Dukes Weekender 2021: Aberfoyle & Trossachs Community Information.
Hi Everyone,
Hopefully you were all aware of the Dukes Weekender from our first two events in 2018 and 2019 year and that you had a good experience with it. After a COVID-related hiatus last year, we’ve decided to do it all again, albeit with a few updates!
On the 11th and 12th of September, the 3rd edition of The Dukes Weekender will be happening here in Aberfoyle and the surrounding forest. With things finally coming together for the event we wanted to give you all some background information and the weekend schedule. Our aim is to make it even better than last year and we’re encouraging as many locals as possible to get involved!
Early morning photo from 2019 from Phil Crowder
However, as with any major local event we also have some logistics to deal with and aspects of the event that will obviously impact on normal proceedings in the village and surrounding area. With that in mind we wanted to let everyone know the details of the event and the plans we have in place to accommodate both locals and visitors during the event weekend. We hope it doesn’t affect anyone to much and that the event is a positive for everyone in the community but if you have any questions then please do get in touch at info@dukesweekender.com.
BACKGROUND
The two of us making the event happen are Stu Thomson and Rob Friel, we're both keen local cyclists with young families living in Gartmore and Aberfoyle who decided on a ride at the end of 2017 that we should try and bring an event to Aberfoyle.
There were 2 main reasons for starting this challenge; Firstly as local cyclists we love the riding on our doorstep, it is truly amazing. We love showing it off and particularly the off-road riding that is less well known. Secondly, with so many locals getting involved in helping the community, lifting the village’s profile and the local businesses’, this is what we felt we could do to help the amazing revival that Aberfoyle is seeing. We felt that with our enthusiasm and contacts in cycling we could do something to try and bring new people to the area to enjoy it, spend money and hopefully come back in the future. So despite both having full time jobs and 4 children under 7 between us we decided to get involved!
So the Dukes Weekender was born... and 3 years on from the first event we’re delighted and proud of what the event has achieved.
This year the event will run over the weekend of the 11th/12th September. We do this deliberately outside summer season and make it a 2-day event so on the basis that participants come to the area and stay to enjoy the hospitality and ultimately it has a positive impact on the local economy.
EVENT VILLAGE - ABERFOYLE CAR PARK
One of our goals is to make an ‘Event Village’ in Aberfoyle. This is to make more of a ‘festival’ atmosphere for those not competing, allowing riders to bring friends/families to enjoy the day and also giving locals (kids in particular) some things to see and get involved with. Within this area we’re bringing an amazing kids pump track. If you’re not familiar with the term it is basically a small BMX track that will be available to kids and adults to ride all weekend free of charge (see the photos to get an idea of what is involved). We’ll also have a selection of demo bikes for people to try from Santa Cruz Bicycles, Cube and kids bikes from Frog Bikes.
In addition to this we’ll have several cycling brands (both kids and adult brands) who are travelling to Aberfoyle for the weekend to the event to get involved, along with displays, some products and fundraising for Trossachs Search and Rescue and Bike Trossachs. We are expecting/hoping for a significant number of attendees and spectators this year so the town will be buzzing… Please tell all your friends/family and get them along!
We also deliberately do not have any food/drink other than local businesses, so get involved and let’s get everyone fed and watered while they are here! Any Dukes Weekender specials from local businesses will be amazing to see so if there is something you’d like to support us with please get in touch, otherwise get ready to be busy!
In order to have enough space, we’re going to take over a section of the public car park behind the Forth Inn to create the 'Event Village'. This will be from the Saturday morning until the event finale on Sunday night. While we will be taking up some parking spaces in the car park to account for this we have made additional car parking arrangements across the river (details below) to account for competitors this year and allow the rest of the public car park for any other visitors to the village. The council are involved to assist with logistics and any redirections for vehicles/buses. If you have any questions please do get in touch though to info@dukesweekender.com
PARKING/CAMPING - MAIN CAR PARK & MANSE ROAD FIELD
As the majority of participants coming to the event are for the full weekend we’ve had to account for this with additional parking and also a few competitors on-site camping from Fri-Sun. Geraint has kindly allowed us to use his field across the river by Manse Road and the council have provided a permit for this. This will be used just over the weekend with Sunday likely to be the busier day and (as you may have noticed) we’ve been cutting the grass and preparing the area for this.
