TweedLove founder Neil Dalgleish has announced in a blog post that the hugely popular Scottish mountain bike festival is coming to an end. If you’ve been meaning to get round to doing one of their events, you’re too late. In Neil’s announcement, he explains why they’re taking the decision, and warns that it’s a situation that is repeated in event HQs up and down the country. If there’s an event you’ve been thinking ‘one day I’ll do that’ then it might be time to book your place – before you can’t.
Organiser Neil Dalgleish paints a bleak picture in his blog post of the 6th August (Full blog below) and he doesn’t hold back pointing to where the problems are within the industry and beyond. Organisation of the World Enduro series, available funding from local authorities and even the state of the bike industry at large all come under the spotlight here.
UPDATE: For those asking about the scheduled events in the coming weeks Neil has just sent us through this update.
Next year in the UK there will be less racing and less 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.Update on our events:
Glentress 7 (XC/trail/endurance)| 24 August | Going ahead | Entries available
Hope Enjoyro EVO presented by Ridelines (intermediate level one day enduro) | 25 August | Going ahead | Entries available
Glentress Family Day (fun racing for ages 2-13) | 25 August | Going ahead | Entries available
YT Industries TweedLove Enduro Series Round 3/BNES final round 2024 | 14-15 September, Innerleithen | Going ahead | Entries available. This will be the final TweedLove event.
Tour O The Borders (closed road sportive) | 7 September 2025 | Going ahead | Entries available
TweedLove founder Neil Dalgleish
Have yourself a reminisce back through these galleries of photos from events over the years – maybe you’ll spot yourself and can say ‘I was there, man’.
Here’s Neil’s full blog – it makes for an interesting read:
TweedLove has been regarded as a success by just about everyone, so why’s it coming to an end now? The current economic climate and rising costs are the biggest, but not the only, cause. Here’s an outline of the main contributing factors.
Enduro and the sport overall
Some things have changed which have made the race scene less robust. Ten years ago enduro was awesome – it was ‘the people’s’ racing; what we all did on our rides anyway – suffer the climbs whilst having a good laugh with our mates and racing each other on the bits that mattered (the downhills). Enduro felt like punk – it was racing for us and by us as riders, with each event unique to its venue and local clan of organisers.
It was also a lot of fun and stuck a finger or two up to the po-faced commissaires and self-importance of the ‘official’ race scene. We could do it how we liked and make the events as good as we could, without being told how we had to do it. Often that was way better and more enjoyable than the sanctioned races were, and happily it was exactly what we all felt TweedLove’s attitude was about. TweedLove’s ethos was always about accessibility and wider participation – bike events for the many not the few, to borrow a phrase.
The enduro scene took off in a big way and the fact the top pros were taking part in the same races as us mortals was pure gold. In the valley, the stage-race revolution coincided with an explosion of trail-building, and ‘oor valley’ became the UK’s enduro hot spot. Our races became the most popular in the UK and we did everything we could to make the courses, the vibes and the organisation the best there was.
Ten years on, and though numbers racing here are still strong, the whole enduro vibe has changed, not helped by sub-par management and direction of the sport at the top level, and what could be seen as a move towards elitism in the racing. Access to the big races has changed and much of the buzz/spirit has disappeared.
The rise of eMTBs has also changed the picture, but the development of eMTB racing is still far from clear. The rise of eMTB participation is not proving an easy fix for race organisers though, as eMTB races need more stages, more bike scrutiny, and ultimately more work, more staff, more facilities and more cost.
The post-Covid bike industry
Unfortunately this downturn in interest in enduro has coincided with a crisis for the bike industry in general. Most bike brands are still recovering from myopic post-Covid (over) ordering strategies, so their potential for sponsoring the race/event scene has understandably disappeared.
For context on the impact of this, some event organisers have traditionally operated on a model which aims for event entry income to cover basic costs with sponsorship providing any potential profit. Clearly that’s not ideal in the current climate, but in any case it’s not a model that supports anything beyond bare bones event management – and it’s definitely not how TweedLove has ever operated.
