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Hadleigh Park Mountain Bike Trail Centre

Hadleigh Park Mountain Bike Trail Centre
Avg 2.56
Grin Factor
Trail Variety
Skills
Trail Quality
General Setup
Number of Reviews (42)

*You can claim this trail if you are the trail owner

  • Information:
  • Type: Purpose Built Centre
  • Grades: Green,Blue,Red,Black
  • Riding: Cross Country,Pump Track,Skills Area
  • Facilities: Car Park,Toilets,Visitors Centre,Cafe,Showers,Bike Wash,Bike Hire,Bike Shop
  • Distance(s): Under 5km
  • Country: England
  • County: Essex
  • Website: Hadleigh Park
  • Facebook:
  • Twitter:
  • Email:

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Description

Hadleigh Park mountain bike trail centre is based in Hadleigh Country Park in Essex, England. Famed for being the home of the 2012 mountain bike Olympic Games, it has been converted as part of the Olympic Legacy and is open and can be ridden by the public (no need to book in advance). Since the games many of the trails are described in the reviews section as being in poor upkeep or closed, so please check the reviews and socials before visiting.

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There is a red trail (with black options) which was the Olympic course as well as a blue, green and all-ability trail. There is also a pump track and a skills area.

Olympic Mountain Bike Course (Red with Black sections)

  • Since the games they have retained and developed the 2012 Olympic mountain bike course. It's open to everyone and is 5km long made from crushed sandstone. There are both technical up-hills and descents. Some are quite steep, many rock gardens, a northshore section and tight berms.

  • The majority of the Olympic mountain bike course is classified as red apart from 6 black features including the Triple Trouble, Deanes Drop, Leap of Faith, Oak Tree, North Shore Gap Jump and the Final Descent sections.

Blue Trail

  • The Blue trail at Hadleigh Park is 4km long and for novices. The red and the blue trail share many of the same sections. The blue which is for novices is more flowing and features berms, switchbacks and a dual slalom section.

Multi-User trail (Green)

  • The green trail is a multi-use trail. Pedestrians have priority so keep aware. It surrounds the northern perimeter of the park and bisects the marsh reaching as far as Benfleet station to the west and Hadleigh castle to the east. It is approximately 9km and is more accessible to families but does contain some steep climbs and decent.

All Ability Trail

  • The All Ability trail is 1.3km long and has a gradient of less than 12:1 so it is more suitable for people with physical disabilities. The all-ability trail takes in views of the Olympic Mountain bike trail, Hadleigh Castle, the country park and the Thames Estuary.

Pump Track and Skills area

  • There is a small pump track as well as a skills area with different progressively sized drops, rocky sections and rollers / jumps. 

Club and Groups

The Hub

  • The Hub is what the Visitors Centre is called. Core to the adaptation and as part of the community consultation was to make this more of a community hub to be a Gateway for all the outdoor activities on offer here at Hadleigh be it cycling or walking etc. It features a cafe, rangers offices, children's play area, toilets, changing rooms, community room, bike hire and shop.

Other Stuff

  • Since London 2012, Essex County Council, along with Active Essex, have been developing Hadleigh Park into a sporting venue as part of the Olympic legacy.
  • Architrail trail builders converted the Olympic track to make it a defined trail centre accessible to the general public. 

Share and Review

  • If you have ridden the mountain bike trails at Hadleigh Park then please share your experience with us and write a short review or post your photo's or vids to the listing.

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Graydog:
Avg 4.66
Grin Factor
Trail Variety
Skills
Trail Quality
General Setup

Orange Crush-RS ride at Olympic Park

ok so not exactly the blackest runs, but seriously it does not matter you are riding the 2012 Olympic MTB park....!!! you get to ride some of the iconic rock sections, board walk and drops pass through the rabbits holes, watch out for the 2012 markers and grin! the slalom is a must to go head to head with your mates....... This is a fast XC track that caters the entry level armature to the full on pro. Ride at you own pace to get the most out of it. the tracks are clean and clear well maintained. We could not believe how quite it was and yet so close to London. Cracking Café, with reasonable prices. car parking is bit higher than advertised in many places £6 is what we paid. Useful bike store on site. To get there follow directions to the country park (the post code seems to put you down a lane). once there, from the centre follow round to the left through the gates, you should see 4 flag poles (START). the track follows right to the top of the hill and you can see the magnificence spread before you (take a moment). down the hill to you right you should see the podium and flag poles. that is where you are aiming for. ones on the track follow Anti-clock for the rest of the day :-) thee is a short blue loop just after the slalom, it is worth a visit no matter you level. fast free flowing down and gentle rise back up. interesting touch or two of black. the rock gardens are perfect for tall bikes, 29s etc. but watch your chain rings if you are a shortie. there is a lot of evidence of chain ring grain on the rock. Ridden on Orange Crush RS, revolution 140mm, Conti Mountain kings my local track http://www.oneplanetadventure.com/

What do you like?

it is the 2012 Olympic MTB park (Grin) good trail markers point direction once on track

What could be improved?

GPS post code leads one down a lane.

Would you recommend?

*Yes*

Date written:

24/08/2015 - over 10 years ago

Was this review helpful to you?

