Developing Mountain Biking In Scotland Newsletter 1st Edition - June 2010
Posted: 25 June 2010
Development Clusters
Consultation Evening
The Scottish Mountain Bike Framework project has now been renamed "Developing Mountain Biking in Scotland" and is holding its first consultation evening for the pilot development cluster - Tayside & Fife.
The venue is Perth Concert Hall from 7-9pm on 24th June.
The aim of this meeting will be to gather the mountain bike community - public, private & voluntary sectors - together and get their thoughts into how we can develop mountain biking together within the local authority areas of Perth & Kinross, Angus, Dundee & Fife and what support the project and a development cluster can offer.
To attend please fill in the registration form and email the completed form back to info@developingmountainbikinginscotland.com to confirm your attendance at the evening.
For more information on development clusters please visit www.developingmountainbikinginscotland.com
UCI Downhill World Cup Fort William 2010
Skills and Thrills
This year Developing Mountain Biking in Scotland attended Fort William Mountain Bike World Cup with partners Forestry Commission Scotland, Cycling Scotland, Scottish National Heritage, sportscotland and Scottish Cycling. The partner's stand had a ‘Go Mountain Bike' skills area and the opportunity to win a set of family bikes.
The competition winner was Mr Scott McGregor. Congratulations Scott and thank you to everyone who entered the competition.
Thank you to everyone who came along to the stand and took part in the skills area, hope your weekend was as enjoyable as ours!! See you again next year!
For more information on the project please visit our new website: www.developingmountainbikinginscotland.com
Go Mountain Bike
Mountain Bike Proficiency Scheme
A NEW mountain bike proficiency course, designed by Cycling Scotland and supported by key stakeholders, ‘Go Mountain Bike', is now set to be delivered nationwide. The course will cover 4 themes:
- riding skills
- first aid
- being independent and self supporting
- sharing the outdoors
There are 5 levels of proficiency across these 4 themes.
There is a growing number of Go Mountain Bike Centres throughout the country, where you will be able to participate in the ‘Go Mountain Bike' programme.
The principle aim of the scheme is to support individuals to develop their skills to make independent journeys into the outdoors.
For more information on the scheme or to become an Accredited Centre contact Cycling Scotland on 0141 229 5350 or www.cyclingscotland.org
Forestry Commission 7stanes Team
Project Manager
Forestry Commission (FC) have appointed Douglas Knox as project manager for the 7stanes mountain bike project. Douglas replaces Colin Williamson who retired in May. Prior to taking on the 7stanes role Douglas worked in forest management at Moray, West Midlands and North East England Forest Districts and also as Operations Support Officer in the FC's head office in Edinburgh.
Douglas will be working predominately on the sustainability of the 7stanes with other partner organisations including Scottish Enterprise, Dumfries and Galloway Council, Scottish Borders Council and the mountain bike business networks in Tweed Valley, Newcastleton and Dumfries and Galloway. Douglas is based at the FC's offices in Dumfries and can be contacted on 01387 272440 or douglas.knox@forestry.gsi.gov.uk
Conference 2010
Perth Concert Hall 28th October 2010
We are pleased to announce that the first Developing Mountain Biking in Scotland conference will be held at Perth Concert Hall on Thursday 28th October 2010.
The conference will provide a platform to allow discussion about Developing Mountain Biking in Scotland. The event will be planned to allow a two-way flow - of information on progress from the Project; and of opinions and ideas from the delegates.
We are pleased to announce that Mark Beaumont (The Man Who Cycled the World - But has he Ridden the 7Stanes?) will be a guest speaker at the conference.
For more information and regular updates on the conference please visit www.developingmountainbikinginscotland.com
Scottish Cycling
Huge Scottish Success
Scottish Athletes have continued to demonstrate their dominance at a National level in both Cross Country and Downhill Mountain Biking disciplines, whilst also creating a mark on the international World Cup scene.
Scottish Cycling squad athletes have moved onto GB World Class Performance Programme with 3 out of 4 athletes on the Olympic Development programme for Mountain Bike Cross Country being Scottish.
The Downhill Academy continues to produce World class potential athletes with an unfortunate mechanical ending Ben Cathro's dream of a podium slot at Fort William World Cup. It's hoped this year's World
Championships will again feature a strong Scottish contingent. 
The future looks bright in continuing to build on the success of our current athletes and ensuring the sporting pathway continues to provide opportunities for young talented athletes to shine. Judging from the success of the Youth XC Sprint held on the Saturday of the Fort William World Cup and Regional Dirt Crit series running throughout the year, and with numbers competing at Youth events exceeding all expectations, squad places in future are going to be hard fought.
In partnership with Glasgow City Council - Land & Environmental Services and Culture & Sport Glasgow, Scottish Cycling hosted the 2010 Glasgow Schools Mountain Bike Challenge at Cathkin Braes on Tuesday 22 June.
