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.
@airvent oddly the opposite experience for me, same year.
I left well early to make it round and nobody was bothered, was going round with decent folk (Thanks to the guy who fed me drumsticks on the way back up to stage 6) and had parked well away from the herd. Can appreciate how that could colour your perception mind, the practice day was a riot as well!
One of the best stages I remember was at a tweedlove at Glentress, top of ho chi min, to the fort then down to the hydro, 15 minute stage with a decent fire road climb in the middle. Now it’s all 5 3 minute stages with no physical effort.
This sounds like more fun and more of an adventure. Probably harder to take seriously/train and prepare for those at the top.
Apparently you and I are in a minority though, and what the people want is repeatable, rollable downhills with minimal aerobic effort.
One of the best stages I remember was at a tweedlove at Glentress, top of ho chi min, to the fort then down to the hydro, 15 minute stage with a decent fire road climb in the middle. Now it’s all 5 3 minute stages with no physical effort.
That was an EWS, back when EWS was interesting. And before FLS bulldozed the trail…
It’s fun to think of ways to turn enduro into a bike race (or some hybrid variant), rather than a time trial, that would put a very different complexion on things – attract different types of riders. Given it’s in the doldrums it’s prob the right time to be thinking of new things, it is really hard to see how this could be made to work (format and practicalities of land access), and would basically be unappealing to the majority of punters.
I suspect the format we have is the one that suits the most people best, and the sport needs a refresh of people and venues after the first / second generation of organisers have built the discipline. I wouldn’t expect these people to just naturally spring up, either, given the spectacularly thankless task that is race organisation. Organising and engaging people for anything is hard these days, let alone a multi-stage MTB event.
To be fair I was always of the opinion that enduro events should have at least an up stage and not be all winch and plummet. Where only the downs count.
Back in the mists of time when the mtb-borders forum ran and we met for rides. We had an annual event. Last one was a timed section up corby linn, times down the quarry off 3B, complete an easy soduko at bottom, times through mullets, a memorize these numbers (I had a sharpie, so wrote them on my thigh) time penalties for mistakes. Next section was back up SUW but you had to take a painted rock from the quarry, big ones were obvious pebbles were hidden. Last was a banzia race down corbie linn Then pub and curry. Think it was “marshalled” by 4 folk and some walkie talkies.
Back in the mists of time when the mtb-borders forum ran and we met for rides. We had an annual event. Last one was a timed section up corby linn, times down the quarry off 3B, complete an easy soduko at bottom, times through mullets, a memorize these numbers (I had a sharpie, so wrote them on my thigh) time penalties for mistakes. Next section was back up SUW but you had to take a painted rock from the quarry, big ones were obvious pebbles were hidden. Last was a banzia race down corbie linn Then pub and curry. Think it was “marshalled” by 4 folk and some walkie talkies.
that was the only sporting event that I’ve ever won in my life. I’ve still got the thermal top that Walter blagged from a bike shop for first prize. I can’t remember if it was for overall win or if I just won the climb up Corby Linn but I’m still proud!
BoardinBob Full Member
TVTA is not the Trail Fairies. All a bit People’s Front of Judea/ Judean People’s Front but TVTA are down the golfie and the fairies are glentress
TVTA is indeed not the Trailfairies but I don’t think there’s any real competition between them. Trailfairies is organised by the FLS’s MTB rangers and so focuses on maintenance of waymarked trails and has created a few new trails that fit into FLS’s own plans. It’s mostly done work at Glentress but has done work at Innerleithen too. TVTA is about the “unofficial” trails that are in the valley.
Though sadly using the present tense for the Trailfairies activities isn’t quite right, as it’s been on hiatus for a couple of years now.
@mtnboarder – I try to respond to any trailbuilding inquiries sent to the Trailfairies’ Facebook page, apologies if I missed yours! (I’m not part of FLS but a few volunteer Trailfairies have helped with the Facebook page and given the workload the rangers seem to have had that mean it’s mainly been volunteers responding to messages recently.)
For any brand, proposition, service or product to be successful it has to meet three criteria:
Desireability, Viability, Feasibility.
Desireability – people want it.
Viability – people will pay for it and that will cover the cost of running it.
Feasibility – you have the capability to deliver it.
Enduro racing has generally waned in mass Desireability – it’s become old hat and not the new trendy thing anymore.