We will be issuing a letter to those nearby on Manse Road with all the details of our plans... We’re not anticipating large numbers to camp on-site however we felt in necessary to offer given this is very common with events of this type and local accommodation has filled up very quickly for the event. The camping area is being restricted to the north end of the field by the river and just for the one night, there will be toilets provided for those camping on-site. We will also be supervising the bridge crossing to ensure safe pedestrian access during busy periods.
ENDURA GRAVEL HILLCLIMB
Saturday’s main event is the hillclimb. This year we’ve moved the event from closing the road on Dukes Pass on to the NCN7, starting at the Allt a’Mhangam waterfall below The Lodge, running up the forest road and finishing at the crossroads a few hundred metres above Go Ape.
If you haven’t experienced the hillclimb before we’d absolutely love you to come along. The atmosphere is fantastic and the hill truly comes alive with a carnival atmosphere. There will be a coffee van, a bar and some music to help fuel you as you offer encouragement to riders as they try and coax more strength out of their legs. We’ll have around 350 riders of all levels competing (which makes it by far the biggest of it’s type in Scotland) and plenty of locals too so bring your rattles, cow bells, and all other noise-making devices (the more inventive the better) to help kick the atmosphere up a notch. The local primary schools have also designed some banners to display so come and check those out too!
We will try to send riders back down the same route to assist you in making a whole heap of noise, but if they’ve spent all their energy, we will be directing them from the crossroads to the Dukes Pass, so please be mindful that there may be increased bike traffic coming down the hill on the Saturday.
The hill climb route will be very busy from at least 3pm until 6pm, so if you planned on walking the NCN7 route or using it as a link to the rest of the forest, with or without a furry friend, then expect it to be very noisy and slow going. We’d maybe suggest picking a different route if you’d prefer a bit of calm for your late afternoon wander.
SUNDAY’S GRAVEL ENDURO
Sunday sees our ‘Gravel Enduro’, this is a primarily social event where riders ride 75km around the local forest. The route takes a figure of 8 direction with riders first heading north to Loch Venechar before coming back through Aberfoyle for lunch and then heading out south for the 2nd half. For the majority of the route participants will just be riding socially however the competitive element of the event comes in the form of 6 short timed stages at sections around the route. These will be well sign posted and we will have marshalls on hand.
Access wise there will be very little impact on locals. Due to safety reasons we'll be closing short sections of trails for the event on the Sunday only.
These will be:
NC7 cycle path running along the south of Loch Venachar from the 3 Lochs Forest Drive to Invertrossachs.
A short section of the Statute Labour forest road above Kinlochard
A section of the FLS Haulage route between High Corrie and Blairvaich
All other trails and forest roads remain open. The closest stage to the village will be out at Garbeg Hill, starting and finishing on the main Duchray road so if you're out and about then go and give the riders a cheer!
SCHEDULE: SATURDAY 11TH SEPTEMBER
10am-130pm Children's Enduro: Open to riders aged 8-14 we're giving kids a taste of 'Enduro'. A 18km loop heading out towards Cobleland, Gartmore and back to Aberfoyle. This will have 4 timed 'stages' where the kids will race as fast as they can. Details and entries on our website if you'd like to get your kids tired out on a Saturday!
All Day: Frog Bikes Pumptrack and Demo Bikes: As above the pumptrack and demo bikes (kids and adults) will be setup and run all weekend. This will all be free of charge and run all weekend from Saturday morning so bring the kids, family and friends down to try it out!
Endura Gravel Hillclimb 3pm - 6pm – NC7 route from waterfall below The Lodge: As above… If you didn’t get to see this last year then make sure it’s in the diary for this year… What an atmosphere! Bring your whistles/music/banners etc
SUNDAY 12TH SEPTEMBER
All Day- Kids BMX/Pumptrack and Demo Bikes: Again the BMX track and kids demo bikes will be available all day in the centre of the village so come back and let the kids try it out again!
9am - 6pm Gravel Enduro Event:
That about covers it we hope... thank you to all the locals who have been so supportive in helping us make this event a reality. We truly hope it is positive for the community, once it's all done and dusted we'll have a beer, gather some thoughts from everyone and see how it all went.
Cheers
Stu & Rob