Velodays News Archive

The UCAN MoG-JoG is Unveiled

October 09 -  Velodays are delighted to have agreed a partnership UCAN  This is an external link.to announce the creation of Scotland’s very own ‘end to end’ charity cycling challenge. The inaugural UCAN MoG-JoG will take place from 4-9 June 2010.  Keeping away from heavy traffic, the route takes in a combination of hills & glens and the great scenery you would expect.  Over 400 miles will be covered in four days, so this challenge will be a testing one.  Accommodation will be provided in a mobile ‘base camp’, with tents moved while cyclists are on the bike.  We are also delighted that this new initiative will be supported by elite wheelchair athlete Kenny Herriot.  Fresh from cycling coast to coast America, Kenny will lead off our inaugural event

 

 

Velodays Wins Award for Innovation

September 09 -  Velodays has been successful in an application to Scottish Enterprise for a Tourism Innovation Award This is an external link..  Scottish Enterprise supports innovative tourism businesses who exhibit new ideas and have a capability of bringing additional visitors to cotland.  Velodays made an application for support of approxiamately £8,000 for the development of our ground-breaking use of GPS technolgy to assist our self-led cycling tours.  This is match funding that, added to our own resources, will support further research and support from specialist tourism consultants.  There were 45 applications made and the Velodays project was one of four projects that were successful.  On 26 September, Neil Innes travelled to Holyrood in Edinburgh to receive a Tourism Innovation Award from Tourism Minister Jim Mather.  See the report in the Press & Journal This is an external link..

 

Etape Caledonia

May 09 -  We send many of our customers off to cycle through Highland Perthshire, but the boot was on the other foot on Sunday 17 May, as Neil Innes set off to join the 3,500 cyclists participating in the Etape Caledonia This is an external link., Scotland's showcase cycling event.  Neil spends rather more time running Velodays than he does cycling, so the 81 mile route (with cut-off time) was always going to be a challenge.  The event made the news headlines after a sabbotage attempt by a small minority of locals who resent their roads being given over to cyclists for 4 hours a year.  This is not a representative picture of local feeling and, like many other riders, I was struck by the number of locals that had come out early on a Sunday morning to cheer us on from the garden path.  In the end the race was concluded and Neil trundled over the line well before the cut-off time.  With all the attention taken by the protester(s), we would like to say well done to the event organisers who handled a difficult situation as well as they could have.  We just hope the event gets bigger and stronger as a result of a pretty tough day for cyclists and organisers alike.

 

The Irish Times 

May 09 - We were delighted to host two travel journalists for a cycling trip in Highland Perthshire in April.  Catherine Mack and Laura Burgess were brave enough to tackle a some of central Scotland's hills and the unpredictability of spring weather in Scotland.  Spring is a great time to get outdoors and Catherine's article published in The Irish Times This is an external link. on 16 May 09 illustrates that perfectly. 

 

New Website

May 09 - Our new website (yes, this one) has gone live.  The new site will allow a number of new tours and new services to be featured.  The website has been created by Sean Delaney and our thanks to Sean for all his help.  We encountered Sean when we sought some advice about Search Engine Optimisation - unlike most services there is a natural way to select a web consultant who nows a bit about SEO ...their website is top of the Google rankings!  Sean is a young technical genius who has started his own web development and consultancy business.  We have really benefited from his expertise and couldn't recommend him highly enough. See Freelance Web Design This is an external link.

 

Creating Scotland's Own End to End

April 09 - We don't really go in for politcal lobbying, but having created a route for Scotland's own End to End we decided to share the idea with Scotland's Tourism Minister.  Thousands of cyclist cycle the Lands End - John O'Groats route each year and while Mull of Galloway to John O'Groats might not have quite the same ring ...it has great potential to attract visitors to Scotland.  It shorter, more scenic and has quieter roads than it's big brother, so MOG-JOG has real potential to bring visitor to Scotland and to help motivate Scottish fundraisers to raise money for Scottish Charities.  All we were suggesting was a signpost at either end ...to signpost Mull of Galloway as well as Lands End.  The offical respone told us that the Scottish Government had 'no plans' to do this.  That of course was why we suggested it.  Doh!  You can find out more about Scotland's End to End on our Mog-Jog page. 

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