BikePark Wales Wins iBikeRide Trail of the Year 2023

We are delighted to announce that BikePark Wales has won the iBikeRide UK Trail of the Year award for 2023.

BikePark Wales who are just about to celebrate their 10th birthday, have received over 400 ratings, votes and reviews from riders across the UK. Not only are they the highest rated trail in the UK they have also cemented dominance as the most popular trail of any other destination in the land, acquiring over 20% of the vote.

Core to its success, and evident from the rider review comments are the progressive opportunities and sheer choice on offer, with over 40 beginner through to pro downhill tracks to choose from. It also offers a combination of both flow and tech trails that mix it up for riders and which they clearly love. The trails are professionally maintained, so always in great condition and the facilities from the cafe, bike shop, bike hire, maintenance workshop, and uplift are second to none.

They are no stranger to the crown winning in 2015 and have since gone from strength to strength, continuing to evolve their trails to satisfy riders endless desire for variety and skill progression. They have done all this whilst frankly just keeping it real with a friendly and welcoming vibe regardless of your experience or skill level.

Second place in the UK is the incredible Dyfi Bike Park, with its trails hand crafted by the legend Dan Atherton. In third place is Glenlivet Mountain Bike Trail Centre which is part of the Crown Estate, in the Cairngorms National Park in Scotland. Fourth place goes to Dirt Farm in the Black Mountains in Wales and fifth place to Farmer Johns MTB Park in Stockport at the edge of the Peak District.

Martin Astley Founder and Director at BikePark Wales was quoted as saying:

It’s an absolute honour to win the iBikeRide Trail of the Year competition. It’s been incredibly tight this year with some really strong competition and the lead changing many times over the last few weeks. Winning this means so much as it’s all based on rider feedback and rider votes so I’m so pleased to see the hard work we put in as a team every day pay off. A massive thanks to everyone that voted for us and to our team here at the park.

It’s also great to see Wales doing so well Nationally. In terms of bike parks, we really are leading the way and there are so many quality places to ride in Wales now, it makes a great destination for a trip away!

We have also today published all the Top Ten UK Trails of 2023 which you can see in the table below.

The Top Ten UK Trails for 2023 are as follows:

As you can see Wales takes four of the top ten spots (including three in the top five), England takes five of the top ten (with one in the top five) and Scotland takes one in the top ten (also in the top five).

Daniel Mintz, founder of iBikeRide was quoted as saying:

The top ten features a wonderfully diverse mix of trails representing many of the different riding disciplines in mountain biking from bike parks (both commercial and volunteer run), downhill, dirt jumps, BMX, off-piste trails and the traditional trail centres. What’s common across them all is that they focus on both fostering an active community and are constantly developing their trails, offering variety as well as progression to keep riders coming back.

This year we are also announcing a TrailBlazer award for the new kid on the block that is pioneering MTB in the UK. The iBikeRide TrailBlazer 2023 award goes to Tarland Trails - Pittenderich. Tarland Trails not only won the riders poll for the award, it also ranked 11th in the UK Leaderboard and so just missed being in the top ten. For a Trail Centre that has been around just a few months this is a testament to the new ground they are breaking in Aberdeenshire.

BikePark Wales not only takes the crown for the whole UK but clearly for Wales also by default. Taking the top spot for England (for the third time) is Farmer Johns MTB Park and for Scotland it is Glenlivet Mountain Bike Trail Centre. Alongside Tarland Trails, all will receive their own award plaque to display.

Daniel Mintz goes on to say:

At its core iBikeRide exists to help riders find trails that they will love and help them progress. The Trail of the Year campaign through generating rider ratings and reviews helps inform riders to find trails across the UK that are right for them as well as being a platform to enable trail communities and owners to get valuable feedback and insight on their trail developments.

The campaign drove over 1700 votes, ratings, and reviews from riders across the UK. It ran for three months and over ninety of the UK’s top trails received votes and ratings. The campaign works by riders rating and reviewing any UK trail. They can rate as many trails as they have ridden but each trail can only be rated once per rider in any calendar year. Each trail rating then gets aggregated to create the leaderboard of the Top UK Trails. The leaderboard is dynamic and updates every time a new rating for any trail is added.

We end with a massive thank you to the UK trail communities and all the riders who participated in the campaign. Congratulations BikePark Wales you are the iBikeRide Trail of the Year 2023.