The Glentress Seven

The Glentress Seven, a new seven-hour endurance mountain bike event being staged at Glentress, the UK's best trail centre, on Saturday 11 June 2011, is now open for entries. The flagship event that will kickstart this year's expanded TweedLove cycling festival, featuring normally unavailable trails and new sections created specially for the event, is looking to attract both the casual trail rider and more skilled speed merchants from all over the UK. Emma Guy from the Hub at Glentress and Neil Dalgleish from Hillside, a design and communications business specialising in all things bikey, organisers of TweedLove and the new Glentress Seven event, said: 'Glentress is consistently voted the UK's best trail centre and with the Glentress Seven we're aiming to give it an event to match. It will be run on a seven-hour endurance format for solos and teams of two, three or four. The emphasis is very much on great trail riding and having a lot of fun. There'll be a festival feel to the event base and transition area at The Hub; and out on the course there should be a few surprises to make things fun and buzzing all day. 'The route is still being finalised but it will suit a range of riding abilities, featuring some new, specially created trail sections and some normally unavailable singletrack in the forest. On the more technical descents we will offer easier route options that will take a bit longer than the direct, steeper route but will be less challenging for newcomers to racing. 'As well as the Glentress Seven, we've got loads planned for TweedLove week. Thanks to the support from EventScotland and Scottish Borders Council we have been able to expand the programme and generally take things up a level. We're planning a new evening criterium-style road event in Peebles and several free guided rides including a monster two-dayer over the hills around the valley. The bike demos and dual slalom will be back, with some big social events happening in the evenings too. Some of the free events might sound too good to be true, but it's made possible thanks to all the enthusiastic local volunteers who are into biking; sharing their passion and sharing the (Tweed)love.' See you in June! For more information on TweedLove and to register go to: www.tweedlove.com