On track for the seventh Tweedlove Festival

This Saturday (May 14) marks the start of the fortnight-long cycling festival held in and around Peebles, in some of the UK’s best cycling territory.

Tweedlove is set to host over 35 events, ranging from balance bike races to seven–hour endurance events featuring the world’s best riders, from urban cyclocross to road sportives, films to club nights.

Since its inception seven years ago, it has grown from just a few local events to become the UK’s biggest cycling festival, and Tweedlove’s Fiona Dalgleish told us that this is set to be the event’s biggest year yet.

“It started off as an idea round our kitchen table. This year we’re expecting 5,000 riders, from as far away as America, Jamaica, Abu Dhabi, Singapore and New Zealand.”

Among those will plenty of big names, inlcuding three-time Enduro World Series World Champ Tracey Moseley, Pro MTB racer Lewis Buchanan and Cube Action Team Enduro racer Greg Callaghan.

Tweedlove is also a great chance for young riders to get started, or to build on their skills, and this year 450 children have already registered for events. Last year there were also around 10,000 spectators, and the festival brought revenue of around £1.5million to the area.

The main weekend is May 21/22, when the Shimano TweedLove International Enduro race takes place, featuring 650 riders, and pitting world champions against local amateurs.

On the same weekend, there is a festival site on Tweed Green, Peebles, with 50 stands featuring the best bike brands in the UK, street food, a beer tent provided by Tweed-based Tempest Brew Co, a bike track and a live broadcast from Radio Borders.

See the website at tweedlove.com for full event details, including information on how to take part.

Some stats:

Over 4,500 riders will take part in TweedLove events including around 500 children.

15,000 cable ties will be used

17 miles of race tape will be used

144,000 bits of cake will be eaten (!!)

347 volunteers have answered the call for help