a social pace.

This ride is graded as BLUE/BLUE

Appropriate clothing, lid and lights are essential.

Hope to see you out.

The Peak District is simple awesome for mountain biking – stunning scenery and brilliant riding.
I’ve done lots of riding up there and am putting together some of the best in one long weekend.

We will be based in the Hope Valley, which has a great selection of campsites, B&B accommodation, cafes and bike shops. Personally I’ll be camping and will make a recommendation for a campsite after sampling a few, but there are plenty of great B&Bs for anyone that doesn’t like camping.

For the riding, we have 3 days:
A scenic starter, along the Monsal Trail. Starting at Bakewell Station up to Blackwell Mill and back. This is a former railway line that has been converted into a bridleway, using all the old features, including a number of viaducts and 4 tunnels through the Peaks. This gives us the chance to soak in the gorgeous scenery along the route, as well as a stop to enjoy them with a drink.

Day 2 is an epic XC ride starting in Hope and heading over Mam Tor out towards Derwent Water and back. The views on this route are even more stunning than the previous day, but the riding will be amazing too, with some epic descents – this one isn’t flat! 😉 We will be doing 25-30km with 1200-1500ft of climbing (depending on the weather), but the pace will be relaxed.

The final day will be a trip to the brilliant (but short) Lady Cannings trails, which we will use to end a 10km loop of the local Blacca Moor, which is another Peaks “must do”. That should see us finish at lunchtime, on the Bank Holiday Monday.

If you are planning on coming, please register either on the Facebook group event or by sending an email to adrian@swindonmtbenthusiasts.co.uk – just so we know to keep an eye out for you before setting off anywhere.