Round 5 – Lee Quarry 07.10.18

The final round of the 2018 PMBA Enduro Series was held back in England at a combination of Lee Quarry and Havok bike park. We all questioned the logic of holding a race in one of the most exposed trail centres at the end of the year, but luck held out and despite a cold wind the weather held out.Neither Lee Quarry or Havok bike park are really big enough to hold a full Enduro on their own, but combined they make for an excellent stage. Totalling 31km and 960m of climbs this was one of the longer rounds. With two stages in Lee Quarry, three stages at Havok and one at Coombe Quarry there was a wide variety of trail types.

Stage 1 – Singletrack DH – A brutal climb up to the top of the hill and stage one started from the top of the downhill stages. A smooth bit of track to start for whooping down the hill with lots of banked berms and pump sections (with optional double up), before taking a detour down the side of the hill. A short speed tuck along the access road took us along to some very slick switchbacks in a grassy field and then on to the final bit of trail centre single tracks that snaked through the trees to the bottom.

Stage 2- Janduro – Stage 1 dropped us back almost at the start, so once again we have to slog up the hill, this time up and over the moorland to the neighbouring Coombe Quarry. This stage was tough, as it was wet and muddy, and grip was difficult to find. From the start line we dropped in to a super narrow shelf before navigating a tight right handed turn. After that the pace picked up a bit as the track shot through the trees, with lots of small drops, senders and a step down to make it interesting. Then the nasty bit, a long steep rocky climb, which as far as I’m aware, everyone jumped off and ran up. After that it started getting run. A bit steeper with some rocky chutes and more muddy corners to finally challenge the skills. I bet in the dry this trail would be great fun, defiantly want to come back to this one.

Stage 3 – Beasted – and then the hard slog began. An hours trek across open moorland to get riders across to Havok Bike Park. Stage 3 started from the top of the park and made use of bits of the black and red trails. Diving from open moors in to the trees made it very difficult to see at the start. Probably a good thing, as if I had been able to see all the mud and roots I probably wouldn’t have gone so fast. After skiing down the red trail for a bit, it cut down the push up path and along a very slick grass access path before dropping in to the black trail. The mud had made this bottom section of gnarly roots a death trap in practice, but it had dried up nicely by race day and was flowing well.

Stage 4 – Havokaradabra – back up to the top of Bike park, and this time starting on the black trail. Like before this was rooty and muddy all the way down until it crossed on to the red trail. Here things got a lot more flowy, with a couple of big table tops, and gap jump before dropping in to what is known as mini-champery; which basically means any track which has crazy steep switchbacks.

Stage 5 – Ride Free – this time starting on the red trail centre, over a short bit of board walk, some more steep, muddy tree roots to navigate. Then things got surprisingly sketchy. A detour along a bit of access track had become extremely slippy in the wet and race speed. Any slight touch of the brakes, or even pedal strokes caused the wheels to slide, which resulted in me requiring to just speed tuck and try and keep it in a straight line. After cutting a new line through the trees riders were suddenly dropped in to the free ride park. Jumping skills were seriously put to the test as the awkward lines and slow rolling mud made it very difficult to hold speed. A final drop and optional wall ride marked the finish of this last stage at Havok.

Stage 6 – Lee Enduro – after a surprisingly quick spin down the road (considering how long it had taken us to pedal over the moor) we were back at Lee Quarry. One final push up the hill to the top of the downhill tracks and riders were on another flowy trail full of banked wall rides and sections to pump through. Then just as your body was feeling knackered came a technical steep and rocky chute. It was great that all the spectators had come out to watch this section, but made all the more nerve wrecking to see so many people there. Once you had survived this bit the track dropped on to the final jump line, and couple of tables and a hip jump and the track joined the same final sprint through the trees that was used on stage 1.

I knew coming in to this round that due to my previous results this year I was likely to take the 1st place overall in the series, but I’m just as excited that despite me feeling a bit slow and unable to handle all the mud I still managed to pull of a second place in the final round too. All in all a pretty amazing way to finish what has been a really challenging and fun series.

Round 4 – Kirroughtree 09.09.18

Despite having lived in Scotland for 12 years I had never actually ridden any of the trails at Kirroughtree, so I was looking forward to finding out what was on offer here. I wasn’t disappointed. Although the hills aren’t huge around here, there are lots of them and the elevation changes quite rapidly. Predominantly in forestry makes for lots of steep, muddy, rooty fun, despite that Kirroughtree also seemed to have more than it’s fair share of giant rock slabs to navigate.

