Woburn Sands over the years has fast become synonymous with mountain biking alas that has seen its fair share of ups and downs with the estate owners.
The bike park is world renowned for its short sweet downhill freeride lines and its sand art sculptured dirt jump area. It must be good to draw top professionals Brendan Fairclough & Andreu Lecondeguy in downhill & dirt jump disciplines to the site and shred some of the lines on their travels.
The area is also rich in its home grown talent none more so than Matt Jones giving the seasoned pro’s a run for their money on the world Dirt Jump scene. That home-bred talent filters down with a plethora or awesome riders both male and female really giving true depth and boundless enthusiasm to our sport and the areas we choose to ride and hone our skills.
I marvel at the progression of mountain biking having ridden these woodlands for over 28 years. When I started you would hardly see another mountain biker, the bike park was years away and was just a disused fullers earth quarry that had some interesting lines in more so on the bikes of the time all hard-tails with no suspension, no disc brakes but that’s all you knew as a rider so you rode it and dropped in on what trails and features we had.
With fullers earth being quarried over Aspley Heath (opposite side to the bike park as we know it now) we mostly rode Wavendon Heath, Woburn and Back Wood side. It was a great training ground for the few seasons of club level XC racing that was done by myself and mates. The thirst for new places & trails to ride led some of the riders into trail building me amongst them. Terry woods RIP was also at the forefront of local trail building scene and it was a pleasure to share that brief moment crafting trails before he died suddenly out on his bike in the woodlands he loved and the trails that we still ride today.
As the sport become more popular and bikes developed a new wave of riders were emerging and hand in hand was popularity, some gems of trails were found out but suffered as a consequence hence the demise of the Brickshore sections within the woodlands and the more popular the area became the enjoyment has also brought problems with land and mtb use.
It still is an amazing inspirational area and it never seems to wain and no matter what life throws at you as soon as you’re out on your bike shredding the Woburn trails that’s all that matters in that brief time and long may it continue with the passionate riders that ride these woodlands.
If you want to sample these amazing woodlands then join one of our social rides. The social rides are a 10km loop around the Longslade Trail at Woburn, Aspley Heath. To join our group ride you will need to purchase a bike day pass from The Greensand Trust here https://www.greensandtrust.org/Event/bike-pass-day-ticket
Love to ride Woburn ………………………………