Jules Fincham
Trainer and Assessor for British Cycling, Scottish Cycling, Cycling Scotland MTB Leadership Awards
Cycle Wild Scotland is now into its 19th successful year as the popularity of mountain biking continues to grow worldwide. The driving force behind the company is Jules Fincham.
Hailing from the flatlands of Essex, Jules became a mountain man, first through rock climbing, then as a ski instructor. This led to him becoming a multi-discipline tutor at Glenmore Lodge, Scotland’s National Outdoor centre, where he trained and assessed leaders in climbing, mountaineering, kayaking etc for many years. In the late 90s he became the first MTB tutor at Glenmore Lodge and set up the now thriving MTB department at the centre.
With his experience and lifelong passion for learning and coaching, Jules continues to be one of the top MTB coaches in the UK. Known as the coaches’ coach, he loves his work as he passes on leadership, coaching and biking skills to new generations of bikers, year on year.
A tutor with British and Scottish Cycling, he has been instrumental in the creation and continued development of the British Cycling awards.
Jules is also a tutor and quality assurance assessor for Cycling Scotland, a Scottish Government initiative to encourage biking in all its forms. The scheme provides a suite of awards, including Bikeability Scotland and GO MTB, a multi-level proficiency awards system for mountain bikers.
With his reservoir of experience and knowledge, Jules is also much in demand as a technical advisor on biking for public and private sector organisations, including several local authorities, schools and outdoor centres.
Chris Gibbs
Trainer and Assessor for British Cycling, Scottish Cycling MTB Leadership Awards
A one-time student and protege of Jules – he attended his first Cycle Wild Scotland course on a borrowed bike – Chris has become probably the best qualified MTB tutor in the UK, having recently become the only BC tutor who is also a fully qualified European MTB Guide. One of the busiest and hardest-working guides in the world, when he isn’t training and assessing mtb leaders, he is guiding clients and colleagues in adventure trips in the high mountains across the globe, from Scotland to the Himalayas and High Atlas ranges.
Given his experience and knowledge of the current issues and technologies in mtb guiding, Chris is particularly well qualified to pass on those resources to others, particularly at BC Level 3.
Passionate about pushing the mountain bike guiding industry forward, he is constantly working to shape the future of MTB leadership qualifications.
Also an experienced bike mechanics tutor, Chris can advise and train others on everything from equipment to indexing, to coaching and big mountain guiding.
He is now using his hard-won knowledge, experience and skills to design new courses for leaders and individual bikers, such as the new Trail Mechanics for MTB Course.
Emily Greaves
We are delighted to welcome the newest member of the team, aspirant (and soon-to-be) tutor Emily Greaves.
Lisa Fuchs
Lisa is pretty much the command centre of the business. She’s happy to advise on the different courses and also on practical matters for your trip. As long as things don’t get too technical she should be able to help you with any questions or concerns you might have about the different awards and the courses we run. As Keeper of the Cycle Wild Scotland Diary, she can also help with logistics and programming.
Victoria Gibbs
Coming soon – a bio of our social media wizard.