Nonetheless sponsorship income was always hugely important and sometimes the awarding of public sector funding has depended on the ability to prove we could attract support from the private sector too.
We created a full-time, year-round professional events company, one which specialised in bike events and the outdoors, and we wanted to do it better than anyone else. As you’d expect our overheads have always included several full- and part-time salaries, permanent office premises and all the other costs faced by small businesses. Our approach was unusual for bike events though, as all but the biggest (and almost always publicly-funded) events were run on a much more volunteer, part-time or amateur basis.
In years when the bike industry was strong and some funding was available, it worked OK. In the last few years though, our business model has become a lot more ‘house of cards’, with too many different and inter-reliant income sources needed to make running the business add up. When each event only makes a very small profit, you need a lot of them to keep the cashflow healthy enough to cover the overheads, which in itself was part of the problem – too much pressure on a small team. That cumulative entry income, festival vendor fees, sponsorship, grants and merchandise sales have each been vital parts of our financial jenga. Sadly it’s now become too fragile.
Last year we were forced to drop a few events and re-schedule others due to the World Champs coming to Glentress, and as a result we made a loss over the year – my own salary had to come from company savings.
This year looks like it will be similar, and with costs and overheads still going up and the bike industry still lacking confidence, the outcome has, sadly, become clear.
Funding and the bigger picture
Good events make a big impact. They change things and they change places, and that’s why they’re important. So here’s my bit about event (and bike tourism) funding in the Tweed Valley.
Having grown up here, the welfare of the place is important to me, and when I was a kid the mills were closing and the towns declining. Peebles became a retirement town; Innerleithen and Walkerburn looked half-abandoned, because they were.
The trails built by Forestry Commission Scotland at Innerleithen and Glentress provided a big spark for change. Bike visitors came, younger people moved in, and the MTB trail network grew. After 2010 TweedLove played its part by helping to consolidate the bike community, ramp up the bike destination marketing (we actually did way more of this than all the official agencies put together), which brought thousands of additional visitors.
Jump forward to today and bike-tourism is the biggest economic driver in the area, spawning cafes, hotels, bike shops (bear in mind there was only one of those in the whole valley when I was a teenager – I know, because I worked in it), guides, coaches, uplift and more – oh yeah, and us.
But with all that growth has come problems of sustainability, management and funding and it’s time for a strategic rethink to support the reimagined, outdoor-focussed Tweed Valley economy. The 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. Who ever heard of a ski resort that didn’t look after its pistes and infrastructure?
I share some big concerns with many others here – and not just the other small business operators. 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 the MTB 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. At TweedLove, we are given permission to work on ‘off-piste’ trails we’re using for a race, but often we’ll be the only people to work on those trails all year. We rely on our already stretched team and volunteers to do that work – but we just don’t have enough resources to do everything we’d like to. Anyone who’s done a bit of trail digging will know just how much work’s involved.
As for events, we’re very grateful for the support we’ve received from EventScotland and Scottish Borders Council when it’s been available. I won’t miss the application process though, nor the constant ‘cap in hand’ chase for whatever public sector help we might have a chance of winning, despite how much good our work might do.
In many bike/mountain towns elsewhere in the world, event organisers are paid (by tourism/local authorities) to bring their events there. Additional staff and facility support is often provided too. By contrast, we’ve usually had to fight for respect and any recognition that what we do is good for the place. We all know there’s limited investment available for sport and tourism so it’s time we had a small tourist tax (like you encounter pretty much everywhere in Europe now) to help fund some of what’s needed.
And a bit less abuse and negativity from the tiny-minded ‘aye-beens’ would be good for the place too.
What happens now – back to the future?
At time of writing, 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 less 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.
For the sport of MTB and cycling more generally, this is obviously bad news, and for me it’s sad as one of the joys of TweedLove has been attracting new people into the sport and showing the positivity of the bike scene. Cycling, racing and being part of the bike gang should not be niche – it’s for everyone and the world is a better place with more bike riders in it.
