Over in the UK the Enduro scene has now got into full swing, the team at the Cannondale British Enduro Series headed over to Dyfi Forest in Mid Wales for their second round of 2016. This was set to be the tough one, with huge climbs and very rough technical and natural terrain to boot. Riders knew it was going to be a real test, but could they really have planned for such a true test of mental and physical endurance? We took the trip down to the outback town of Machynlleth to see what it was all about.
The weather all over the UK had been crazy for the weeks leading up to the event, riders really didn’t know whether to bring cold and rain kit or their coolest gear possible, as the climate changed like the mood swings of a meth head on cold turkey! On arrival to the town and large camping/arena field things were instantly impressive, the mass of EZ-ups sponsor flags, tape and barriers giving the whole thing a feel more of a DH World Cup event than a national enduro; immediately we were impressed! There was to be no practice of the stages on the Friday prior to the event, only foot inspection, but this definitely needed the aid of a vehicle and a huge amount of walking if a rider was to view all these stages; some of which were surprisingly dry on the Friday. Race director Si (Vladimir) Paton seemed real happy, with having ventured over to Mid Wales, knowing riders would love the trails and treat this as a real test of endurance and skill. Si likes to bark out the orders if must, but get to know him and he really is a nice guy, who is very concerned about getting this thing right for the racers to improve his series.
The previous first round up at Ae Forest had been plagued by terrible weather, which really did make it a testing and not too enjoyable event for the riders and organizers alike, Dyfi was forecast to be changeable weather and with four of the five stages being natural, riders hoped for a bit of nice weather. BES had used a new race format of three stages practiced then raced on Saturday, then three more practiced then raced on Sunday at Ae, but this was to see the return to the original UKGE format of practice all stages and seed one during Saturday, then race all on Sunday; with 50k and 1700 meters of climbing, it was set to be hard as hell.
The evening saw lots of riders doing the foot inspection of the seeding (number one) and number six stage, being the only track situated above the race village. This was pure fresh-cut loam and looked amazing, nice and dry, with (like the other trails) lots of manual work having been put in by the team to keep things rolling. This trail was all out in the open, meandering its way down through sparse plantations and lots of tricky roots and huge rocks. It looked like it would be the most fun you could have from a trail; unless it rained! Later that evening, like an evil plot from the powers that be, the heavens opened during Friday night and early Saturday morning, making things wet and slick; now it was going to be tough!
Come Saturday morning and all the exhibitors were set up, plus with the presence of Jerome Clements, Tracy Moseley, Joseph Nation, Marco Osborne and Dan Atherton it really was like an EWS; it was very pro and a field stacked full of real fast riders indeed. The rain had turned to drizzle and soon abated to keep itself at bay all day, as riders headed off through the town and along the streets, lanes and footpaths of the beautiful picturesque hometown of Dan Atherton. There was a seven-kilometer trek out to the forests and mountains of Dyfi (pronounced dove-ee for those who don’t know!) The locals forest trails all had one thing in common, they looked dense and very unforgiving; gnarly and tech definitely being the words to describe their characteristics. There were four separate stages to ride in the forest side prior to race day, each had one hell of a climb from the previous, but all of the three non-bike park ones rewarded riders with challenging terrain to test the best riders out there.
Stage 2
This along with stage 4 seemed to be the rider’s favorites, with some great techy flowing DH down through the forest. A fast section of straight hardcore trail sped riders up only to have to anchor up fast for an old-skool bus-stop marking the start to the top part of very technical rutted single-track through the trees. With the odd sneaky like to find more grip, a front spike tyre was worth its weight in gold through here! Corners got steeper and tight before riders were fired out at speed onto a fire-road for a slightly downhill sprin,t ready for faster more open tree-lined ridden-in stuff of which the flow was fantastic. Keep her lit down some fast stone turns and racers were treated to a final array off faster wide off-camber rooty steep turns through the trees to the finish, this trail really put a smile on riders faces even in the now slicker conditions.
