Winners of the 2017 Scottish Mountain Biking Awards announced

Winners of the 2017 Scottish Mountain Biking Awards have been announced.

Over 150 guests attended the event in the Drygate Brewery, which was organised by the Mountain Bike Centre of Scotland and its partners Developing Mountain Biking in Scotland.

13 awards were presented to riders, businesses, clubs, event organisers, community groups, tourism and services companies who had excelled in 2017.

A public vote was held for the Mountain Bike Rider of the Year categories that went to Katy Winton and Lewis Buchanan –both of whom race for Trek Factory Racing in the Enduro World Series.

The Best Mountain Bike Event was once again won by the Tweedlove Bike Festival.

In the business categorise, newcomer A S D-Zine, founded by former Robert Gordon University student Andrew Davidson, won the Best Product Award with its revolutionary Go~Charge hydration device. Milngavie based Flaer took home the Best Scottish Exporter Award and the Best Business to Academic Collaboration category went to the University of Strathclyde and ByCyglogical for their work developing a cycling storage device. From a tourism perspective, Cleikum Mill in Innerleithen won the MTB Friendly Accommodation and Off the Grid won the Best Service Provider.

In the participation and sport categories, Bespoke took the MTB Community Project and Midlothian Cycles were awarded MTB Club of the Year. The Scottish MTB Community showed its support with guest award presenters including Stu Thomson of Cut Media and Chris Ball, managing director of the Enduro Word Series.

Business development executive at the Mountain Bike Centre of Scotland and co-presenter Danny Cowe said: “The awards evening was a fantastic opportunity to showcase and celebrate all the fantastic achievements within the Scottish Mountain Bike community. With such a large turnout on the night and so over 65 nominees throughout the categories, it shows that the sport and industry is in a strong place.”

List of winners

• Scottish Mountain Bike Product Innovation of the Year – AS D-Zine Ltd, Go Charge
• Best Scottish Business Collaboration with a University – Bycyclogical and University of Strathclyde
• Endura Exporter of the Year – Flaer
• Scottish MTB Friendly Accommodation Provider of the Year – Cleikum Mill Lodge, Innerleithen
• Edinburgh Napier University Scottish MTB Service Provider of the Year – Off the Grid MTB
• Event of the Year – TweedLove Bike Festival
• Scottish Cycling MTB Photograph of the Year – James McLean
• MTB video of the Year – H&I Adventures, On Wandering
• Shand Cycles Scottish Mountain Bike Club of the Year – Midlothian Cycle Club
• IBIS Cycles Scottish Mountain Bike Community Project of the Year – Bespoke
• Scottish Mountain Biking Local Hero – Barbara Murray and Euan Speirits
• Scottish Female Rider of the Year – Katy Winton
• Scottish Male Rider of the Year – Lewis Buchanan

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