Leeds Urban Bike Park

Gates open December 1st 2017

Leeds Urban Bike Park

Gates open December 1st 2017

Bikers all over the UK are about to get an early Christmas present, on December 1st ‘Leeds Urban Bike Park’ will officially open its gates to the public and boy does the £1.2m facility look spectacular!

Cycle Pathway, a Leeds-based not-for-profit community interest company, which is headed by the current Irish National BMX Team / UCI coach, Jeremy Hayes, has been the driving force behind the project in conjunction with British Cycling, Leeds City Council and Sport England. The consortium has developed the biking nirvana on the former Middleton Park golf course, a victory for progressive thinking humans everywhere!

Prior to construction, Judit Blake of Leeds City Council stated “(Leeds) Urban Bike Park at Middleton Park is very exciting and promises to be a fantastic addition to the green space which already attracts approximately in excess of two million visitors each year. Once completed, there will be something to offer cyclists of all ages and experience, which will sit aside alongside wider refurbishment work to improve footpaths, parking and access in the park.”

The park includes a 4-man BMX skills track with duel line on 4 of its 5 straights and a two-jump trick straight leading in to a 3-berm final run.  Jeremy commented “After the initial design and build, Dirtworks were brought in to lay the final surface, polish and refine the track or in Phil’s words, ‘polish a diamond’ ” The BMX track incorporates the UK’s fully electric start gate from French company, ProStart … we really want to try one of these! If for some reason you tire of the BMX track you can get your ‘pump on’ over at the new pump track or get a little wild on the dirt jump line.

The park will also have about 6kms of cross country MTB trails weaving through the on-site woods, although they are not expected to reach their full-length until March / April 2018.

If all that wasn’t enough you’ll be able to avail of the on-site workshop, bike-wash station as well as some educational programmes or just relax in the café to digest this awesome new facility … which is free to use by the way, that’s right … zero admission fees here!!

Even before officially opening, Leeds Urban Bike Park has hosted a round of the Yorkshire Cyclocross Winter Series with over 400 competitors who raved about the course … seems the new park has something for everyone!

“We are all about helping people develop their cycling skills, no matter what level they are at” Jeremy said. “If you’ve never ridden a bike we can help. If you want to compete in the Olympics we can help. Whatever stage on the journey you are, we can help. We have designed this to be accessible. You don’t need a £6,000 bike to ride here and to improve your skills.”

We can’t wait to make the trip to try it all out ourselves!

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Photos by Leeds Urban Bike Park / Jeremy Hayes