MTB: 7stanes Glentress
What: Mountain bike trail centre with Green, Blue, Red and Black Graded Trails. One of the longest established and most highly developed trail centres in the UK.
Where: Peebles, Tweed Valley, Scotland
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Links: www.7stanes.gov.uk
Trail Report
Glentress is perhaps the most pre-eminent of all the 7stanes, the daddy of the Scottish trail centres in age as well as sheer scope. We ride and rate the Red Route. What was immediately apparent, even looking at the excellent trail maps, was the intelligent shared trail design, where moderate blue, intermediate red and advanced black routes are interlinked and easily navigable allowing mixed groups to pick and mix different sections of the route, according to their skills, fitness or whim on the day. The centre also has an orange graded freeride park with wallrides, big drop offs and 4 cross style features, plus a beginner and family friendly green loop, complete with it's own skills area with enough interest to keep the whole family entertained.
We chose to ride the Stane's 'Greatest Hits' compilation, the Red Route, a 17km cracker with huge climbs, screaming descents and lots of technical interest on the way.
Above: The opening switchback warmup of Falla Brae - picturesque but perhaps a little too manicured in places
The route starts at the Osprey Car Park, where the Hub Cafe and bike hire is located, along with toilets and showering facilities, perfect for a post-ride spruce up. From this, the 'bottom' car park there was a climb on forest road toward the second car park, where the trail proper started with the pleasant switchback climb of Falla Brae on manicured singletrack, allowing you to gain elevation without too much boredom setting in. The climb opened out again onto forest road, hugging the contours around Cardie Hill with superb views of the Tweed Valley down to the left. At the top of Cardie Hill lay the Freeride park, to the right and the Buzzard's nest car park. The family oriented Green route lay to the left. We had a quick play on the Freeride park before taking the right hand turn, where the 17km Red and epic 29km black routes divide, and where the singletrack fun really began.
The first instalment was Pennel's Vennel - a narrow, rough and twisting switchback descent before rejoining the blue route for a timely dose of hairpin bend infested singletrack climbing, taking you up to around 380m, followed by a flowy coutour trail to rejoin the forest road for the gentle climb to the base of Spooky Wood - the real iconic centrepiece of the Glentress experience. A word of advice - make the most of the easy going and great valley views up to this point , because as soon as you take the right turn off the forest road, you know that you're in for one helluva climb. The singletrack is tight, rough and the switchbacks become more merciless with every turn. At one point around three-quarters of the way up, there's a fantastic double switchback, which really tests the bike handling and the fitness. As you approach the 500m above sea level mark, the trail passes through a broken down drystone wall and some techie features before hitting the forest road, where's the even more climbing to reach the beginning of the Spooky Wood descent...
Take a deep breath, drop your saddle, test your brakes and wipe the sweat out of your eyes, because this descent just gets better and better. Rough and well worn in, the gradient starts off gently before steepening up, and as it does, the corners get sharper and more frequent and the berms just get bigger and bigger. Before you know it you're at the end of the descent and the top of part two, Super G. Take a moment to admire Glentress' 'stane' - a huge white erratic that looks like it's simply fallen from the sky (and for all I know, probably has).
Super G is like Spooky Wood only rougher, tighter and with more line choice options - a good thing to see in trail centres, where 'singletrack' is usually synonymous with 'no choice'. The trail continues to descend through Hit Hill Squad, before hitting the fireroad again and gently climbing across the contours again. Here there are a number of choices; the cheekily titled 'Pie Run', giving lovers of Pie a shorter but thrill packed route to the finish, missing out The Matrix and Lombard Street descents. At this point we chose another option, the shortcut to the Ewok Village North Shore section. The climb up to the section was enchanting, on silent, smooth and ultra grippy pine needle forest floor, amid densely packed conifer. Then it was time to play with three north shore sections, including a really testing skinny line and a huge wooden see-saw.