The lower numbers, and rising cost of everything needed to run the events means the cost is significant magnitudes higher than 10 years ago. People are less willing to pay to ride trails that are free to ride any of the other 364 days of the year, which can now be easily navigated through TrailForks, compounded with that lower desireability, means it’s very hard to make a profit out of Enduro racing so it’s become non-viable.
Due to the lack of profit to re-invest in the business because of this non-viability, the capability to deliver an enduro race is massively reduced as we can’t pay for all the staff needed. Which means it’s not feasiable to put on enduro races at the scale they were previously.
All of this has been pretty clear and predictable for a while now.
What survivor brands do in situations like this is re-look at the strategy – starting with Desireability. There’s no point making something more feasible or viable if no one wants it. This is where many brands go wrong, they tinker with how they deliver the same thing, instead of innovating the business itself.
In the coming years we’ll see innovation in the types of events that are put on, testing the waters to see what people actually want after more than a decade of the same kind of thing on the same kind of trails with the same kind of people.
Then we’ll see innovation in new business models that will turn a profit, with some building new, exciting brands around that changed proposition and business model.
Nothing ever stands still – the end of something now is the beginning of something brand new tomorrow.
Not sure how much goodwill I have to put into volunteering any more- FLS have been nothing short of obstructive and incompetent for years now. The cabin debacle, the Worlds and the new trails have all been mismanaged to the point where Glentress is a worse place for all the public investment directed to it.
I’m genuinely curious as to how much public money people think should be used to subsidise a commercial business. Of course TL brings huge local benefits but so do other businesses and events. They have, over the years, received significant public money, both in time and grants. But they are still a commercial venture and they need to be able to stand on their own feet. I’m not sure if I am entirely comfortable at suggestion, however slight, that public bodies are responsible for their success or otherwise.
There’s nothing wrong with public funds being used to subsidise a business if that venture subsequently brings other benefits to the area – I’m thinking tourism mostly. There does have to be a sensible cut-off point though and, as has already been pointed out above, in these times of austerity it’s harder to provide that funding.
I agree that commercial entities should be self supporting to a large degree, but where is the cutoff? Do we direct the funding towards Olympic medals or encouraging participation in the young and at grass roots level? Which has more benefit?
The waste of public money in supporting events like the Worlds XC which created zero tangible benefit for riders or local businesses (apart from ESO who readily scooped up cash). The knock on effect of effectively closing Glentress during the summer holiday period and delaying the new new trail development badly hit many businesses financially, not just Tweedlove. The promised legacy, so shouted about by DMBinS (also publicly funded, and of minimal tangible benefit IME) has been nothing beyond a pile of rocks and a sign.
Outside of the financial side, Tweedlove suffered probably more through the hinderance of the public bodies, rather than the lack of financial support though. Active campaigning saw the banning of Tour of the Borders by the Council and at a local level there has been much opposition from the community council.
saw the banning of Tour of the Borders by the Council
that’s simply not true. SBC never banned the event. They wanted to consult on alternative routes. They never banned the event. for balance, the councils detailed statement is contained in this article.
Sorry- “effective banning” would have been more accurate.
The consultation on alternative routes was done extensively. A large number of alternative options were looked at and none were suitable. Off the back of that SBC made it effectively impossible to run on that basis.
Next year it will be back to the original route, which did work.
So sad this, I was lucky enough to be there from day one, I’d quit xc style racing but the gt7 dragged me back in, then those first 2 EWS rounds were just incredible. Dug, raced and marshalled and loved it. I think special mention for the accessibility of it, while it feels like so many organisers were in an arms race and obsessed with chasing the top end, being a knobber in a tweedlove race has always felt great. I was like 278th in the first ews but felt like a bloody champion
hatter
Full Member
*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.
Borders council is almost certainly going to end up poorer from this though. Like other things, tweedlove and biking in general has been a golden goose that the council and local businesses have been happy to reap the benefits of but few wanted to actually feed it. And there’ll be plenty complaining now it’s had the temerity to die.
Whilst I agree that government money shouldn’t prop private businesses up, it is clear for anybody trying to book accommodation, have a meal or grab a pint during Tweedlove that it does bring a lot of extra people to the area.
I cant help but think the weather being so bad this year may have put the final nail in the coffin? If it was dry and warm, would it have been more successful with vendors making more money and everybody being happier?
