With its majestic mountains, fabled forests and legendary landscapes, Wales is a country rich in mythology and tales of dragons and warrior princes. Now, there’s a new chapter of Welsh folklore being written, or rather carved, on its hillsides by passionate trail builders.
It was back in the mid ’90s that dedicated riding spots started to become a reality for UK mountain bikers, and the ‘grand trail wizard’ who made that once-unimaginable dream come true is Dafydd Davis, a Welshman who’s arguably the father of British trail building. Dafydd’s vision was to create a network of trail centres, which he did in style, beginning with Coed y Brenin in Eryri/ Snowdonia. In addition to these popular venues, Wales is now home to many excellent gravity-fed, privately-run bike parks.
We visited three trail-building maestros to find out how their minds (and spades) conjure up these magical adrenaline-infused ribbons of dirt...
DAN ATHERTON
CREATOR OF DYFI BIKE PARK
of the all-conquering Atherton family moved from the South West to Wales with his siblings many years ago. After a near-lifelong obsession with building trails and jumps, Dan – or Athy, as he’s known – created the extreme downhill track known as Hardline. In its blood-stained skidmarks of success, he went on to create the 650-acre Dyfi Bike Park.
