I rode a new trail centre last Tuesday. A whole maze of trails carved into the spoil tips and around old quarry buildings on a ridgeline way above a valley that's not at it's most economically vibrant right now. A trail centre that's linked from an original quarry based site that's already proving massively popular with the locals from nearby towns and cities as well as the magazine media.
If you've followed the development of trail centres like Afan Argoed and Cwm Carn then it's a very familiar story, but this trail centre is in Rossendale in Lancashire. Here the original Lee Quarry development created by local enthusiasts and helped with increasing support by the local council and regeneration funding bodies has been a big success. Loads of riders, loads of press, regular video appearances and even it's own race series. On Tuesday we a dusty, shale Scalextric of trails in a long thin quarry to the south east and there are plans to build more trails in other quarries in the same are, as well as linking trails across the intervening moors.
There's no visitor centre, cafe or bike shop yet but surely that's the next step. Then hopefully the same influx of riders that has seen rows of boarded up houses in Glyncorrwg turned into thriving B&Bs. Local pubs, shops, restaurants that were struggling to make ends meet suddenly having to look for new staff as hungry, tired mountain bikers descend in their hundreds (or thousands at some sites) every weekend.
Mountain biking isn't just good for our bodies and souls, but it's genuinely brilliant for local economies, and that can only be a good thing for the future of the sport and the expansion of facilities for us all over Britain.
And for those of you wondering why we're going on about somewhere in Lancashire rather than Wales, keep watching this space for a very big announcement about trails closer to home very shortly.
Not a Welsh one, but