We’re proud to have played a wee part in that movement and to see quite a few local riders cut their teeth with us and go on to achieve big things in the sport. It’s been a pleasure to support a number of young riders to see TweedLove become a part of growing up and family life in our community.
Running TweedLove has been brilliant and I’m massively proud of it, but it’s time for a change. Obviously if the numbers added up better, things might be different, but as it stands, we’ve come to the end of the road.
I’ll now be concentrating on other projects with the remaining core staff at Hillside Outside, while others in the TweedLove team will be going their own way. On a positive note, Tour O The Borders, TweedLove’s sister road bike event will be making a return on its glorious closed road course next September – maybe see you there. And at least I can get out on my bike more.
Thanks to Neil for being so candid and open about the reasons behind the winding up of Tweedlove.There’s a lot in there to digest. Much of the problems come from ‘higher up’ – at a national policy level, governing bodies, or the industry boardrooms. Although surely a multi-million pound industry could have some political clout if it put its mind to influencing the tourist boards and politicians of this world?
There’s food for thought for riders too. It’s not just about buying entry tickets (though that would help, obviously). It’s also about turning out to take care of your trails, supporting trail builders, and behaving well in towns and villages where there are trail hotspots. Being a desirable entity to have around will help make the case for tourist board support and so on.
The loss of Tweedlove will be a shock to many. We wish Neil and all his colleagues well, and thank them for all they’ve brought to mountain biking over the years.
Sad news. The events have been awesome. Even after I stopped racing, I still went to the main Tweedlove festival every year. That’s PMBA and Tweedlove gone in short succession, combined with the end of No Fuss a couple of years ago. Enduro is dead, long live Enduro
very sad news indeed, no mention if the end of august tweedlove family day and
14-15 sept innerleithen and 5-6oct yair forest events will be going ahead, hope so i’d planned to get a ticket for yair, just waiting on a friend to confirm date is good
A real shame, sadly seems to be the way of things just now. I do hope things improve, but suspect it will take more than changes just in the cycling world.
I think part of the issue is also how this country views cycling and MTB – it all seems to be based on recreational tourism, but it is far more than that, but the available monies seem to be largely from the tourism angle. Aware people who don’t live in the area and go their for an event are visitors and therefore tourists, but it is a biking event and if that isn’t on their doorstep then they are willing to travel to do the event and ride with mates, etc.
Unsure how it can be fixed, but I hope it can be. I don’t tend to do events, but know many who do and it seems a great loss for everyone involved.
Well that was an interesting read, kudos to Neil for telling it straight.
Ten years on, and though numbers racing here are still strong, the whole enduro vibe has changed, not helped by sub-par management and direction of the sport at the top level
There’s no love lost between them apparently. Fell out after the EWS in 2015 according to rumours. Controversy over the super long pedally stage that all the pros complained about, that ultimately ended up being dropped after the weather deteriorated on race day
Enduro wise there’s really nothing left other than the smaller races up in Aberdeen. Muckmedden appear to be doing some team enduro race this year, but they stopped all their other races a few years back.
Glentress 7 is also a big loss. Not something I’ve ever done but it was really popular.
It’d be nice to see more people calling ESO out for the way they’ve mishandled the sport (maybe STW will surprise us by doing something on it, but I won’t hold my breath).
Anyway, Neil is very mature in acknowledging the various factors – including trying to run a professional events organisation in an industry that maybe can’t support one.
Never managed to make a Tweedlove event but they were obviously doing something right, it’s just external factors conspiring against them.
That’s the last major series in Scotland now gone. PMBA do rounds up here but are UK wide, SES went with No Fuss and we’re now left with a few novelty events at Glencoe, Nevis Range and Comrie. Whether the money is there for smaller events to move into the space is questionable but Muckmedden have managed to put on the Comrie race.
They’re certainly going to continue to impact mountain biking. eBikes are a major factor in the racing problem, and I suspect (from what I have seen) also leading to falling numbers of riders at trail centres etc. across the country. As they become more prevalent its likely we’ll see continued falls in rider numbers, trail development and events, which of course will in turn cause a fall in rider numbers, trail development, and events. Its hard of course to determine how much the weather is effecting it, its certainly played a major part too this year.
