Trails and Stuff

Olympic Mountain bike course and trails

 

The Olympic Mountain Bike course is 5km long made from crushed sandstone and was designed to test the best athletes in the world. It consists of almost 1.7km of climb per lap and has a number of sharp technical descent and climbs.

 

The course has been split into three trails, Blue, Red and Black with blue being the easiest and black being the most difficult.

 

If you take a look at the map, the shaded blue contains the mountain bike trails. These are trails are for cycling only and are one directional and there are “No entry” signs on the trails so please do not go backwards up a trail.

 

Pump Track

 

This facility provides a series of rolling features and berms to test your ability to ‘pump’ speed from the trail. Older Children can change their weight distribution on the bike to generate speed from the features by pushing downwards with their arms and legs on the back sides of the features without having to use their pedals. However it can also be used younger children on balance bikes to improve their skills whilst learning to ride.

 

Skills Area 

 

This area is designed to help you develop and practice your bike handling skills and improve your riding technique. The Skills Area is graded ‘Orange’ which means it is suitable for off-road cyclists ranging from beginners to experts. There is a Teaching Area and 8 features for people to try: Rock Steps, Berms, Tabletops, Drop-offs, Rock Causeway, Technical Climb, Rock Garden and Rock Rolls.

 

The majority of the Olympic mountain bike course is classified as red apart from the 6 black features. These tricky features are severe and it is recommended that only expert rider attempt these.

 

Multi-User trail

 

The green trail is a multi-use trail where pedestrians have priority. The green trail surrounds the northern perimeter of the park and bisect’s the marsh, reaching as far as Benfleet station to the West and Hadleigh Castle to the East. They are made of (grey) crushed limestone and should be shared between cyclists, walkers, pedestrians and horse riders (where signposted).

 

This route is approximately 9km and is more accessible to families but does contain some steep climbs and decent.

 

All-Ability trail

 

The all-ability trail is 1.3km long and has a gradient of less than 12:1 for its duration making it more suitable for people with physical disabilities. The all ability trail takes in several stunning views of the Olympic Mountain bike trails, Hadleigh Castle, the country park and the Thames Estuary.