TweedLove organisers hope bike festival will take place in September

Organisers of a popular cycling festival in the Scottish Borders have announced their season of events have been postponed due to coronavirus restrictions,

TweedLove Bike Festival has taken place in Peebles for the last nine years and contributes over half a million pounds to the local economy.

A diary of events were set to take place next month to celebrate the festival's tenth anniversary, but the outbreak has put a pin in many Borders events.

Neil Dalgleish, from TweedLove Bike Festival, said: "Bike events are really important to the Borders and Tweed valley economy now, over the last ten years our events alone have brought in something in the region of ten million pounds of economic benefit to the area, if you add that to the other events its a significant part of the economy."

  • Neil Dalgleish, TweedLove Bike Festival

It's hoped the event will be postponed and not entirely cancelled. Neil continued: "2020 is a huge year for us, it's ten years since we started and we've been gearing up for the last six months to build a festival party to celebrate ten years of TweedLove.

"So hugely disappointing but we understand of course - that's how it is and we all have to play our part in fighting this awful situation. We really hope that it can go ahead in September and we can still enjoy it. "

Credit: PA

While the lockdown has forced the postponement of the TweedLove festival, it has been credited with a huge rise in interest in cycling - either as an alternative to public transport, or a safe way to exercise while still obeying social distancing restrictions.

Nick Tanner owns a bicycle shop in the area. He said: "We're seeing a full spectrum of people coming in. Those that have pulled the bike out the shed that they haven't seen for twenty years, because they've been reminded that it's a great way to be active.

"There's so much in the way of biking that's available to us, we're very fortunate and people are looking out of the window and saying --"oh this is quite a special place and let's get out and go and enjoy it."

  • Nick Tanner, bike shop owner.

Organisers hope the event will go ahead in September, but only time will tell whether social distancing and large gathering restrictions will still be in place.

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