Liam Scott
Chris Ford
Chris Ward
John Allen
James Richards
Jon Bardgett
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About Us - Guides
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“The Company creates the skeleton of a great holiday. The guides put flesh onto this skeleton, give it form and bring it to life for the benefit of our clients. That’s why we only recruit the very best.”
Chris Ford, Director of CycleActive.
Our guides know how to lead, instruct and run courses or holidays like no-one else. Every guide has high level qualifications and many are leaders in their field. Why is this important? Because gaining qualifications brings them new skills and experiences but even more important it shows dedication to becoming and remaining at the top of their profession.
They also work alongside other guides, local to the countries we operate in. Having good local staff who know about the culture, the people, the places that you’ll visit is all vital too. These guides often become your window into the life of the region and we take as much care in choosing our local contacts as we do in choosing our main leaders and instructors.
We are very proud of our team and we hope their brief CV’s below will show you why. It should go without saying that they’re also a great bunch of people who you’ll really enjoy travelling with!
Liam Scott
An impressive leader, with a raft of qualifications including the all imp or tant SMBLA Mountain Bike Leader Award, and a Masters Degree in Outdo or Education.
Liam developed the Trials to Trails course with Chris Ford and they co-wrote the series of four features for What Mountain Bike Magazine by the same name. He even managed to get himself on the cover!
Liam is a regular leader on CycleActive trips and throughout 2006 he’ll be running our skills coaching sessions for adults and children at the Merida 100 Marathon events.
Chris Ford
Chris is a senior SMBLA Tutor and has 15 years of bike expedition experience, 10 of which have involved him in leading tours all over the World. He’s studied skills development and is a regular writer on the subject for What Mountain Bike magazine. He is also an influential campaigner for the rights of cyclists, advising Cumbria Tourist Board and Cumbria County Council on a variety of bike related issues.
One of Chris’ main roles is to find and plan new trips – it is his knowledge of tour planning (and his many contacts around the World) which brought such greats as the Tahoe Rim Trail in California and the summit trail on Tullu Deemtu in Ethiopia to a UK audience.
Chris Ward
Another SMBLA qualified leader with a strong background in the outdoors, Chris spent several years working for Outward Bound at their Ullswater centre in The Lake District. As with many of our guides he has a range of qualifications and considerable practice at coaching and guiding, both on and off the bike.
Chris spent years in the military before moving to outdoor education, and his experiences around the World have made him the calm, unshakable character we know and trust. His style is anything but militaristic though – a favourite on courses for novices, Chris has a warm and encouraging style which really helps people get the most out of their biking.
John Allen
New to our team for 2006 John comes with an excellent pedigree as an Adventure Racer and Adventure Race trainer. He’s been navigator for his own race team for years and has a long string of race successes in the UK. Two years ago he started training others – teaching them how to succeed at these demanding events.
John is also a qualified Mountain Bike Leader through the SMBLA, and his combination of strong team skills, great leadership and expert mechanical abilities will see him leading many UK and international tours in the future.
James Richards
The newest member of the team, James is already making a name for himself as a skilled and highly enthusiastic leader. He’s just finishing his Mountain Bike Leader training with the SMBLA, and shows incredible natural talent as a leader and educator.
James studied Outdoor Pursuits and Leadership at College, but before working in this field he worked extensively in the bike industry, first for Orange Mountain Bikes, then Pace Cycles then finally Biketreks of Ambleside. He rode and raced for Orange and is an accomplished XC and Downhill mountain biker.
Jon Bardgett
Jon is a qualified Mountain Bike Leader through the SMBLA, but perhaps his greatest experience is as a mechanic for the Saab Salomon International Adventure Racing Team. Flying all over the World with one of the greatest racing teams on the planet right now, Jon is responsible for keeping bikes working – across deserts, mountains, jungles or wherever the race may take them. In 2005 he also spent a week guiding mountain bike rides for the British Winter Olympic team in the mountains of Austria, as part of their cross-training.
Jon is also a highly experienced teacher, and has spent over 20 years working in education of some form or another. In 2006 he will be the main tutor on the CycleActive Fix and Ride weekends – no-one could be better qualified for the job! |
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