Predictable, Scotland in September provided a varied weather with lots of heavy showers, overcast and warm, the occasional bit of sunshine, and some more torrential rainfall over night. So after a summer of riding dry trails it did feel like a bit of a challenge remembering how to ride in the rain.
This was one of the shorter enduros this year at only 18km and 467m elevation it didn’t take very long to get around, but I was really impressed with how much fun was packed in to the descents.

Stage 1 – Bruntis – A short and simple fire road climb to stage one meant a quick start to race day. Easing us in gently with some fast single track through the tree roots, some fun bits of trail centre and back on to the natural and slightly boggy single track. This certainly got the legs warmed up all although it had plenty of flow, you barely stopped pedalling from start to finish.
Stage 2 – Doon Hill – A tricky and rough start, dodging bogs through the trees for the top couple of sections, before an awkward corner to re-join the trail centre. Not that you could really tell what was trail centre anymore as the rain had bought all the mud out, and made it just as tricky. A completely natural bottom section to this trail, which was getting pretty cut up over the weekend really challenged the riders, especially with the fierce chicane taped in the middle to slow riders down towards the finish line.

Stage 3 – Syds Dell – This was the only stage of the day where I actually felt fast on. The furthest away from the race village resulted in one of the longest stages, but with lots of straight open sections it felt good to get off the brakes. A short uphill sprint on trail centre to start with, the track then started to get some good flow, with some great big rock slabs and gardens to navigate I was already grinning. After a minuet or two of this the track suddenly diverted on to a skinny fresh cut track through the grass, where you could really let the brakes go and the suspension work. It re-joined back on to the trail centre track with more little rock gardens dotted around. It might not sound like much, but it left me with a huge grin on my face.
Stage 4 – Lets get physical – Much like the rest this stage started in amongst the dense trees, tight and twisty, getting over some very polished exposed tree roots. A tight left handed drop caused a few issues to riders as the mud on this section was starting to swallow up wheels. Dodging the boggy sections and trying to keep it rubber side down on the tree roots was the challenge. This turned on to a fire road sprint (that always seems to last longer than you remember in practice), which then dropped in to the fresh muddy trail, which was forming big ruts, which seemed determined to trip riders up. You could either try and plough through the middle, or find outside lines on the grass and hope it wasn’t as sliddy. Even if you managed to survive all that, the final hair pin bend back on to a hard pack track had even the pros putting a foot out and paddling around it. The finisher to this stage was a slightly up hill slog on a narrow track which hugged around a steep hill side.
Stage 5 – Snap Chat – Without doubt my favourite trail of the day. The other 4 stages were really only a warm up for this epic finisher. Unfortunately a red flag held up racing for a little while, so by the time I got to the start line I had cooled down a bit too much, and found it difficult to tackle this tough stage. From the top of the woods riders navigated some steep, tight and twisty turns, which had turned into big muddy ruts over the weekend, and then down a steep chute to bomb our way through the trees. A few more tight turns through the trees and over a big drop that was sent to flat. On the pedals to cross over the fire road, dropping in and then back out a steep bomb hole. Another steep corner sent you head first towards a threatening stone wall, which required some last minuet manoeuvring to get round it, and hold you speed up and over the next off-camber corner through the trees (by this point I was knackard and completely failed to get up this corner, instead falling off and sliding around it on my back). In to some open grassland and yet another steep chute, followed by the second drop and more steep chutes, each one getting slipper by the minuet from all the mud being dragged down the hill.

I knew I had really struggled to find speed on these tracks all day long. But given that I typically don’t ride well in wet, muddy forest conditions, I was pretty happy with my riding on race day. At the end of the day it’s all about having fun, and challenging yourself, and that I certainly did. A solid 6th place (behind a couple of pros, and a local trail builder), I can’t complain about it after a great weekend racing.

Round 3 – Graythwait (The Epic) – 06.05.18

When I signed up I seriously underestimated just how epic this PMBA race was going to be, at only about 20km I was sucked in to the false sense of security that this is one of the shorter Enduros’ I have raced, until I realised it was 7 stages and 900m of climbs throughout the day. It wasn’t just the elevation profile that was full of highs and lows, emotions this weekend were just as all over the place. This wasn’t just Epic, this was Brutal.

Saturday morning started as most race weekends do, plenty of high spirits, the weather was good and forecast to get better over the weekend, so what could possibly go wrong? Practice day even went quite smoothly, although every single stage was as gnarly as the last, there was space to stop and session things, and I was feeling confident as I was hitting almost all the A-line options. Even the mud was giving good grip and sticking well. However ruthless the stages were, the transitions were even worse, the only time I managed to actually pedal my bike was on the accidental 5km detour along the road, because we missed the turning for stage 4. Every stage required a hike-a-bike back to the top, so I was feeling completely knackered after practice day, and had no idea how I was going to remember all seven stages and piece it together in to a race run on the Sunday.