1
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beardedbiggs:
Avg 4.00
Grin Factor
Trail Variety
Skills
Trail Quality
General Setup

Rode here recently and was very impressed. There were a few bits still being finished when I visited but the hub seemed very nice. My mate rented a bike from the shop and was very happy with it, especially at £13 for 2 hours. We set off and found the skills area which was a nice warm up. Then set off looking for the start of the trail, I'm not sure if we missed a sign or what but took a while to find it. Signage in general could do with being a bit more obvious. Once on the trail we were very impressed. We did a lap of the blue first then went round again to do the red. The features on all grades were fantastic and easy enough to push back up and do it again. Hadleigh park is going to be seeing alot of me! Biggest let down however was after the ride we went for some cake in the cafe. There wasn't any! They did some hot food and a few other bits but a big slice of cake after a ride should be the law!

What do you like?

Line options- choice of red/black features Fast Can session sections easily It was the Olympic course.

What could be improved?

Signage a little poor To many people cutting corners. Cafe didn't have cake!

Would you recommend?

*Yes*

Date written:

02/08/2015 - over 10 years ago

Was this review helpful to you?

0
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goozza:
Avg 3.88
Grin Factor
Trail Variety
Skills
Trail Quality
General Setup

Legacy done

It's taken 3 years but the Olympic mtb trail is open to the public and it's excellent. Probably not long enough for the mountain purist but it's got a great variety of technical sections and some fast flowing trails especially when dry. There are short steep climbs that make you blow before the downhill rewards. The skills section is a good warm up. The visitor centre is excellent and the car park fees are changing to £1.50 an hour. Definitely worth a visit.

What do you like?

New trail with decent technical features Good car park and visitor centre Variety for riders of all abilities

What could be improved?

Quite short Walkers Idiots going wrong way

Would you recommend?

*Yes*

Date written:

31/07/2015 - over 10 years ago

Was this review helpful to you?

0
^
Terry S:
Avg 3.54
Grin Factor
Trail Variety
Skills
Trail Quality
General Setup

Overall good fun and worth another trip of 50 mins each way for me

What do you like?

Compact and a good workout .Nice views when taking it easy .Trails not too busy and with a decent carpark and reasonable coffee prices I guess it will be a winner.Harder than it looks so expect sore legs

What could be improved?

Sign posting to an official start would be helpful .Red trail would have been nicer with a longer lap maybe with some flat sections to enable a group to get back together . Signage outside the venue virtually non existent ,very poor

Would you recommend?

*Yes*

Date written:

04/05/2015 - over 10 years ago

Was this review helpful to you?

2
^
stumpy_dan:
Avg 3.79
Grin Factor
Trail Variety
Skills
Trail Quality
General Setup

Short but with some real bite.

I visited Hadleigh Park the day after it had opened. The car park is big so they are planning for busy which I sense It will be. The small pump track at the entrance is confidence building and the skills area consisting of rocky sections, jumps and three progressive large drops is really spot on. I spent a good 20 to 30 minutes warming up here and didn't bore. Then we headed off to the find the trail head. This is impossible to find and leads a bit to chaos as you ended up joining the trail randomly not sure which direction to ride in. This is just teething errors. Once on the trail the signage is good but fails at the first post unfortunately. A good 20 mins was wasted here searching. My recommendation is if not obvious when you arrive just join the trail at the first opportunity even if mid trail. We did a lap of the blue first. The lap is short but fun. The best feature is the dual slalom so out can race your mates. NB most of the blue is also part of the red so if you did the red you will still do the dual slalom. Some of the descents on the blue are quite tight (feel like tight switchbacks) and lack a little flow. I think to make these more confidence inspiring for novices theses should have the corners built and banked up a bit. You feel like you are descending on flat corners. Still saying that there are still really good other fun sections with flow. The red is also short but fun. It's technicals in nature and more tricky than fast and flowing. With rocky descents, north shore sections, and technical up hills and some steep descent sections. The black sections (there are 6 as offshoots of the red trail) are quite severe but then again this is the Olympic track. The great thing about this trail centre is the blue, red and black really form the same trail they are just predominately different options on that same trail. This is great as you could go with three mates of differing abilities and each have a blast. Recommend a minimum of two sessions and probably three if the third doesn't start to bore. It's great for skills progression, is technical (mostly has easier options alongside making it progressive in nature) and so has some bite. Given the height limitations (still a puff to get up) and length though and why it was originally built they have packed a great amount in. I think it is a brilliant addition to the south east of England MTB community of trails and will add to one of my regular choices to alternate on in the weekend.

What do you like?

- skills park - facilities - technical and progressive - ability to session lots throughout

What could be improved?

- short - can't find trail start - cafe food is not mtb friendly - blue could be more flowing.

Would you recommend?

*Yes*

Date written:

01/05/2015 - over 10 years ago

Was this review helpful to you?

2
^
Jon:
Avg 3.59
Grin Factor
Trail Variety
Skills
Trail Quality
General Setup

hadleigh mtb

Being a local Hadleigh Farm and the downs are somewhere i've ridden a lot, including pre- build during build and after the event, there are some good places to ride just outside of the olympic course also. The olympic course shouldn't be confused with a trail center (YET ?) because its a race track, not a trail....the features are tricky and big and designed to slow people down, not like a trail with features that are designed to blast off for fun, bear that in mind when you ride here, it only just touches on small downhill type sections with small xc type sections linking them its neither one or the other, hopefully when the revamp has been done there will be a lot more entertaining sections to session like some doubles, table tops, etc

Would you recommend?

*Yes*

Date written:

01/11/2013 - about 12 years ago

Was this review helpful to you?

4
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