Schools involved in the Bike Loan scheme were invited to compete in the event, with riders competing for points for the 'Glasgow Schools Mountain Bike Challenge Trophy' and for individual medals across 3 age categories (girls and boys S1, S2, S3).
This will become an annual event on the Youth cycling calendar in Glasgow and will provide an excellent avenue for young athletes to compete on what will evolve into the Mountain Bike Cross Country venue for 2014.
This is an excellent demonstration of the value of partnership working and Scottish Cycling will continue to further such opportunities in future to support the delivery of Mountain biking activity across Scotland.
For more information on what is happening at Scottish Cycling please click here.
sportscotland Funding
Upgrade of Downhill Trail at Nevis Range
sportscotland has just announced £66 500 funding for the development of the World Cup downhill mountain bike route at Nevis Range near Fort William. sportscotland, through its Sports Facility Fund, has awarded the money for a new starter hut, upgrade and realignment of the track and the development of some new trail features to be introduced later this year.
In providing the funding sportscotland has recognised the popularity of mountain biking in Scotland, Nevis Range's position as a national facility (supported as such by Scottish Cycling) and the need for works to be done to keep the trail challenging for riders while improving its flow and safety. sportscotland considers this award will help ensure the trail's future and continued success as a training and competition facility for local through to international riders.
For details on sportscotland's Sports Facility Fund please visit sportscotland's web site at www.sportscotland.org.uk/sff
BikeEventsScotland.com
New Cycling Events Website Launched
BikeEventsScotland.com is a brand new online portal for cycling events of all kinds. The website has been developed in partnership with key cycling stakeholders in Scotland to create a comprehensive one-stop shop for all cycling events in Scotland. Working with Sustrans, Forestry Commission Scotland, Scottish Cycling, Visit Scotland and the CTC, Cycling Scotland has developed the database to ensure anyone looking for cycling events now has only one website to visit rather than having to look through all the partners' sites.
The database uses a calendar to display events, and can be filtered to show all kinds of events, or if users are looking for a specific kind of event, it can be used to show just mountain biking, mass participation, family, beginner, competitive, sportive or fundraising rides, depending on the user's particular interests.
The site can also alert users to new events using RSS feeds. The event listings contain all the details about the event, contact details for registering to take part, google mapping to show the location of the event and can provide directions on how to get there from your home post code.
The site also contains news about cycling events and results from competitive events. The calendar itself can also be embedded on any website, meaning anyone promoting cycling or running a blog can enbed the calendar into their own site.
Log on to the web and have a look for yourself at www.bikeeventsscotland.com
DEVELOPING MOUNTAIN BIKING
Delivering
- The delivery of the project will have 4 main areas of focus in 2010 - Increasing Participation with Recreational & Sporting Pathways - Communication & Marketing - Standards & Grading - Development Clusters.
- Each of the areas has projects to be accomplished. Each project has clear objectives, timescales and KPI's for success to be measured.
For more information on the key objectives and projects within each area please click here
Launch of the Framework
Bannerman High School
- The Framework was successfully launched with Shona Robison, Scottish Minister for Sport, and Steve Peat, UCI Downhill World Champion, at Bannerman High School. (see photo below)
- The launch was covered by the National press in The Scotsman and The Metro, by regional press from Evening Times and by online magazines Bike Radar, singletrack online, The Scotsman online and Bike Magic and the new SMBDC chair, Brian Porteous, had a starring role on Sports Weekly on BBC Radio Scotland
- The total 'opportunities to see' reached a potential audience of 4.15 million people.
- Thanks should go to Bannerman High School, in particular, Ms Purdie - Bannerman High School Head Teacher, Rob Ross & Andy Ogilvie - Teachers who run the Mtn Bike club and Craig Borthwick - Campus cop for Bannerman High School and all the young people on their bikes at Bannerman. For more info on the school please visit their website.
- The launch would not have been a success without Smarts, Cycling Scotland, Shona Robison, Steve Peat, all the staff at Scottish cycling and members of the SMBDC who attended. Thank you.
MBR MAGAZINE
- The project manager, Graeme McLean, was interviewed by mbr magazine in February with a 'quick word' in the April edition followed by a 3 page interview in the May edition. To read the full interview click here and navigate to page 36.
- Thanks to Chris Ball (dirtschool) for giving Graeme the opportunity for his first media interview and for arranging brilliant exposure for the project.
RECRUITMENT
- Brian Porteous is the new and first SMBDC chair. Brian brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to the role.
- Brian has broke his first rule of consultancy and volunteered to work on a project he was formerly paid for. However such is his belief in the project and its ability to make a considerable difference to increasing participation leading to improved health and well-being, tourism and economic development and sporting development and success he has volunteered his time to help drive the project forward.
- Jennifer (Jay) Pearson has been appointed as the new administrator for the delivery of the Framework.
- Jay gave an excellent interview and after a successful induction has began auditing current Mountain Biking activity within each Development Cluster and will be taking a lead role in organising the conference.
