Last weekend saw over 2000 riders descend on Innerleithen to take on myriad challenges of Tweedlove Transcend, Tweedlove’s new format festival. The idea of Tweedlove Transcend was to bring together riders, expo goers, traders, food and music into one big self-sustaining festival atmosphere where rides all started and finished in the same place, where you could then grab a bite and a pint and watch some live music.
Needless to say, in the random-climate times in which we live, the weather didn’t play ball and heavy rain on Friday and for some of Saturday put a damper on some of the festival vibes, but it honestly didn’t seem to make a difference to the riders out on the hill(s) who all returned muddy but smiling. Even Tracy Moseley, who brought in a hard-fought second place (a mere 0.2 seconds ahead of third) in the main enduro event figured that the course was grippier on the Saturday than in practice when the trails were dry.
There were many events (nine!) on offer for racers (and leisure riders too) with events for enduro, gravel, the first ever UK leg of the Bosch eMTB Challenge supported by Trek, the not-overly-competitive-Enjoyro and notably the first ever two-day uplifted enduro in the UK – the Transcend Epic. At one point there were something like 27 live stages in play over the hillsides surrounding the festival site next to the Tweed river.
The big highlight across the weekend for many was the Transcend Epic – a new enduro format for the UK which saw riders get two days of uplifted blind enduro racing across 13 stages in four of the Valley’s forests. Local racer Thomas Mitchell took the win with over 64 minutes of race time on the clock, but the racing went hand in hand with the vibe of enjoying two massive days out on the bike. “It was awesome, we’ve covered so many more tracks than you ever could in a normal race. It’s been brilliant – it’s the future of enduro,” said one of the riders.
But the festival wasn’t just about the competition. Thousands of others turned out to experience all of the entertainment that was on offer in the festival village; live music, DJ’s, the Frog Bikes Kids Adventure Zone, Tempest Brewing Co’s (always packed) beerfest tent, the Pumptrack, the Street Food Village as well as over 700 demo bikes from the 30 different brands across the weekend.
The new festival format was a success providing loads to do on and off the bike with many hoping the event will become a permanent feature in the calendar. And despite some glum faces from the organisers at the wet weather, by the end of the weekend, the rain was forgotten and the good vibes remained…
Tweedlove Transcend Gallery
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What the hell is uplifted enduro? That’s just downhill!
You want to tell the riders that, the uplifts were shuttles to get them between the different venues and part way into the forests. They still had a lot of climbing to do over the two days and the stages were longer than normal UK stages.
Taking the conditions into account the riders that did manage to finish all deserved a round of applause.
I did the Epic (the uplifted one). Over the 2 days I clocked up 6600 feet of climbing on the bike (or pushing) and about double that descending. It wasn’t just a glorified downhill race.