The M4 Fun Lane

Imagine you’re a London or South-East based mountain biker heading back form a weekend riding in Wales. You’re at junction 16 of the M4 and you realise you haven’t quiet had enough off-road two wheeled action to go home just yet. You’d have thought all was lost.

However, nestled just metres from the M4 itself is something that will satisfy that last urge for some fun.

Sitting in the unlikely location of opposite the Nationwide UK HQ is Croft Park, home of the mbswindon.co.uk trails.

Despite being in a small area, and with the red route only covering a little over 5km and coming up almost alongside the motorway this is one of the most fun mountain bike centres I have ridden. Making incredible use of the space the singletrack snakes intelligently through the woods, switching back on itself and dodging close amongst the trees to give you a ride that feels longer and harder than it really is. Also the builders are not afraid to put in some challenging features, so you’ll find boardwalks and rock structures giving you a decently interesting drop to negotiate, rock steps and seemingly endless reversing bermed corners.

The whole thing just begs you to push it harder until, like me, you’re deposited in a messy pile in stinging nettles as you try just that bit too much on a corner, and climbs and drops almost without you realising, spitting you straight back into another faster and bigger lap, this time taking all the bigger lines and not the well-laid-out easier options on the obstacles.

Quite simply this shows exactly what you can do in a small area with some people who know how to build a fun trail. I know you’re unlikely to make a trip to Swindon just to go riding, but if you’re in the area and fancy a thrilling blast round the woods I cannot recommend it highly enough.

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