Matt Jones, Ben Deakin and Luke Marshall ride Swindon. Pic: Steve Behr

Video – Riding Swindon's 'hidden' trails with Matt Jones and Ben Deakin

The mountain biking around the South West town is nothing to laugh at – full mag feature coming soon

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James Costley-White

Published: July 31, 2020 at 8:44 am

It's become a bit of an in-joke among certain British pro riders to tag Swindon as the location on social media when they're riding secret trails that are in fact a long way from the Wiltshire town.

But that got us thinking. Is the riding in Swindon really a joke, or does the Wiltshire town – best known for its terrifying 'Magic Roundabout' traffic system and the iconic flumes of its Oasis leisure centre (well, to us kids of the '80s from Bristol and Bath, at least) – have some 'hidden' trail gems that the rest of the MTB world doesn't know about?

There was only one solution – to send Marin's Matt Jones and DMR's Ben Deakin along to find out, accompanied by legendary snapper Steve Behr. Here's Matt's video from the trip – look out for a full feature in MBUK 386, out 1 September.

James Costley-White

Editor, Mountain Biking UK magazine

James Costley-White is the editor of Mountain Biking UK (MBUK), the UK's best-selling mountain biking magazine, founded in 1988. James, aka JCW, has been an avid mountain biker since 1992, during which time he's amassed a huge amount of knowledge about the sport and tons of riding experience. He can regularly be found riding the trails around Bristol and South Wales. As well as editing MBUK, JCW contributes regular product reviews and other articles to the magazine. He's a fully-qualified professional journalist, certified as a senior reporter by the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ), and holds a postgraduate diploma in journalism from Cardiff University's School of Journalism, Media and Culture. As well as heading up MBUK, he's worked for other cycling titles including BikeRadar.com, ChopMTB.com and Triathlon Plus magazine, along with the Bristol Post, Western Daily Press, Gloucestershire Echo and Gloucester Citizen newspapers, in print and online.