Post-UCI Glentress focus shifts to inclusivity

That’s a wrap!

We’ve had a blast hosting the 2023 UCI championship at Glentress, where across six days we saw almost 30,000 people visit the forest for the event.

World mountain bike champion, Tracey Mosely, said; “Glentress was an outstanding venue that is set to become a beacon for everyone involved in promoting cycling by showing how the one destination can appeal to families, young people, novice riders, adaptive riders as well as the wider mountain biking community.”

Now that UCI is over, our team is shifting focus on the final stage of the Glentress Masterplan.

“Although the Championships are now over, we’re not resting on our laurels and are looking to add the finishing touches that we couldn’t complete before the event was held. Once fully completed, our regular – and hopefully many new - visitors will soon find a destination that lives up to their expectations and offers something for everyone,” added our South Region manager John Dougan.

“The UCI 2023 Cycling World Championships has given us some momentum that will help our efforts to make cycling more inclusive and encourage more people across the country to take on two-wheels, added Tracy

This final stage will include the construction of a new mountain bike skills park, work around the gateway building, a final linkage of the new trails and the installation of a short skills loop of various grades. 

A section of the blue network trail built for UCI

In parallel, over the next few weeks, the temporary UCI event-specific trails and features will be removed. 

Trails and features that were built especially for the UCI events, although fit for the purpose of challenging the skills of high-level professional and elite athletes, were designed to be used on a temporary basis. These trails don’t meet the design requirements or build standards needed for the sustainable trails featured in the Masterplan and will be deconstructed and repurposed or recycled. 

We’re looking to offer two ‘sandbox’ areas that could accommodate temporary features for future events and we’re looking into retrospective planning permission to make a permanent start / finish line that will put Glentress’ in a good place to host future large-scale events. 

Construction work will also resume on Forest Holidays’ 56 environmentally sensitive holiday cabins. 

This final work will complete the Masterplan legacy of high-quality infrastructure and trails that can be sustainably managed into the future and meet a broad range of needs for our recreational visitors.

The Phase 3 Masterplan works, and the cabin build will be competed in 2024. 

Following on from this major economic boost to the area, it is anticipated that – every year - the revamped Glentress will help draw over 300,000 visitors to the area and inject around £1 million into the local economy.