Highland Trail 550 - Special Evening Event. Thursday, 29th August, 7pm, Glentress.

Lynne is a Tweed Valley local who took up mountain biking 12 years ago. She initially embracing the adrenalin of MTB racing with podium successes in the hardtail category at Ard Rock, and solo GT Seven events before quickly realising her passion was for bigger miles and more expansive adventures.

The burgeoning ultra race scene brought avid dot watching which inspired Lynne to tackle events such as Dirty Reiver 200, Frontier 300, three Dales Divides and two Highland Trails. She is now a passionate ultra racer who absorbs the learning each new race brings. Lynne has three kids (her own dot watching team) and is a volunteer leader for MissAdventures, a cycling club specifically formed to encourage young girls to continue to cycle and access the outdoors as they become teenagers.

Emily is an ex Army Officer turned mountain bike guide and coach at the awesome Comrie Croft. She has been riding mountain bikes for over 20 years and is enthusiastic about encouraging everyone into the sport, in particular women and girls. Having led an after school MTB club for 10 years she is now channelling her energy into Trail Therapy and working towards becoming a MTB leadership tutor.

The Highland Trail was Emily’s first ultra cycling event. Although, she has been bikepacking for years and is no stranger to tough endurance challenges, with Celtman!, numerous mountain marathons and 24hr mountain bike races under her belt. Emily is a mum to two teenagers and at her absolute happiest when enjoying the great outdoors with her family.

Kerry is a tenacious rider, winning the HT550 in under 4 days. 3 days, 23hrs and 18mins to be exact, and was the first woman over the line and the 6th overall! Only the second woman to complete the challenge in under 4 days - alongside the formidable Lee Craigie.

She has bags of Hebridean spirit having grown up in South Uist. She’s also deeply passionate about inclusion, tearing down barriers and nurturing people through new experiences and has intimate knowledge of our Highlands and has years of racing and riding adventures under her belt.

Kerry is a voluntary director for the awesome Dirt Divas, and a member of Bike Trossachs CIC, the group behind the destination brand Gravelfolye.

When - Thursday 29th August. 1900 -2100

Where - Peel Tower, Glentress.

Cost - £5 donation to Scottish Mountain Bike Health Fund

Refreshments including some special HT550 snacks, will be provided on the evening.

We'd love to see as many folks as possible, join us for this special evening and to attend, we are asking for a donation of £5 per person.

All of the donations received for the evening will go straight to the Scottish Mountain Bike Health Fund. We are constantly trying to secure funding to enable our work to continue in this space and by donating you are helping us:-

• run more MTB & Mental Health (Trail Therapy) Programmes. Trail Therapy is our innovative intervention programme that seeks to use mountain biking in combination with more traditional therapy techniques to support those with a diagnosed mental health illness. The aim of the Trail Therapy programme was and is ambitious but we are continuing to progress the programme, rolling out to further areas across Scotland and donations to the Health Fund, help this work.
• get more women and girls riding through active leadership programmes we continue to look for ways to support more women into active leadership roles to provide role models for women and young girls. Currently working on new programmes for 2025.
• support more MTB disability hubs and increase the diversity of riders on the trails. We have started on this pathway with a new accessible leadership award and two leaders on hand bikes qualified to lead and a pathway for disabled tutors. Alongside our work in mountain bike leadership, by training MTB leaders feel more confident leading disabled riders allowing them to experience the trails. We are now also looking at how accessible destinations are to disabled riders and are in the process of a pilot programme in the Tweed Valley. But this is just the start and there is much more we want to do.