Aston Hill Mountain Bike Area is located in Wendover Woods on the ridge of the Chiltern Hills. It was developed and operated by Firecrest Mountain Biking, founded by Ian Warby, on 100 acres (0.40 km2) of land leased from the Forestry Commission. Day membership is required to ride there which costs £5.
There are downhill (DH) cross country (XC) and 4X trails. The downhill trails are the Red Run, which is part of the XC loop, the Black Run, DH3 and DH4.
Aston Hill hosts popular DH races, bike demo days and training events on various days of the year. Facilities available include cold snacks, occasional summer barbecues and merchandise.
Buckingham Bikes took over the running Aston Hill Mountain Bike Area as of Friday 6 April 2007 after the previous five year agreement with the Forestry Commission expired. This followed Ian Warby's appointment to the Cyclists' Touring Club (CTC) as their new Off-Road Development Officer having spent 10 years developing Aston Hill.
However Buckingham Bikes failed to manage the site for more than a few months, and at the end of 2007 the gates to the site were permanently locked. Negotiations between a new local group of riders and the Forestry Commission to reopen the site took place and the centre has now reopened to the public for use at the weekends and during school holidays. A new website has been launched at www.rideastonhill.co.uk to promote the site and its partnering with the CTC and Forestry Commission. The future is looking more positive with a successful race in March 2009 and a second planned in September, as well as plans to open every day of the week.
External links
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