2015 has been a fascinating year for mountain biking in these parts. There’s been a real change in the way mountain biking has been seen which is in no small part down to the way we’re increasingly going about things: organised, united, responsible.

In the last year local groups have seen some real landmarks – Ride Sheffield’s opening of the Lady Cannings track has been a great springboard to launch another crowd funder up the road at Redmires and of course their Steel City DH event was even bigger and better than before this year. Peak District MTB have built strong links with local landowners resulting in trusted relationships which have allowed them to do work on some of the Peak’s most sensitive trails; work which is laying the foundations of some very interesting conversations in 2016. Their work too in pushing Derbyshire County Council in regards to works on Rushup Edge has galvanised formerly opposed groups behind a single argument.

Further afield, Open MTB has emerged to fight our corner and has already made its voice heard with the Trails for Wales campaign.

For me? Well KoftheP is now at ~1400 members who care about how, when and where we ride plus a whole lot more. That is a fantastic show of community responsibility that has opened the door to a lot of those interesting conversations – thank you.

As I say, it’s been a fascinating year.

So what of 2016? Well already there are trail days lined up, events, plans, meetings with landowners and potentially some great developments regarding new trails. Local groups Peak District MTB and Ride Sheffield are working to do even more,  but as always they (and KoftheP) need your support!

Spread the word, join a trail day, chip some loose change into a crowd fund, email a councillor or simply tweet a ride update in. We can all do our bit.

So let’s all do our bit and make 2016 an even better year than the last 12 months.

Happy new year to all KofthePers. Thanks for your ongoing support.