Following on from Monday’s story Guiding in France. War in the mountains?, about Trail Addiction’s decision to take on French authorities over the current insistence that UK qualified guides need to take french guiding qualifications in order to work as guides, we’ve got some more promising news to report.
It seems that, partly driven by French mountain bike organisations Moniteur Cycliste Francais and the Institut de Formation du Vélo, a European MTB Guide and Instructor Summit is to be held in Davos in late September aimed at bringing together european mountain bike organisations with a view to work towards a solution that will ratify international equivalence for existing MTB awards.
British Cycling will be in attendance, and we believe the new Level 3 MTB Leadership is the award likely to apply to Alps based guiding.
British Cycling’s Recreation Education Manager, Neil Atkinson, said:
“Our MTB Leadership programme was introduced in 2012. Since then, we have been working hard to establish the programme nationally, qualifying mountain bikers to professionally lead rides. This has recently extended into working very closely with Scottish Cycling and Welsh Cycling to develop cohesive delivery of MTB Leadership across the home nations.
The next stage for the programme’s development is to gain recognition for the qualification internationally, so that leaders who qualify with British Cycling are able to work and lead rides with a recognised qualification anywhere in Europe. We have had positive discussions with international bodies such as the International Mountain Bike Association to help clarify the best way of bringing international recognition to this important area of mountain bike leadership.
“We will also be attending the European MTB Guide and Instructor Summit in Davos at the end of September, alongside leading organisations including Swiss Cycling, Deutsche Alpen Verein and Moniteur Cycliste Francais. We see this summit as an excellent opportunity for the development of mountain biking internationally.”
Sam Morris, from Bike Village, a Les Arcs based guiding company, has also be busy getting involved in sorting a solution to the situation.
“I have a huge amount of respect for Ali’s stance and sympathy for his situation – we have faced a very similar one in the past. When it came to risking prison, my sphincter puckered and I signed up for the new French BPJEPS biking qualification and employed French guides (accompanied by British ones) this summer.
Happily, this process has gotten me past the somewhat draconian Ministry of Sport and introduced me to the key figures in French bike training. Unsurprisingly, these actual mountain bikers are lovely people who see there is a clear problem here and are very amenable to working towards a solution.
I’ve been able to act as go-between with Neil Atkinson at British Cycling, and the end result is a conference this September which, slightly ironically, I’ll be attending with the French contingent!
The hope is to have a working solution by summer 2015. This would be an amazing legacy for everyone, both British and French, who have worked so hard to get to this point. Crucially, it would also guarantee higher standards of professionalism to the people who matter most – the mountain bikers.”
We’re currently awaiting more information from the MCF and will update this story when it arrives.
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Much to be commended for there Sam! Between the pincer movement of the legal battle from one side, and the diplomatic “man on the inside” from the other, as you say there may finally be a light at the end of the tunnel for all this. I really hope that the MCF will accept the new BC Level 3 – I also discussed the course content with Neil Atkinson at British Cycling and I have to say, this award looks like something that the UK guiding industry has lacked for some time. Its a great award.