Borders bike festival and enduro events look to be at end of road

The annual TweedLove bike festival at Peebles is facing being axed due, in part, to a funding shortfall, and associated events such as the TweedLove Enduro Series and the annual Tour o’ the Borders look set to go with it.

Peebles-based festival, series and tour organisers Hillside Outside say they can’t afford to keep them going and are throwing in the towel unless a rescue package can be put together.

That means, as things stand, that, after this Saturday and Sunday’s Glentress Weekender, next month’s enduro series round at Innerleithen and September 2025’s Tour o’ the Borders, making a comeback after a year off, will be their last hurrah.

“It’s with a heavy heart I have to announce that there will be no TweedLove events in 2025 or beyond,” said Hillside Outside founder Neil Dalgleish in a statement issued via the festival’s website.

“After several difficult years keeping everything afloat, these final races over the next couple of months will be our last.

“Like so many bike event organisers, we face an unwelcome reality.

“Though TweedLove’s entry numbers have largely bucked the trend of dwindling participation, that doesn’t balance the negative elements.

“Costs have risen 30% since Covid, bike industry sponsorship is a fraction of what it used to be and public-sector support for events like ours is generally sporadic and minimal despite the number of visitors we attract to this part of Scotland.

“The bottom line is we can’t afford the salaries to attract or retain all the staff we need to do what we do.

“It’s time for change. Having spent 15 years literally subsidising the whole operation, I just can’t see how I can – or maybe, more accurately, how I can afford to – take TweedLove forward.

“Quite a few organisers around the UK are in the same boat as us, with some packing it in for good.

“Next year in the UK, there will be less racing and fewer grass-roots events and the scene may go back to being mostly run by amateur and club organisations and on a much less ambitious scale.

“Obviously if the numbers added up better, things might be different, but, as it stands, we’ve come to the end of the road.”

Rising costs and declining financial support to help cover them are the main reasons given by the 61-year-old for scrapping TweedLove but he also cites uncertainty over the direction enduro racing as a sport is taking nationwide, partly due to the rise in poularity of electric mountain-biking, and ongoing opposition from some locals, saying: “A bit less abuse and negativity from the tiny-minded aye-beens would be good for the place too.”

Infrastructure issues are another reason cited by Dalgleish for calling it a day as he reckons the region is at risk of becoming a victim of its own success as mountain-biking trails suffer ever-increasing wear and tear, with investment in repairs and maintenance failing to keep pace.

“Bike tourism is the biggest economic driver in the area, spawning cafes, hotels, bike shops, guides, coaches, uplift and more, but with all that growth have come problems of sustainability, management and funding and it’s time for a strategic rethink to support a reimagined, outdoor-focused Tweed Valley economy,” he said.

“Visitors won’t keep coming unless someone provides the encouragement, infrastructure and facilities for them to do so. Above all, our trail network won’t maintain itself.

“Some of the mountain towns of Europe and North America probably provide the most relevant examples of how we should look at it. Whoever heard of a ski resort that didn’t look after its pistes and infrastructure?

“The area has been getting away with it for quite a while. The Tweed Valley, as a destination, needs more love from the public-sector authorities, probably prioritising mountain-biking trails.

“It was fantastic to see Forestry and Land Scotland find funding to build the new masterplan trails in Glentress but they can’t afford to maintain them.

“The enduro trails get a bare minimum of maintenance, mostly from voluntary organisations or other secret diggers.”

Dalgleish isn’t ruling out a reprieve for the festival, like that granted to the tour after he announced that 2023’s would be the last, however, saying: “If anyone has any realistic proposals for how TweedLove can return, we’re all ears.”

If the end is indeed nigh for TweedLove, though, Dalgleish says he can look back with pride at the contribution it’s made to the Borders economy since the first festival’s staging in 2010 and the role it’s played in establishing the region as a leading destination for cyclists and encouraging people to take up the sport.

“Over 14 years, we hosted literally hundreds of bike events, mostly for mountain bikes but also on road and gravel, for kids and more,” he said.

“At a conservative estimate, more than 70,000 participants have signed up, got on their bikes and taken part in TweedLove events, and that doesn’t include all the free events, guided rides or all the people who came to spectate, support or just hang out at the festival.

“We created Scotland’s first-ever home-grown bike festival, produced the country’s biggest enduro race series and ran the UK’s biggest kids’ cycling events.

“I’ll have a lifetime of pride in what we achieved, both as a micro-business punching way above our weight and as a catalyst for the positive changes we’ve seen in the Tweed Valley.

“TweedLove has been an amazing experience.

“It’s been a privilege to create and steer it along what was never a dull or easy trail.

“The events brought some totally inspirational people together to achieve something that, as far as I know, is still unique in the bike event world.

“Running TweedLove has been brilliant and I’m massively proud of it, but it’s time for a change.”

Dalgleish’s statement can be read in full at https://tweedlove.com/blog/the-end-of-the-road-for-tweedlove/