Scotland has been recently hailed as one of the greatest venues for mountain biking on the planet. This is for two reasons: the first being that Scotland boasts the ideal terrain for the sport and the second being that Scotland has been hosting the most important events within the framework of the sport for a number of years.
The famous Glentress area boasts around 65 miles of track, which is perfect for mountain bikes daredevils to show their tricks on. Few places in the world can claim to have such facilities for bikers. In financial terms, mountain biking and the tourists who come to Scotland for this purpose bring around L39 million to the local economy. This figure has been and will be significantly boosted by major international mountain biking events.
Next September, Dumfrie is going to host the world mountain bike conference. The event is expected to bring visitors to Scotland from all over the planet. More significantly, the UCI mountain bike racing at the Ben Nevis range is not only the last major global mountain biking event before next year’s Beijing Olympic games, yet is expected to be visited by around 40.000 people. The visitors shall come to see 700 riders from 50 different countries braving their way around the treacherous mud tracks on two wheels. Financially, the event will certainly be a huge hit as an extra L2 million is set to be plunged into the Scottish economy.
Away from the revenue it brings, the local Scottish population is just said to be proud of hosting such events and having the glorious Scottish countryside promoted on a global scale. The money is naturally a major plus, yet perhaps not the biggest in the scale of the whole Scottish mountain biking scene.