Five Questions for Scot Tares
Scot Tares is the force behind the new tour company Skinny Tyres, who offer cycling tours and training in Scotland. Skinny Tyres trips are not just for anyone who’s training for a race, they’re also for anyone who loves to ride their bike and wants a unique cycling holiday in the heart of beautiful Highland Perthshire.
BICIKLO: You launched Skinny Tyres just over a year ago. What motivated you to start the company?
Scot: I had just come back from a cycling trip in the Alps and was out cycling with my club around Highland Perthshire. The sky was blue, the mountains were dusted with snow and the conversation turned to how lucky we were to have such a spectacular and diverse landscape in Scotland to cycle in. I felt I wanted others to experience this, so the seed of Skinny Tyres was planted. I was keen to offer something a bit different and I researched the various companies offering trips in Scotland. Many were offering mountain biking and shorter road routes, but there seemed to be a gap for the type of cyclist who wanted to ride longer and more challenging routes, perhaps for preparation for a sportive or event or purely, just for the love of cycling.
BICIKLO: You specialize in supported luxury road cycling, with a coaching aspect. Can you describe what riders should expect on one of your tours?
Scot: Many of the people who come on our trips are keen to improve their performance. We have guides who are Level 2 British Cycling coaches and who have a lot of experience coaching in clubs, racing and riding sportives. These guides are handpicked to get people who have a love of cycling and are committed to giving others to enjoy cycling in the same way. Our guides will support with on-ride nutritional advice, training tips and techniques and improving performance and skills.
We also want to ensure that riders come on our trip and can concentrate 100% on turning the pedals, whilst Skinny Tyres will take care of every other detail, from washing bikes at the end the ride to carrying extra clothing, spare wheels etc in our support vehicle during the ride.
Our trips also include post-ride massage, all meals and accommodation at the best accommodation in the area with Spa and leisure facilities where available. We also provide vehicle support and guides during each ride. On various trips, we also provide yoga for cyclists, bike maintenance workshops and biodynamic bike fit sessions.
The aim of Skinny Tyres is to provide a complete and holistic cycling-based holiday for riders.
BICIKLO: You also have Ladies-Only tours. How do they differ from your mixed-gender tours?
Scot: A lot of feedback we have had from female riders on our trips is that they want to be able to meet other female cyclists and spend time talking about cycling in a way that is important to them. All our trips are open to anyone that can ride a bike, but many women relatively new to cycling have said that they often feel a bit intimidated booking on a trip that they expect might be filled mainly with male cyclists.
We are also providing trips for various cycling clubs and this includes the Hervelo Club in Edinburgh, a ladies-only club with a large membership. On these ladies-only trips we can tailor the route, ride and other activities to suit exactly what the female rider is looking for. An example of this is we were asked to be able to provide various spa treatments at the end of a ride, rather than a sports massage. We also found that the ladies-only group were more open to doing “Yoga for Cyclists” workshops than their male counterparts might have been.
However, although these trips are tailored to the female cyclist we do not skimp on them putting in the miles. Ladies-only trips still present challenging rides with stunning routes and big climbs.
BICIKLO: Can you describe what kind of terrain cyclists can expect in Scotland and the Perthshire area?
Scot: Scotland is a cyclists’ heaven. A lot of the roads are virtually traffic-free in July and August, and even during the height of the tourist season, the roads are relatively clear of traffic. What marks Scotland as a great cycling destination is the variety of terrain. You can cycle from east to west and go from rolling lush green valleys to long glens of deep lochs and forests, to open moorland and then into the towering peaks of the west coast and you can do this all in a 60 mile ride. In Highland Perthshire there is a huge network of approximately 1000 miles of road. This network covers everything from flat and rolling terrain to long mountain climbs. For our trips based in Aberfeldy, there are 6 major climbs between 3 and 4 miles in length, within a 10 mile radius.
BICIKLO: You’ve won the Scottish Enterprise Tourism Innovation Award. Can you tell us about that?
Scot: The Scottish Enterprise Tourism Innovation Award is supported by the Scottish Government and Scottish Enterprise. It awards new businesses that the judges feel are innovative in their approach to encouraging tourism in Scotland. The judging panel were impressed with Skinny Tyres’ approach to cycling holidays, by including the coaching and support aspect. Scotland has a reputation as being an outdoor sport enthusiasts playground and they felt Skinny Tyres was building on the success of events such as the Etape Caledonia sportive that attracts 4,500 cyclists to Highland Perthshire every year.