6 Women’s Waterproof Cycling Shorts for Mountain Biking
Scotland offers some of the most demanding and challenging mountain biking this side of the Alps. It’s a great location for mountain bikers as they have the right to ride any trail in Scotland thanks to the country’s forward-thinking approach to roaming laws, there’s absolutely tons of riding at these Scottish trail centres!
Kirroughtree
Regularly appearing at the top of ‘best UK trails’ lists, Kirroughtree has a good choice of trails to suit all ability levels. With a decent skills area and a number of trail options, it’s an ideal place for skills progression. Even the 6km green route is worth riding, and warms you up for the 14km blue trail with rock drops and some good singletrack.
But that’s all just preparation for the red and black grade trails, which are real corkers. The red-graded Twister has fantastic flow while the black has the now iconic rock slabs that have earned it the McMoab nickname and countless photos in magazines.
Mabie
Catering for beginners right through to experts, Mabie’s trails are really nicely built, making it one of the best places for a ride in the UK. There’s a skills area for honing your essential trail skills, and a good cafe for fuelling up!
The red-grade Phoenix is a challenging 19km trail and once you’ve passed that, the Dark Side ‘north shore’ trail is a stern test of your balancing skills.
Newcastleton
The trails are a good mix of tough climbs and switchback descents and they’re not too man-made, with a very natural feel.
Perfect for racing then, but also perfect for those riders who want a slightly mellower ride without an intimidating rock steps or other obstacles.
Dalbeattie
This trail centre is best known for The Slab, which is the star of the red-graded Hardrock trail. At 25km distance it’s a good test of your fitness, and will likely take a couple of hours to get around at a leisurely pace.
You’ll spend a good deal of time sizing up The Slab and the Terrible Twins, both steep granite rock slopes and both of which make it well worth the visit for something a bit different.
Glentress
This is probably one of the best known Scottish trail centres, which is located in the Tweed Valley. From the car park there’s all the facilities you need to get you going in the morning. As for trails, well there’s everything you could ever wish for; from a skills area to a full complement of green, blue, red and black trails.
The blue-graded trail is one of the most fun around and the 18km red trail, which is mostly singletrack, is a real hoot. It’s got everything a mountain bike trail should have, from climbs to jumps, berms and speedy downhills to rocks and roots. And then there’s the 29km black trail with sections like Deliverance to push you to your limits.
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