Scottish, Welsh and British Cycling have teamed up to create a UK wide Mountain Bike Leadership scheme. The award qualifies bikers to lead groups of people on mountain bike rides spanning a variety of terrains. As Welsh, Scottish and British cycling move to strengthen mountain bike leadership across the UK, the delivery of the award will make a gradual switch over to the new UK Mountain Bike Leadership Awards over the following 12 months.
Jim Riach the corporate services manager at Scottish Cycling and founder member of the Scottish Mountain Bike Leadership Awards answers some questions about the new scheme:
Scottish Cycling and its Mountain Bike Leader Awards scheme has led developments in this area for over 15 years with mountain biking being a popular activity suited to the Scottish landscape and terrain. Scottish Cycling and Welsh Cycling is a important part of British Cycling and when British Cycling announced that they had secured funding and developed its own Mountain Bike Leader Award it made sense to involve Wales and Scotland. The key benefits are a much larger resource in terms of finance, staff, expertise and a wider reach. Though Scottish Cycling’s MBLA had strong recognition and support within the industry sector an award developed in Scotland may not have been deemed relevant to others outside Scotland.
Another positive of the scheme is that it brings together other complementary programmes such as coach education. Many of the existing MBLA Tutors will be those delivering the new scheme therefore bringing forward a collective of expertise gained over many years of experience. Around 7000 candidates have passed as
Trail Cycle Leaders. The existing TCL award will still be recognised, licensed and insured for as long as holders maintain their British Cycling membership.
We think this sounds like a great idea and initiative to get people cycling. We’d love to hear your views on the new scheme and awards.