Its not a rosy future for mountain bikes (e or otherwise). That said, other types of riding like gravel are thriving off the back of the fall in MTB.
PMBA do rounds up here but are UK wide
Did rounds up in scotland. PMBA also shut up shop last week.
Sad news but it sounds like simple economics is the problem. The organisers can’t attract enough income from all sources to make a viable commercial success from the event so have taken the only option left.
Forestry Commission in the valley are apparently very difficult to work with. The trails on the inners side for example get zero maintenance. There’s been a couple of high profile digs of very short sections, but general necessary maintenance is zero from the forestry commission. Adrenaline Uplift have been pushing for ages to take on some of that work and the forestry simply won’t allow it. I get the liability angle, but it’s not an unsolvable problem. It just seems like a lot of barriers to getting the work done.
The trail fairies are no more. TVTA have a very limited number of trails they’re allowed to work on.
Doing the Glentress 7 in a couple of weeks for the first time – never been to Glentress, never done a Tweedlove event but always meant to get round to it. Looking forward to it hugely so a shame it could be the last.
Forestry Commission in the valley are apparently very difficult to work with. The trails on the inners side for example get zero maintenance. There’s been a couple of high profile digs of very short sections, but general necessary maintenance is zero from the forestry commission. Adrenaline Uplift have been pushing for ages to take on some of that work and the forestry simply won’t allow it. I get the liability angle, but it’s not an unsolvable problem. It just seems like a lot of barriers to getting the work done.
The trail fairies are no more. TVTA have a very limited number of trails they’re allowed to work on.
The only trails really been built (with the exception of the GT ones paid for by the cabin ‘income’) in the Valley are by off-book trail builders. And when you’re building off-book it takes vastly more manpower as we don’t have the ability to bring in machines and the like – and we’re paying for our own tools…
Forestry Commission in the valley are apparently very difficult to work with. The trails on the inners side for example get zero maintenance. There’s been a couple of high profile digs of very short sections, but general necessary maintenance is zero from the forestry commission. Adrenaline Uplift have been pushing for ages to take on some of that work and the forestry simply won’t allow it. I get the liability angle, but it’s not an unsolvable problem. It just seems like a lot of barriers to getting the work done.
The trail fairies are no more. TVTA have a very limited number of trails they’re allowed to work on.
Is this a recent change in F&LS’s attitude or have they always been like that?
Agree with the above comments about the mishandling of EWS sucking the momentum out of the sport. ESO killing Scottish Enduro Series didn’t help either.
However I think the UK scene is just as responsible for their own downfall. I’ve dabbled in a fair amount of enduros over the years and have completely lost interest, mainly because the national series is so poor.
The “festival” element of Tweedlove was rubbish but (I was informed by an employee) is one of the reasons their entry was expensive. Stupid rules like not being included in BNES points if you opt for unseeded start to ride with your mates became annoying. I haven’t done a Tweedlove since they enforced mandatory full faces.
I think organisers need to make an effort to do something interesting with e bikes. That’s what so many are riding now so just mixing them in with the main enduro seems a bit lazy.
Lots to unpack in the article. Firstly I have sympathy with any small business that has to close its doors, it’s a nightmare for both the owners and the workers, and I hope they untangle themselves as best they can. Running an events business can’t be easy at the best of times, and running bike events post covid can only be a nightmare of epic proportions.
There’s a bit of ‘cake-ism’ though, you can’t on the one hand celebrate enduro for it’s punk ethos and ‘who cares’ attitude to official race organisers, and then in the same paragraph blame those same official race organisers, when it all goes tits up. Especially seeing as they are [de facto] official race organisers themselves ( for this event at least.)
Popular race formats rise up and die off as trends and fashion wax and wane, 12 and 24 hours racing, Single speed championships, and now enduro events, ‘Something something E-bike’ will no doubt emerge when some-one works out a format for it, and the merry-go-around will crank up again.
