Festival Column: TweedLove Bike Week

In a national survey in 2005, listeners to BBC Radio 4's You and Yours programme voted the bicycle as the most significant invention since the 1800s, miles ahead of the transistor, the computer and the germ theory of infection. Whether or not you agree with the results, there's no denying the fact that a large group of people with a common passionate interest helped bring about this result – this country is full of cycling nuts it seems.

Between 11 & 19 June, Tweed Valley in the Scottish Borders will play host to another outpouring of cyclophilia; for there takes place the annual Tweedlove Festival, 'a week of bike riding and good times.' A busy programme of both free and paid events has been drawn up to cater to cyclists of all levels of enthusiasm. Some of these involve little more than family-friendly gentle meanderings through some spectacular scenery (for example, the Skinny Tweed, 12 Jun), whilst others, including The Glentress Seven, 11 Jun (A seven-hour endurance mountain bike event combining the best of the man-made and natural trails with loads of normally off-limits tracks and some specially built sections), are for serious aficionados.

The festival finishes up with Crank It Up, a gig in Peebles Burgh Hall by near-local boys Frightened Rabbit (with The Filthy Tongues) designed to raise funds so this pedal-fest can happen all over again next year. [Paul Mitchell]