After a few minutes of scary play, we decided to call it a day, having managed to survive without broken bones or bikes. We quit the Ewok village (personally I was a little disappointed not to see any Ewoks on the way, but I made up for it with some Speeder Bike chase fantasies in the next few sections!) and took the shortcut back to the red route, which led to the fantastically techie Matrix and Lombard Street descents. These sections had everything - North Shore features, roots, rocks and timber steps - and had us making all manner of silly noises.
We hit the forest road again, thinking all the fun was over, but there was still one signature section left - Magic Mushroom - a wonderful twisting singletrack section through the trees with boardwalk, roots, rocks, berms, switchbacks - the whole trail lexicon had been thrown open. We hit the fireroad again for one last time for a short section, before hanging a left and tackling the last singletrack section - the gentle climb then fun descent of Falla Brae, which spits you back out just above the trailhead car park, grinning like idiots and making lots of approving noises.
Verdict - On it's own, the Red Route at Glentress has got just about everything. If you remember that the Red is but one of a whole bounty of trail options at Glentress, and you realise that you really need a full weekend to start to appreciate the sheer scale of the place. Surfaces are varied, the physical challenge is huge and the views spectacular. The facilities are great (with some fantastic grub and great coffee available at the Hub!) - you can even get showered and scrubbed up after your ride. The great thing is, you can keep the whole family happy at Glentress. You can mix and match your ride due to the 'concentric circles' design of the route and there are plenty of bailout options if you get tired, hurt or have a mechanical. We're blessed to have such a great facility on our doorstep.
Second Opinion
Well, what a mix of contrasting and contradictory emotions Glentress brought out in me. Firstly it was a delight to be at a venue which is so symbolic of the way Mountain Biking has moved on in the last decade. Stuck slap bang in the middle of the giant empty swathe of the country known as the Scottish Borders, miles from anywhere of note, let alone a motorway or a pub selling John Smiths, Glentress was nonetheless heaving with riders when we visited early one sunny May Sunday morning. And that has to be good news for the sport!
Secondly it was a deep pleasure to take in the scenery, grand and tranquil at the same time, with the beautiful river Tees the focal point of a very pleasing landscape.
However, the trails themselves soon had me ranting about my familiar hobbyhorse of why trail builders put all their energies into tricking up the downhill sections, but seem happy to maroon us in the endless boredom of fireroad climbs and insipid wiggly uphill singletrack you could ride on a road bike. I'll not bore on any more about this subject, but Glentress is as guilty of favouring gravity addicts as most of the other centres in the UK.
Indeed, for the first hour of my ride around the Red route, I was at a loss to explain my ennui and lack of excitement at this, the UK's premier off-road destination. Finally, as we climbed up towards the start of the Spooky Woods section of downhill, I lost my rag a bit and really attacked the last half mile or so of smooth winding singletrack. That got the blood going and once onto the descent itself, I really enjoyed myself - the way the trail changed from highly manicured jump and berm fest to a rougher, more established trails as it descends was a fine experience and full test of descending skills.
A diversion to take in Ewok village's Northshore challenges kept the adrenaline going and I finished the ride in better spirits than had seemed possible at one point. A baked spud, beans, cheese and a coffee completed the transformation of mood.
Verdict: So, what's the conclusion? Is Glentress all it's cracked up to be? Well, I guess I'm becoming accustomed to the Trail centre experience. I've tended to compare them unfavourably to the cracking trails I found for myself 15 years ago when trail centres were not even on the horizon. They will never offer the mental and physical challenges of "real" off-piste mountain biking and, as I've said before, I guess you've got to view them as mountain biking's equivalent of fast food - delicious and tempting and best wolfed down with real gusto.
But don't be fooled into thinking they are the be-all and end-all of this most varied and personally adaptable of sports. The nice thing about Glentress is that, for fast food, the menu's pretty extensive and I'd recommend you mix and match a bit like we did. And finally, don't think too hard about what it's all about!!
Ridden this route? Let us know what you think below...
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