TWEEDLOVE, the 10-day bike-friendly Tweed Valley event, has announced a major new all-mountain enduro race to be staged at Forestry Commission Scotland’s Glentress on May 27.
In a new take on the gravity enduro format, the King and Queen of the Hill, the first UK event to be sponsored by Swedish kit brand POC, will see riders compete to be crowned the ‘official ruler’ of Glentress, widely recognised as Britain’s best trail centre.
The course will take riders to near the very top of Glentress Forest’s big hill, and then right back down again, by way of a series of timed race and linking stages, with riders required to have at least one uphill stage included in their overall points score. The King and Queen of the Hill also features a massive final descent stage, running from near Spooky Wood all the way back down to Peebles, with a big proportion of natural trails along the route.
Event organiser Neil Dalgleish said: “If you’re going to be the King or Queen of Glentress, you’ve got to rule the whole hill, which means you need to be decent going up as well as a ripper coming down. The final descent is going to be a real challenge for all the riders with a mix of Glentress signature man-made track as well as off-camber roots, and natural, tight, technical, fast, open sections all the way from the top of the hill, right down to the bottom.”
With Alpine Bikes already in place as sponsor of the whole TweedLove bike festival, the organisers reckon they have scored another coup by attracting Swedish helmets, armour and clothing brand POC as headline event sponsor.
Dalgleish added: “We’re totally delighted to be working with POC – it’s the perfect brand for this event. This is the first UK race that POC has got on board with. They’re one of the coolest brands in the world of bikes right now, and we’re going to make sure this event totally rocks. Winners of the race will be crowned with the POC Trabec, the perfect enduro helmet fit for any King or Queen of the Hill.”
Another first is that it will start and finish in Peebles, in the grounds of the renowned Peebles Hotel Hydro.
Entries for the race are now open on the TweedLove website – http://tweedlove.com/ – which has more info on the race and the whole TweedLove programme – 10 days of good times on and off the bike.