It does seem peoples attitudes to mass events and racing has changed. Before COVID there were loads of events, all well supported. I used to do a few Gorrick or Evans events as it got me riding somewhere different and it was good to have a beer and some food afterwards but I started to get fed up with it being too busy (I know, I paid money and contributed to the traffic) so I stopped doing them and started exploring more on my own with an OS map and trailforks. Now I like nothing more than an off piste ride where I hardly see another person.
Now I like nothing more than an off piste ride where I hardly see another person.
I stopped racing enduro way before it was cool to stop racing enduro, but I do wonder if post-Covid misanthropy has something to do with the current squeeze on event organisers?
Borders council is almost certainly going to end up poorer from this though.
What’s the mechanism for that to happen please?
I can only think of decreased business rates income if other companies with premises fail as a result of Tweedlove stopping, which seems a stretch TBH.
Has Enduro just got too big? Tweedlove used to be all grassroots and just come along and ride with your mates and socialise, but then it started attracting the Pros and things started to change. I suspect as the Pros moved in the courses became more challenging (I’ve only ever done 1 Enduro and it was the Tweedlove Funduro, so not something I’m basing cold hard facts on), and may have put off the grassroots riders, so numbers go down – as said, this isn’t based on evidence, just my thoughts on it – this might be a millions miles away, but reading other comments on this thread, I think it isn’t too far off.
I’d hope every event is a great success, but that proves much harder when the pool of potential entrants is reduced. It is a really difficult balance to put on a course that satisfies everyone that also doesn’t put everyone off.
Pandemic has also changed how people spend their time…far fewer people keen to be mingling with loads of people (although music festivals seems to be surviving well)…
previously ive done 8 odd races a year, usually at least 1 tweedlove, even before covid the demands of family life were making it harder, As much as Id love to race the BNES series, for me financially theres no way I could manage driving up and down the country, paying £100 for race entry + more for camping/ bunkhouse+ food + broken bike bits etc, probably looking at £250-300 a weekend?
I can only think of decreased business rates income if other companies with premises fail as a result of Tweedlove stopping, which seems a stretch TBH.
Happy to be corrected though.
I think he was referring to the geographical area rather than the institution.
Is there any data on the demographics of mountain bikers?
I haven’t raced since my kids were born and it’s unlikely I’ll manage any racing for at least another few years (my kids have made it quite clear to me they don’t like mountain biking so it’s unlikely we’re going to become one of those racing families so many on here seem to be part of). By that point I’m not sure if I’ll actually want to race anymore.
I’m still wondering about the effect of ebikes on the sport in general and how it affects entry into it. Sure, it makes it easier to get started but it increases the barrier to entry to youngsters looking to take it up purely due to the cost, imo.
I’m not sure about that though so that’s why I’m wondering if there has been any changes in the demographics of mountain bikers over the last ten years and particularly since ebikes became so popular.
I think he was referring to the geographical area rather than the institution. </quote>
both are true but i was referring to the council. There’s little doubt in my mind that this’ll have a knockon effect of losing local businesses, tweedlove provided several of the busiest weekends of the year and have done for a long time, the area is adapted to it. Any marginal business that benefited from those surges is going to be nervous. And it’s likely to eat at numbers year-round- people who came once for a race and then returned, people whose mate raced and then brought back the whole gang, etc.
Speaking to groups of visitors, especially offpistey visitors and tweedlove comes up all the time.
I think special mention for the accessibility of it, while it feels like so many organisers were in an arms race and obsessed with chasing the top end, being a knobber in a tweedlove race has always felt great
Definitely this for me . I used to do vallelujah and king of the hill every year and if I finished in one piece and wasn’t dead last I considered it a success but you never felt like you were an afterthought at tweedlove events . I did the EWS 80 the first year it came back and it for some reason I felt like they were just after my money, to be fair the weather was rubbish and that can have an effect on an event.
I live in New Zealand now and the Enduro events near me are pretty small compared to Tweedlove . Even in Rotorua the main series is 3 one day events which I think are mainly used as fund raisers for the local club . The much bigger event is the Waka which is a marathon event which attracts more riders . I think the marathon events can attract people who aren’t necessarily full on mtb riders but people just looking for a challenge and something to train for so your potential market is bigger .
I hope someone comes along and still runs some events in the valley , they were great fun and the local community benefited from them on the whole . It would be a shame if there was no legacy from that .
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.
