With the 2014 race season on it’s way out and the Autumn fully upon us in the UK, Chris Roberts took the brave decision to have one last late-season finishing Mini-Enduro. Being held the weekend after the clocks went back an hour, we weren’t going to be treated to a long day of sunshine that’s for sure, but this really has been an unusually warm season, meaning the race was filled beyond capacity.

One crammed van
One crammed van

The usual one-day format was on tap, practice the four stages on Sunday morning (1&4 being used twice) then race through the afternoon. We (like many) chose the Saturday for full practice too, as we all headed down to the fantastic loamy natural woodland of The Forest of Dean. Chris promised more fresh-cut natural tracks cut out for our delight, I opted for spikes whether it was going to be wet or dry, the big 160 Alpine traveling down with a bunch of us for it’s virgin race.

_DSC3254

The 160 was at home in the  UK mud
The 160 was at home in the UK mud

On arrival the place was unbelievably busy for November, and after a couple of days of rain the sun had got it’s hat off, making for very unusual T-shirt riding weather all day Saturday, perfect! It’s not a massive hill, so stages are pretty close together and quite quick to reach each summit. We were just a bunch of good mates, Coop, Myles, Doose (he hadn’t raced for 15 years!) Dion, Vini and James. The atmosphere was just so chilled and the vibe was perfect, this group contained no uphill racers or whinging nob heads, a perfect way to end a season! The trails, all being peaty, rooty and slightly damp, were running perfect, the new sections ran well, with some tough off-camber on stage 1/4 and a fantastic new steep loamy section used near the end of stage 2. We managed to section all the stages once, then get in a complete run of each one again, everyone’s confidence growing by the hour

Myles was at home in the tech mud, 7th Vet
Myles was at home in the tech mud, 7th Vet

Day over and we headed off to our digs (Sarah’s Place) a huge house in the middle of the wooded countryside, a place we all look forward to nearly as much as the racing, home-cooked dinner and breakfast and the warmest of welcomes, we even sampled the local ale house that night, well it is the end of the season! Why is it that the time you shouldn’t be drinking is always when you want to get drunk the most? After a good night’s kip, a huge English breakfast and enough tea to sink a ship we headed back over to the trail centre. It had been raining, and I don’t mean a bit, it had hammered down all night, still drizzling on arrival, I felt quite privileged to have the Dirty Dan on the front, people were changing tyres left right and centre, after a run down the off-camber section of stage 1/4 I should have put a spike on the rear too but couldn’t be bothered, dumb mistake!

_DSC3175

Although the rain had stopped, the tracks were so much harder to ride, especially the flat pedally sections, it took everything out of you just to keep moving in some places, I was dreading having to really try on these bits in the race. In about the last hour of practice the heavens opened and we all got a good soaking, as did, the already mucky stages, turning them into mud baths in places.

One thing you're always guaranteed in the UK, rain!
One thing you’re always guaranteed in the UK, rain!

The racing was soon under way, the rain stopped again, but the damage had been done. The long top pedally bit of stage 1 was such a drain, I mean a massive lung buster, meaning you hit the trickier stuff gasping for air and short on energy. When I got to the bottom I just slumped on the bike, gasping for air for several minutes, at least I’d tried, I came in fastest Veteran on that stage, that was great, but like others I so didn’t want to have to do that again in stage 4. It soon became apparent our hopes were addressed, as stage 4 was cancelled, due to the shittyness and obvious up-coming lack of vision in the trees as time went on. Stage 2 still had some tough pedally bits, with the steep loamy section becoming one long rut, almost impossible to ride clipped-in. I rode it ok, but knew it wasn’t a race winning run, as was my run on stage 3, adding to this was a crash, loosing valuable time. ‘Oh well, there goes the win’ I thought, knowing that to beat a rider like Andy Sadler you can’t afford to make one mistake.

James Keen, 1st Junior
James Keen, 1st Junior
Rachael Gurney, 1st female
Rachael Gurney, 1st female

At the end of it, started a big clean-up operation for us, jet-wash out and blast off the Orange, the added bonus being absolutely no worries about killing bearings, time to see how we all did.

I sure was blowing after the muddy pedally sections
I sure was blowing after the muddy pedally sections

Rachael Gurney took her 1st win back since injury upon her Long Term Test Juliana bike, proving it’s worth. James Keen (MDE) proved the fun day’s riding with us paid off with his win in Juniors. Zealous Bike’s Paul Mackie took the Hardtail win, as did Super Veteran’s rider Paul Jacobs with his top spot. I could only manage a 3rd after my crash, 2 spots behind the machine that is (Bad Ass Bike’s) Andy Sadler then Simon Comer. The huge Master’s category saw Oliver Mckenna get the win over Joe Finney (Bad Ass Bikes) and UKGE’s Charlie Williams. Pro-Am saw 5 riders take to the stages and with his 1st win of the year Pat Cambel Jenner (Ison Distribution) blasted through, the day before an ‘end of season’ operation, Tobias Pantling 2nd and Oliver Morris in 3rd. Best result of the day for us lot was that of our Coop, 1st Senior, 4.8 secs ahead of UKGE 2nd overall Rob Newman and our Vini took the 3rd spot. Coop would have posted 3rd Pro-Am with his time and to say he was pleased with himself is a real understatement! So out of the six of us who travelled down, 4 took podiums (one being Sandy Plenty, 3rd Hardtail) not a bad brag to take back to Shropshire with us!

Charlie Williams, 3rd Master
Charlie Williams, 3rd Master
Andrew Titley, not his day
Andrew Titley, not his day

Full results here-http://www.scribd.com/doc/245296105/Mini-Enduro-FoD-Nov2014

Big Thanks to Chris Roberts for the organization and races over the season

Word: Jim Buchanan Photos: Doc Ward


Did you enjoy this article? If so, we would be stoked if you decide to support us with a monthly contribution. By becoming a supporter of ENDURO, you will help secure a sustainable future for high-quality mountain bike journalism. Click here to learn more.