In what seems to be an ever expanding range of MTB race formats, one series may have just nailed exactly what is needed to test today’s All Mountain bike rider. Get around a large course in your own time, and then give it all you’ve got in the interesting bits. Ladies and Gentlemen, the UK Gravity Enduro has landed. (www.ukgravityenduro.co.uk)
This is a new series for this year, which involves a 30km(ish) loop, with five short timed sections. You pedal to each stage at a fairly sedate pace, then fire down the timed sections as fast as you can. The shortest time overall is the winner.
This format of racing is certainly not new, but previous attempts at this in the UK have been plagued with timing issues, giving a reputation for exciting riding, but ultimately not knowing who was the fastest. And that is the point of racing isn’t it...?
The series is spread over five rounds, and began at Ae Forest in Dumfriesshire. This is where I come in.
Having been riding for some years, I always felt that the magazine articles you read about ‘give racing a go, you’ll like it – honest’ were directed straight at me. After a couple of false starts in previous years (snapped frame two days before last year’s Enduro Avalanche for instance) ), I was becoming impatient to find the right event to have a go at. It was whilst out riding with Pappa Bear David Beeley that the UK Gravity Enduro first came to my attention. Web sites were perused, fees paid, and the date was set; Ae Forest, 7th & 8th May.
Turning up at Ae, the pits looked great, and there were plenty of racers all busy setting up tents, and turning this corner of the forest into Gravity HQ for the next two days. There wasn’t any shortage of riders (about 300 entries in total), and Saturday morning brought signing on, and the ceremonial installing of a number board. I have to say that for a previous non-racer, this was both exciting, but also nerve inducing. The best thing for quelling nerves though, is a bike ride, so off practising I went.
Qualifying was quite intense, using Ae’s downhill course, plus some ‘off piste’ sections to create a five minute run back to the pits. It would have been easy to feel ‘under-biked’, but it is amazing how a running clock gives focus to your riding, and despite a few off’s, I got to the bottom in a reasonable time.
Sunday morning, and woke to heavy showers, after sleeping through a thunderstorm. Race day was to be a very wet experience.
Pedalling up for the start of stage one, there was that eerie calm before the storm type feeling as the sun had a go at shining, and other riders began using classic’s like ‘I’m sure it will dry out a bit’ and ‘glad I didn’t put my mud tyres on’. Oh Dear.
Pretty exposed at the top of the drop-in for stage one, which for those who know Ae, was the Shredder. This should have been a good ease-in for a novice racer, but I was about to learn lesson one in the racing rule handbook; if the rain is god-awful, don’t even bother with eye-ware. I spent the entire run trying to see through steamed up, rain soaked bins, and couldn’t commit to full throttle as I simply could see where I was going. Lesson learnt, glasses stowed away for rest of day.
Pedalling to each consectutive stage, you tend to end up in a gaggle of riders, nattering about stages, or bikes, and generally picking up all kinds of useful tips. I’ll probably mention this more than once, but there is definitely a feel of camaraderie in these events, and all your fellow competitors want to see you cross the line. You get the feeling that no rider will get left to the mercy of a mechanical, or any other mishap.
As the stages pass by, you definitely start to feel the effects of pedalling your bike about constantly for two days. Ae is more spread out than you think, and as you pedal from stage Four to the final run on that downhill qualifier again, an impending sense of doom couldn’t be helped. Everyone was quiet with their heads down.
The final run down the same stage as the previous days qualifier, was a test of technical skill, stamina and commitment. It began with BIG rocks and rock lined ruts which gave the crank arms a good bashing, then progressed into faster, steeper sections, then finally onto the homemade off piste sections. These were a real test after weekend ends worth of rain, and several hundred bikes had pummelled the ground into a gloopy mess with no obvious line. This doubled with being bloody knackered meant reaching deep into the resolve reserve.
All in all, I had good run (after a bit of good old shouting ‘encouragement’ at myself), but the mud had me off more than once. I wasn’t on my own though. The final run over the line was probably the most satisfying thing I’d ever done, and without trying over dramatise my race report, the sun came out just as I was crossing the line.
165th Overall, out of 229 riders. Pretty pleased with myself for the first attempt, but quite easy to see where I could have made time. The end result was that I am more focused than I can ever remember, and as it is part of a series, there is always another event to use a training goal. I love Mountain Biking.