Stage 3
Now this was a big stage even in the 2014 and 2015 UKGE, but extra had been added to the top, requiring a massive 1.5 hour jaunt out over the mountain from the bottom of stage 2; the views were fantastic, but the climb tested the strongest of legs! The new top part (cut out of the 2015 UKGE due to bad weather) was the most technical part of the weekend, as racers (including Dan Atherton) said it was pretty-much un-ride able. It was literally a test of staying power, riders having to scoot, feet out, hoping for grip on the steep turns and narrow rutted treacherous terrain of the first part of the stage. Once fired out and physically drained, racers had to gather their skills back to tackle the second part of the track, where corners were tighter than a ducks arse, but much more do-able for most. This upper second section then shot riders out onto a pretty long and tough pedally middle section of wide open whooped-out puddles of the old stone motorcycle tracks; head down, dig deep. The final section of dirt-bike track sped up to warp speed, as the huge whoops could be doubled by those who dared, hard on the brakes to hit another bus stop, more fast flowy trail, launch out of a quad track crossing, more speed and last section of straight line roots (off the brakes if you dared!) Back into a lovely final section of wide loamy, rooty turns to the finish, apart from the top bit, this was great fun too.
Stage 4
Riders were instantly up to top speed on this stage, as it started with a good gradient of DH stone trail, wide enough to give mega confidence at speed. At a high-speed bikes shot out and up a short climb of fire-road, easily undertaken at speed. More fast techy loam corners as tyres struggled for grip, then riders were yet-again treated to an array of loam and roots down through the forest, the type that needed balls of steel to not brake, holding speed on the tricky root-strewn turns being key to a successful fast run to the bottom; here too it was smiles all round.
Stage 5
This was the trail-centre stage, normally these could be frowned upon by the more core of tech riders, but all seemed to like the flow and speed it offered as a long trail, even the wide-open pedal in the middle seemed like fun, as it kept rider’s pace up at the high end with gears able to be kept in the lower part of the block. This trail didn’t really require much cranking, as pumping of all the whoops and humps seemed to be more effective than to lay the power down. Stage 5 was where many riders choosing the mud tyres may have had a few sphincter moving moments as those large nobbles struggled for grip, paying the small price for their use on the other stages.
Stage 1/6/Seeding
It was a long old haul back to the race village after busting out so many big climbs and physically demanding stages. The final climb up in the open hillside was just as tough, as even though it wasn’t as long, it featured riding along some soggy grass sections of field, draining whatever energy riders had left in the tank. Once up at the top and although it had stopped raining in the morning it was immediately apparent that it was far from dried out! A lot of riders made the decision straight away that the afternoon’s seeding was to be a two spikes affair as, what felt like perfectly grippy loamed corners the day before had become extremely difficult. Off-camber turns became slick and sent all but the best of riders firing out below tapes and some of the roots, rocks and drops just seemed so difficult to ride, mixed with a few uphill grinds and the long flat field sprint to the arena finish, this just about finished riders off; although they had to muster up enough energy to ascend the stage 1 transition one more time for seeding in the afternoon.
Seeding
Riders who had done the full loop, were starting to look a tad bewildered, climbing up for seeding one last time on the Saturday. It had been a big day for most and everyone’s legs were feeling it. The seeding stage was thoroughly lined with spectators and media types, cameras going off here and there, as riders did battle with the elements, trying to keep their wheels spinning in the directions they were aimed. As competitors entered the finish area to the sounds of music and the commentator on the PA, the excitement could not be ignored, each rider finished either looking strong or ruined, the more tired must have been slightly concerned about the big day ahead on Sunday. Dan Atherton had been a no-show for seeding and the following day’s racing, not doing much for the promotion of the Trek brand, he really must be over enduro! Jerome and Tracy however were their usual opposite end of that promotional spectrum, putting in great times to take category wins; Tracy even having crashed, straightened bars, put her Garmin in her pocket and still won!