This year, for the first time (apart from 2020) since I started biking, I haven’t done a race.
I’ve only done one paid entry event (Heaven of the south – brilliant, highly recommended).
Over the past few years I’ve tried the more local Enduro and XC races, and made multiple trips up to Ard Rock and Ard Moors.
This year, I just didn’t have any interest in signing up. Felt too unfit for XC, and had too many mediocre Enduro experiences. Previously I’d probably be paying £200-300 a year on events.
Has the novelty of Enduro worn off? Has the top end of the results sheet gone too far towards DH (in both equipment and personal risk) to make the have-a-go-trail-rider reconsider if its actually what they want to spend their weekends doing?
I’ve got a plan to give XC a go again next year/this winter. Gorrick and SouthernXC. Use them or lose them I guess. But that does require a bit of training…
Has the novelty of Enduro worn off? Has the top end of the results sheet gone too far towards DH (in both equipment and personal risk) to make the have-a-go-trail-rider reconsider if its actually what they want to spend their weekends doing?
TBH that’s what I was wondering. The more pro it becomes the fewer participants; skill, time and cost are all factors. Many of the former competitors will now have bought an e-bike and are unlikely to have the budget for a suitable bike too (especially given the costs).
As apeebles resident it pretty sad. I admit i was a bit pissed off coming along the back road to find a number of competitors over the last few years decided their vans should be parked up on the bike lane…
Has the novelty of Enduro worn off? Has the top end of the results sheet gone too far towards DH (in both equipment and personal risk) to make the have-a-go-trail-rider reconsider if its actually what they want to spend their weekends doing?
If only there was a different kind of enduro, that was say, a 6h timed route round some cool trails, a bit like an MTB sportive… it’d never catch on 😉
If only there was a different kind of enduro, that was say, a 6h timed route round some cool trails, a bit like an MTB sportive… it’d never catch on 😉
people who want to race Enduro and people who want to do Endurance racing, aren’t necessarily the same people. Similarly the trails used in one aren’t the same as the other
Thank you for pointing that out @mashr 😀 . My comment was a joke (evidently a poor one) based on what used to be called enduro racing in the UK in the 00s.
“In some countries, like the UK, there is need for some clarity – in the last few years some events called themselves enduros, long-distance races that didn’t use the timed stages and untimed liaisons which define enduro. As Gravity Enduro series organiser Steve Parr jokes, “the UK are lazy bastards, instead of saying endurance, they said, ‘oh, enduro, it’s shorter!’ They just shortened it and it stuck because it’s cool, it’s a nice name.”
I think as soon as you want to have an Enduro race format that uses the same trails that pro-racers and mortals are using, it will run into issues. On the face of it, the Pros appear to be doing the same thing we do, but in reality their level is so far beyond what the rest of can manage it just isn’t.
So, who do you cater for? Attract the Pro racers and put it on the calendar, and your event is going to be stratospherically popular but the riding will either be too tame for them or out of necessity to keep the paying punters happy (and out of A&E), too technically and physically demanding for the mortals. It’s a tricky balance, fo’shure
I hear what he says about the local authority being short sighted, but from their side, their budgets are so squeezed right now, there are L.A.’s that are going bankrupt. I’m pretty sure that they’re painfully aware that cancelling promotional activity in the long run is harmful to the livelihoods of local residents and their businesses but at the same time, they have legal responsibilities that need that funding urgently right now…
I’ve been going to and working at Tweedlove since the start , this is a big loss to the community.
The writing has been on the wall for a while though , when it first started it was ten days of events , everything from organised local rideouts to kids events and enduro as the icing on the cake.
It’s now just a few events over the year and lost a lot of the fun.
I loved my time volunteering and meeting loads of new people and made some close friends over the years.
As for the EWS it went to shit when you had to qualify to enter it and the got rid of the E2 class where you could turn up and race the trails with your mates. I can see it failing soon too.
I feel sorry for all the local kids that have grown up with Tweedlove (local clubs are vastly oversubscribed, MTB is so popular) and the valley kids are amazing riders.
