Originally conceived of by community company Mach Off Road Limited, famous for Mach 1,2 and 3, the Dyfi Trails Mountain Biking Project is still managed by them with help from a steering committee.

This includes representatives from the Forestry Commission, local regeneration company ecodyfi and Dyfi Active, the local activities providers' consortium.

Pictured here, from left, are Tristan Merry-Howe of Ecotrails trail builders; Project Manager Teresa Walters from ecodyfi; Huw Gilbert and Joanne Deane, representing Dyfi Active; Tegid Humphreys of Reditreks, Holey Trail and Mach Off Road; and Cartographer David Perrott who is the Mach Off Road Chair. Andy Bakewell from Ecotrails is in the blue jacket, and in the front right is Gareth Jones of Mach Off Road.

Mach Off Road Directors not pictured are Andy Perrott of Greenstiles Bike Shop and Jon Pickles of Red Bike Hire and Holey Trail. Forestry Commission's representative is local Forest Manager Dave Farmery.

Judith Thornton joined us in July as Mach Off Road's first employee. She came highly recommended from the Centre for Alternative Technology Biology Department and has chainsaw and digger driver qualifications. What more could we ask for?

When funding was approved for Phase I of the Dyfi Trails on June 2 2004, the team set in process a build schedule the like of which had never been promised-or achieved-before: Ecotrails, the contractors who established their reputation with the build of the Nant yr Arian trails, were contracted to produce a 20km route in 16 weeks, including the hire of sub-contract staff.

Roughly 10km of this phase is single track, and much of it on steep slopes-challenging gradients for some incrediblyskilled digger drivers...

Meanwhile, the Forestry Commission have been hard at it with the car park, and with the scheme that will keep the different user groups separate on the approach to it.

Amazingly, they are almost completely on schedule and here are some of the Steering Committee looking massively pleased with Ecotrails' work.

Already we can see that this is going to be an amazing trail. The views of seemingly endless mountains and forest and sky are breathtaking.

And the climax is an incredibly steep, flowing 2km descent from the high point of the forest at the top of section 8.

It's such a climax, in fact, that it has helped us to christen the new trail.

Following in the footsteps of Mach 1,2,3, but with an emphasis on the heights it reaches and the maximum buzz that riders can expect to feel, it's called the Cli-machx.

And the Downs:

Of course it hasn't all been plain sailing.

For a few days at the end of July, the whole schedule looked as if it was in jeopardy, when a local motorcyclist produced a grove 1.5km long that would collect water and ruin the trail finish-it took Andy and others three days to repair it by hand and the whole team has been working extra hours to compensate.

The project is funded by the joint Countryside Council for Wales and Wales Tourist Board regeneration fund called Adfywio, the European Regional Development Fund, the Forestry Commission, and the Raw Dyfi Enduro event committee. We would like to thank them all for their support, without which none of this would have been possible.

Contact:

For further information, contact Teresa Walters at ecodyfi, Ty Bro Ddyfi, Y Plas, Machynlleth SY20 8ER, telephone 01654 703965 or email teresa.walters@ecodyfi.org.uk. Fax: 01654 705018.