Sunday
After a day of things slowly starting to dry out, Saturday night saw more rain until early morning, when eventually things dried out, resulting finally in warm sunshine for the afternoon, this was to be a double-edged sword, as although it made for a more pleasant day, it also made for very hot climbs out in the forest, draining riders of that much needed energy. Trails had dried up a fair bit, with stages 2, 4 and 5 becoming lots of fun to ride in the tackier conditions. The previous evening had seen the very hard working trail builders flat-out trying to scrape out some kind of lines in the top of stage, but really this top part should have been ditched, as even Jerome said he had to scoot down it like a beginner! The rest of stage 3 ran fine and after all the tough evil natural terrain it seemed like a refreshing change to get up to some real speed over the stone man-made terrain of stage 5. Riders were dropping like flies as the day went on, only the strongest could survive, as energy levels were depleting from the massive two-day mileage, the heat and pure physical exertion of the stages. It was like a battle that only the strongest could survive, no one could have ever called it anything other than enduro, pure DH only skills would not pull a rider through this second day!
And The Winners Were
Youth – Cameron Chrisholm (Stephens Racing) Juniors – Jake Gilfillan. Hardtails – Oliver Watson. Women – Megan James (T-MO Racing) Grand Vets – Paul Barrett (Scouting For Trails) Vets – Andrew Titley (Bad Ass Bikes/Ergon/Maxxis) Masters – Hywel Silvester (Team Skene) Seniors – Lewis Summers (Stevens Racing) Elite Women Tracy Moseley (Trek factory Racing) Elite Males 1st – Jerome Clements (Sram/Team Cannondale) 2nd – Matt Stuttard (Two Two Gravity Racing) 3rd – Joseph Nation (Bergamont/Hayes Factory Team)
We caught up with Jerome at the end for a few words on his race over in the UK.
So what do you think about racing over here in the UK Jerome?
Yes it’s good, I mean the scene is strong, there are lots of fast riders and the tracks are pretty hard to ride, so it’s good training for me to come here.
Did you find the loop and the track tough today?
Yes it was hard, did you ride today?
Oh yeh!
So you know it was tough, I mean stage 3 was virtually un-rideable, I was paddling down the first part (laughter)
I’m glad you said that, if you were struggling, then we can all feel better about that first bit!
I feel that overall it was a nice track, a good mix with some great physical bits, technical fast rooty, loamy. That’s a good combination, but it was very long. I mean practice and race 50k every day, so I’m done now!
So are you back to Athy’s (Dan Atherton’s) tonight?
Yeh, I’m staying there tonight and tomorrow, then we take the ferry to Ireland after that, I will rest a bit over there, then be ready for the EWS. I came here for training and getting up to race speed again. It worked well, Matt Stuttart pushed me to my limits right up till the last stage.
So was Athy ill or was that the ‘official’ statement?
He was done, too tired, so he is saving his energy for Ireland.
Well thanks for that and the best of luck in Ireland.
Summing Up
Looking back, you could say it was maybe too big a loop and could have donbe with a feed station half way, but It was a real challenge to test rider’s grit and most riders did manage to get through it, all feeling like they really had achieved a massive feat on crossing that finish line. As our first attendance of the British Enduro we found it to be extremely professional, very well run and the work all the track builders had put in really is commendable. To compare the UK and British Enduro series together really doesn’t seem like a comparison worth making to us. They really are like chalk and cheese, the UK is all about the grass roots and the social, with our preferred mate’s race format. But the British is very structured, which itself is preferred by many a rider who wants that more EWS type feel to an event. We may have been expecting it to lack atmosphere with the strict structure, but that was not true, as although very tough, riders all seemed to have a good time and fun was still had.
Big thanks to Si Paton for hosting such an impressive (maybe EWS testing) event, all the track builders, marshals and more than anything, well done to the hardcore riders who made it round the whole two days of over 100k and 3200mts of climbing; fair play!
For more information on the series: Here
Full Results: Here
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Words: Photos: Doc Ward