By the time Sunday rolled around there were definitely some different attitudes around the event village. Some people were still really excited to race. I was looking forward to half of the stages, and knowing the other half were going to be a serious challenge for me, some people were just dreading the whole day, and some had either left or switched to the light option. Either way there was no backing out for me here, I wanted those EWS qualifier points.

So seven stages, that’s a lot to try and remember:

Stage 1 – Lemon Squeezy. This was supposed to be a quick fire warm up, and sure the fast rolling fire road was nice to feel like your getting up to speed, before crossing in to some fresh cut forest track, the top section had dried out a lot from practice and was running well…and that’s where the sense of confidence and security was lost where 300 riders had resulted in the off camber loam turning to slick mud, and before even the first stage was out the way, the feet were off the pedals looking for balance.

Stage 2 – Scorpion. I was loving this track in practice, and on a dry day, sessioning it with mates, it would be a lot of fun, however hitting it at race speed is terrifying, the roots were all polished smooth, and every technical rock garden and slab sent you straight in to a tight corner or a tree. To make matters worse half way down this stage my cleats and pedals decided to pack in resulting in not being able to clip in at all with my right foot, and only about 50% of the time on the left. Hitting those rough sections of track not being connected to my bike put the fear in to me, and despite looking forward to this stage all morning, it’s the first time ever I have finished a stage so scared and angry that I burst in to tears. After a lot of calming down and coaxing from my team mates and the marshal, I was ready to continue and determined to finish the race, even if it meant doing it on a strange balancing act on my cleats.

Stage 3 – Gary The Polar Bear. To me this felt like the little brother to stage two, much the same feel with technical rocky sections and tight bar end smashing trees to deal with (or in one case I thought it was a good idea to shoulder barge one tree – the tree won).

Stage 4 – Nicks Party Time. Hats off to the trail builders on this one, I don’t know that I have ever know a trail with a starting view quite as good as this one. However you don’t get long to enjoy it before once again the combination of slippy tree stumps and rocks caused every rider issues. I don’t know anyone who rode through this cleanly, and even if you did the sudden change in to boggy woodland was enough to cause you issues. I think I got about half way through this stage before I decided that this race was a write off, I even walked up the short climb rather than try and run or pedal because I was convinced it wasn’t worth it.

Stage 5 – Sublime Ride. By this point in the day I was simply determined to finish the race regardless of time or speed. This was arguably one of the better flowing trails. For the first 50m before I hit a bog and almost went over the bars, after deciding to avoid the switchback chute of certain death and opt for the B line, riders were then given two choices of tight and awkward routes through the trees which resulted in me tripodding it with one foot on the ground at almost every point.

Stage 6 – HDDN Gem. This sweet little trail (which had one of the most annoying transitions to get to it ever) was a great laugh, but only because it was one of those trails where you just had to say F*ck it, and hope you stayed on your bike. I actually enjoyed this trail more than I expected, as I had really struggled with it on practice day. This might be because I had intended on taking a B line at one point, and I came upon it so fast in the race that I ended up hurtling down the A line and surviving, up unto I hit the flat bog half way through. My in ability to clip in to my pedals was difficult enough when I couldn’t get my weight centred correctly over the rough terrain, but in the bog it was even worse as when I went to pedal forward I just fell off the bike (at this point I would also like to apologising to the family who was spectating, in and effort not to turn the air blue with my swearing I ended up just grunting at them).

Stage 7 – Sadists Surprise. Well that’s a mean trail to finish on. It starts so promising with a super fun, rocky, trail through the trees, and even though a large part of it is climbing through the trees, it’s just technical enough to be interesting, before popping out the trees in to some more, fast single track. However then the trail lives up to its name, this wasn’t just a climb, this was a full on hike-a-bike in the middle of a stage. However, with the promise of the finish line just the other side we pushed on and speed down the grassy banking and back in to the race village.

I can safely say I have raced some brutal trails, in some harsh conditions, but I have never been so emotionally tested like this before. Managing to produce tears and laughs, frustration, anger and joy. This race caused everyone a lot of issues the whole way round, with no one making it through unscathed. That’s why (despite almost giving up twice) I was incredibly surprised to find myself not only on the podium but also in first place. After that epic enduro, I’m certainly feeling better about how the rest of the race season is going to go.