I would like to to thank Niel and Fi for all the years of riding and good times , Tweedlove has been their life for so long , what started as as sideline turned into a huge thing. Thank you.
There’s a bit of ‘cake-ism’ though, you can’t on the one hand celebrate enduro for it’s punk ethos and ‘who cares’ attitude to official race organisers, and then in the same paragraph blame those same official race organisers, when it all goes tits up.
I think the ‘punk’ attitude is towards BC and the UCI who have nothing to do with Enduro whilst the ire is obviously reserved for EWS and ESO who have massively dropped the ball. Not really contradictory at all.
The trails on the inners side for example get zero maintenance. There’s been a couple of high profile digs of very short sections, but general necessary maintenance is zero from the forestry commission. Adrenaline Uplift have been pushing for ages to take on some of that work and the forestry simply won’t allow it. I get the liability angle, but it’s not an unsolvable problem. It just seems like a lot of barriers to getting the work done.
Yup, last time I went on my Pitch it was a miserable experience, I used to ride those trails on a hardtail but they had become so rutted and worn that you needed more travel than I had to smooth it out. I actually wonder if they have been maintained at all since I last rode them in 2009 or so. Arwen was just the dogshit icing on the rotten cake and I’ve not had the enthusiasm to return since.
I am definitely in this camp.Note how some of my favourite events of past years, Ard Rock (not actually that ‘ard), Boltby Bash and the Hamsterley Beast, seemed to do very well and crucially are all the right side of the diffculty swing. Trail Bikes and a decent set of legs will get you round.
Funny that that the Naughty Northumbrian, which proudly proclaims itself to be
a Black, 3 bar on the Enduro World Series scale of events.
Is the one that isnt running due to lack of entries.
See also the mandatory Full Face helmet thing. I dont own one. I didnt know that was a Tweedlove thing for their Enduros but that precludes me from entry and frankly is not what I am looking for in ‘Enduro’ racing.
people who want to race Enduro and people who want to do Endurance racing, aren’t necessarily the same people. Similarly the trails used in one aren’t the same as the other
Anyway, this is quite concerning, they’re not the first organiser to close down, publically or otherwise, in the last few years. What’s filling the gap? Because I can’t see any new events making up the numbers.
I’d disagree massively with that. This year was an unfortunate washout with horrendous weather, but in every other year the “festival” bit has been very busy all day, loads going on, great for kids, beer tent absolutely rammed, showed movies at night, live bands, all the exhibitors, a real buzz about it
I hear what he says about the local authority being short sighted, but from their side, their budgets are so squeezed right now,
*waves* Councillor here, I cannot really overstate how squeezed local government budgets are right now, we also have a huge swath of services that we are legally obliged to provide (i.e. bin collections) so when the costs of all those go up and our funding doesn’t all the ‘nice to have but not legally mandated’ stuff is where the cuts have to fall.
The fact that many many more councils haven’t gone pop over the last year is testament to thousands of extremely tough decisions having to be made in city halls up and down the country, I sure as hell didn’t get elected to see public services get worse and I’m sure the Councillors who turned down additional support for Tweedlove weren’t either but this is where we are and until Westminster changes course this is where we’ll remain.
If only there was a different kind of enduro, that was say, a 6h timed route round some cool trails, a bit like an MTB sportive… it’d never catch on 😉
Sounds like the Ardrock sport to me. That’s the type of event I’d like there to be more of, so I can ride the marshalled, waymarked route of trails i’m not normally able to ride, plus get all the festival vibes alongside it, without feeling the need to compete or worry too much about the odd arsehole that takes it too seriously and gets the hump if I’m in the way.
I came to Singletrack having decided there must be more to life than meetings. I like all bikes, but especially unusual ones.
More than bikes, I like what bikes do. I think that they link people and places; that cycling creates a connection between us and our environment; bikes create communities; deliver freedom; bring joy; and improve fitness. They're environmentally friendly and create friendly environments.
I try to write about all these things in the hope that others might discover the joy of bikes too.
