The Mountain Bike Leader Award Scheme – oroginally the SMBLA (Scottish Mountain Bike Leader Award) scheme – was developed by Scottish Cycling (SC – formerly the Scottish Cyclists’ Union) in cooperation with the Scottish Advisory Panel for Outdoor Education (SAPOE) in order to provide a framework and qualification for Leaders to deliver mountain biking as a safe and enjoyable sport and activity. SC and SAPOE bring together a broad base of expertise across recreational and competitive mountain biking as well as outdoor activities, leadership schemes in other activities and education. The course has been recognised by the Adventure Activity Licensing Authority (AALA) and by British Cycling (BC), the internationally recognised governing body for cycle sport in Britain for some years. Consequently, it has now been adopted by the whole of British Cycling as the benchmark award in all the home nations, and has now been renamed the MBLA (dropping the specifically Scottish tag) to reflect this.
Martin Digby is a member of British Cycling and a qualified Trail Cycle Leader under the Mountain Bike Leader Award Scheme (MBLA).
Details of the MBLA scheme can be found via www.britishcycling.org.uk/scotland/article/scst-scottish-cycling-smbla