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The downhill track at CwmCarn in South Wales is one of my favourites. It was designed by Phil Saxena of Full Contact Racing (guy who built World Champs 4Xand Hamsterley) and built by local riders including Rowan Sorrell. In my mind it has everything and for Londoners it is reachable even in a day trip. Here'sis my review and a donated very cool video of the course.

(courtesy of http://youtube.com/user/DangerousProductions)

You get dropped off a few hundred feet from the top. If it is your first time you are preparing yourself mentally for the unknown. If not, you are still preparing that mind to take your riding to new heights. 

The start has a black and a red run. Start with the red. They cross over a lot and there is not an enormous technical difference between them.

With a steep start you hit a couple of sweet tabletops. Then you corner around to enter a woody section. Nice drops, roots and some decent speed are here. The gradient steeply descends to smooth and tight corners and rocky switchbacks. Through the tunnel and you are traversing along to hit steep succession of some awesome rock steps that take you to a neat corner dropping steeply over a road over a big quarry drop gap to an off camber section. You are now fully aware that you are truly alive! From now on you just grin, and grin and grin some more. Steep kickers and drops tthat lead you through to a lovely massive berm to the largest of doubles if you dare. A bridge and sweet drop off it to more fun....pure bliss. Go!!!

"So it has lots of berms, a few switch backs, doubles, a tunnel, rock steps, the bridge, hip jump, then there’s the quarry gap if you’ve got the balls, and the bottom section which is just nuts, totally flat out" quote from the CWMDOWN web site.. You could not say it better.

Good for two days riding if you are making a weekend of it and you could always do the XC if you have both disciplines and something else to ride.

You could probably manage about 6-8 uplifts a day maybe more but more to the point what you get is enough.

The uplift is £22 during the week and £25 on the weekend (they have cheaper options too) and I recommend booking ahead but it is well worth it. Great folks manage this. Takes about 30 minutes to get up but trust me this is great bonding time, sharing experiences time and more this course is tough you need the re-cuperation. Contact CWMDOWN to book http://www.cwmdown.co.uk/index.php. 

Accommodation. Again CWMDOWN have the best list so here it is. http://www.cwmdown.co.uk/accomodation.php NB: If you have a big group between 4-8 I really recommend the Tudor Lodges.

Map: http://www.cwmdown.co.uk/location.php

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