New Glentress bike trails out of bounds until world championship

A long period of dry weather has made it difficult to complete trail resurfacing work

New bike trails in the Borders which will be used for the UCI Cycling World Championships will be closed prior to the event due to safety concerns.

The Glentress routes will host mountain bike races as part of events across Scotland in August.

Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) said dry, hot weather had made it difficult to complete trail resurfacing work.

It said that had resulted in the UCI team asking that the trails should remain closed prior to the event.

FLS added that it remained confident everything would be "ready to go" for the main event in two months' time.

Work has been ongoing for some time to prepare for the world championships

The world championships will run at various locations, including in Glentress near Peebles, between 3-13 August.

It had been hoped trail surfacing work could be completed to an "acceptable, sustainable standard" by early June.

• Countdown begins for cycling world championships

This would have meant riders could have tried out the routes to be tackled by the best in the world before the championships.

However, the decision has now been taken to keep them "under wraps" until the event.

The world's top riders will descend on the Borders for the championships later this year

Martin Page, FLS' south region visitor services manager, said: "We appreciate that this will be disappointing but we know that everyone understands how huge this event will be for the area and would expect everyone to respect the decision and help give the competitors an occasion - and a course - that they will never forget.

"Everyone involved is working extremely hard to pull this together and is intent on ensuring that these new trails are built to the highest possible standard, so that anyone visiting Glentress from September onwards will be able to experience the Glentress masterplan upgrades.

"We all want to ensure that Glentress' first ever appearance on the global mountain biking stage is a huge success and we would hope that local riders will lend their support."

The wider trail network at Glentress will continue to be accessible for several weeks, but the masterplan trails and taster tracks will now not open until September.