Mountain Biking in Coed y Brenin

California, Colorado, Coed-y-Brenin - unlikely as it may seem, wet and windy Wales is now officially ranked alongside the best in the world when it comes to mountain biking. Recently the International Mountain Biking Association (IMBA) graded mountain biking worldwide, and awarded Wales a B - that's the same as Colorado and California (the only place to get an A was Idaho).

The grading takes into account such features as the quality and variety of riding, trail sustainability and accessibility. In fact, a B may well not do Wales justice - since the IMBA results were announced, work has been completed on five mountain-bike centres around the principality that take its riding to new heights, in all senses.

These five areas have plenty to offer: purpose-built, waymarked, single- track roads, beautiful high-country scenery, routes to suit most family groups as well as off-road junkies. The centres also offer apres-ride cafes and bike washes. So as long as you can ignore the climate and you're not lazy enough to want ski-lift access, Wales is about as good as it gets.

Most mountain bikers have heard of North Wales's famed Coed-y- Brenin, which for several years has hummed to the sound of fat tyres hurtling around its magnificent forested trails and has recently seen some impressive new trail developments. Less known, however, are the centres at:

• Betws- y-Coed in Snowdonia (with a superb 27km route through a full-on mountain landscape);
  
• Nant-yr-Arian (high-level wilderness riding in the Cambrian Mountains above Aberystwyth);
  
• Afon Argoed near Port Talbot (an impressive single track less than 15 minutes from the M4), and
  
• Cwm Carn near Newport (17km of challenging single track clinging to steep hillsides).

The Forestry Commission have invested some £400,000 to develop these sites, with one aim: "To make Wales into a world-class mountain-biking destination," according to Dafydd Davis, the commission's forest-sports development adviser and an expert biker himself. He explains that the Forestry Commission, after some persuading, are now 100 per cent behind developing the sport in Wales and are the only major land agency in the world putting so much money into mountain biking.

While no one would claim that Wales can compete with the likes of Colorado or the Alps in terms of climate, its scenery is much underrated. As Dafydd says: "I've ridden in North Wales with professional US trail-builders who described the route I took them on as one of the best they had ever ridden - anywhere."

This is echoed by British champion Rob Warner, who has ridden all over the world: "The Welsh trails are as good, if not better, than the Alps," he says. He also points out that, unlike more elevated mountain ranges elsewhere in the world, it's possible to ride year- round in Wales; the trails never get too wet and are rarely snow- covered. They are also designed to withstand erosion from knobbly bike-tyres, by trail builders who are learning their skills through working with professionals in the USA and Switzerland.