Mountain biking pedals successes in opening up outdoors

Scotland on Sunday
12-26-04

By Richard Moore

EMMA Guy, Tracy Brunger, Pete Laing and various inspired individuals at Forestry Commission Scotland might eventually come to be hailed as visionaries. Between three and four years ago, they saw the potential to create a new sporting landscape in Scotland; shaping and adapting the natural environment, adopting the motto from Field of Dreams, the Kevin Costner baseball flick, that "if we build it, they will come."

And come they did - in quite staggering numbers. At Glentress, Scotland's flagship mountain biking centre, they recently opened a new car park - because they had to. The others were bursting at the seams. Visitor numbers jumped by 90,000 last year to 250,000 - and still they seem to be multiplying.

At the same time, work has continued on the £2m 7stanes initiative, a part European- funded, Forestry Commission Scotland-managed project to build seven mountain biking centres throughout southern Scotland, representing possibly the biggest investment any country has ever made in mountain biking.

It has produced world-class facilities, as confirmed only a fortnight ago by the International Mountain Bicycling Association, whose 2004 Report Card rated Scotland as the "People's Choice," and as the best destination for mountain biking outside North America, behind Whistler and West Virginia.

Then there is the Fort William Mountain Bike World Cup, which after three years of growth - the attendance rising from 5,000 to 17,000 - shifts to a September date in 2005. This represents progress, as it means that Fort William will host the finals weekend; and it is a prelude to a much bigger deal, the 2007 world championship.

This year's World Cup, in June, prompted one newspaper columnist to reflect that: "Change in your own country creeps up on the blind side. Like a family member growing fatter, or thinner, or greyer, or taller, it happens so gradually that you don't really notice it until the morning when you wake up and say: 'Gosh, you're different.' "Thus one can say, with some certainty, that something is happening in rural Scotland which a whole lot of us may be totally unaware of."

This is no less than: "The creation of Scotland's countryside as an exciting playground. And it is, intangible though these things must be, a vision of reclamation; a regeneration of confidence."

To examine the roots of this, it is worth turning the spotlight back on to Glentress, and the people there. Four years ago, Guy was embarking on a career with the police, having been a pro downhill mountain biker. Brunger, a cross-country specialist, was still racing at the highest level, and was in the squad for the Sydney Olympics.

Meanwhile, a mile along the road from Peebles, where they both lived, work was well underway on Scotland's first dedicated singletrack mountain bike trails. Laing, a local projects engineer, had been engaged by the Commission to map out and build the first route.

Work started at Glentress in spring 2000, and once completed, having been interrupted by the foot-and-mouth crisis, it proved a hit. As Laing says, "Our aim was to pack this new trail with lots of action but to make it all fun. If you get the grins then we know we are on the right track."

The trickle of regular cyclists became a stream and now it is a flood. But among the first to realise how people were responding to the initiative were Guy and Brunger, who joined with the Commission and opened a cafe and bike hire centre, the Hub in the Forest, in Easter 2002.

Skip forward nearly three years and Glentress is a phenomenon: it is the Borders' No.1 tourist attraction; the Hub in the Forest employs ten full time and six part-time staff; more problematic, the many thousands of visitors who travel to the Tweed Valley from England and further afield struggle to find accommodation in the area.

But the real question is a wider one: is such a phenomenon indicative of a genuine and sustainable appetite throughout Scotland for adventure sports such as kayaking, surfing, climbing, among which mountain biking is - no pun intended - the trail-blazer?

Because there are, of course, signs to the contrary. The £20m Adventure Centre at Ratho is a world-class facility, but when it was placed in administration shortly after opening it confirmed the suspicion that it was too ambitious; that if such a centre like this is to enjoy sustainable, organic growth then it stands a better chance by starting relatively small, and developing at its own pace.

A bit like Glentress. Jeremy Thompson, Environment and Planning Manager for the Commission in the Borders, notes that the mountain biking scene was taking off in Wales when work at Glentress started. From what was happening in Wales, says Thompson, "we knew that mountain bikers were fast getting bored with simply cycling on forest roads. The challenge was to provide a new style of mountain biking, and this is where Pete Laing's knowledge of the sport was a great help.

"The mountain biking press were really impressed with the first trail." continues Thompson. "We knew that if we hit the right note with the experts then the rest would follow. We were aiming at the enthusiasts first to create a mountain biking scene in the area."

Other events and trends have conspired to make the timing right, and to prompt government agencies such as the Commission, VisitScotland and EventScotland to place an increasing emphasis on efforts to turn Scotland into a destination for adventure sports. And while more could certainly be done at the level of government, the Commission, for one, do appear to be thinking along the right lines.

Post-the foot-and mouth crisis, they looked afresh at how they could help those rural communities that had been badly affected. And as they looked they became aware that many objectives could be achieved through the creation of mountain biking centres, which could support rural communities, improve the nation's health, maximise the value of forests to society, and boost tourism.

Can the scene continue to grow? The signs are encouraging, and so are the prospects of some of the youngsters who have honed their skills here on Scotland's trails. Already one Borderer, David Young, from Clovenfords, has emerged at world level, finishing fifth this season in the world junior downhill championship in Les Gets.

But the last word should go to the authors of Scotland's IMBA report card, who awarded Scotland an A-minus (only West Virginia and British Columbia received straight As) as well as the People's Choice Award, which "highlights the location that IMBA members choose as the best place for mountain biking and access."

They conclude: "Simply put, Scotland is one of the hottest places to ride in the world."