About Aston Hill
Aston Hill Bike Park is a mountain bike venue situated just outside Wendover in the Chiltern Hills Area of Outstanding Beauty. The park features five graded downhill (DH) runs, a 4X track and a two-part cross-country (XC) loop: it is a great venue for riders of all ages and abilities with something to challenge everyone, but is more suited to competent riders during the winter months.
Both XC and DH-based beginners can improve here very quickly under supervision using the lower graded runs and the top section of the XC loop, especially on one of the many MTB training courses run by Firecrest MTB. Work has been completed on all of the tracks since the committee took over in 2008: nearly every track has been tuned to add interest and reduce permanent damage to the Hill.
How it all started…
In 1996 a young Ian Warby approached the Forestry Commission about an awkward piece of woodland too steep to be of commercial use. With some fast learning about sustainable trails, a lot of hard graft and input from a world-class downhiller (Rob Warner helped to design the infamous Black Run), Ian converted a forestry off-cut into one of the premier mountain bike centres in the south east of England, and introduced Aston Hill into southern mountain bike folklore.
Ian moved on after ten years successfully running Aston Hill, and a local shop took on the lease. In 2008 the reins were passed over again to the hastily formed volunteer Aston Hill Committee who have since have been running and developing the centre with the Forestry Commission (FC) and, more recently, the financial, administrative and legal clout of the national cycle organisation, the CTC.
Aston Hill is now open 7 days a week with a pay-to-ride scheme operated by the CTC. All the trails are being constantly tuned, with some exciting developments in the pipeline.
The park’s events are pulling in riders from all over the country, and the cross-country (XC) loop is used by at least one pro-level XC racer as a training circuit. It’s fair to say that Aston Hill, once again, is one of the top bike parks in the southern region.
