Race Report | Rocky Mountain UK Enduro. Round 2 Triscombe
It was race time again for UK Enduro, on this occasion seeing the series heading down into the South of England to Triscombe in Somerset. This is way out of the usual stomping ground of Mid Wales, where organizers Red Kite Events usually hold their races. Triscombe is known for its great techy natural trails, of which there are many in the area, having been the site of other UK Enduro organizer’s races in the past. Could UK Enduro bring the goods with this round, proving themselves to be real contenders in the title of a true UK national series holder. Jim and his crew of core riders headed down to check out the action.
We arrived on the Friday to a very shitty wet day, but as we ended what seemed like an endless drive through the rural lanes of the Southern British countryside we were suddenly greeted by this amazing stately home, where the race village was situated. The house (still lived in) and it’s surrounding grounds and out-buildings was once a grand old boarding school for the more privileged children in life, showing old run-down signs of a very wealthy past. We were to stay two nights in the old dorms of the school, quite a cool but surreal experience, especially for one who got the big posh-school expulsion back in the early 80’s!
I had travelled down with the lads, Stu (2 day Elite winner of round 1) knew he wouldn’t have an easy run of thing with 300+ riders expected over the weekend, Sam Shucksmith and even EWS Ireland winning Greg Calaghan were here to take him on amongst many other elites. The banners were everywhere on approach to the arena and the main pit area was fantastic hard standing, right in the courtyard between the boarding rooms and the great house, it looked amazing. The issue of this series looking a tad underwhelmed had certainly been addressed with this round, as sponsors started to set up their spots for the weekend.
Thankfully Saturday saw the rain disappear and the sun was out for the rest of the weekend, doing a great job of drying up the trails as the hours went by. The place seemed pretty busy with riders out and about putting some runs down through the many 7 stages. All the stages were a real mix of tech, natural, rooty and fun. There was a couple of bits of steep rocky stuff and one bastard of a pedal along the stone bike-park part of stage 3, followed by some incredible tight, steep loamy turns. The amount of difficulty of the tracks was spot-on, testing all abilities and a lot of the kind-of stopper turns (featured to heavily at the previous round) had been ditched, favoring more speed and flow. There was some fresh cut stuff in amongst the trails which ended up working as trails dried out, riders looked to be having lots of fun, as more and more turned up, giving it much more of a national event feel. We were done practicing by 12 and got back to event HQ for a leisurely bite to eat and bike clean; well we did have a jet-wash!
We love the format of these races, a part of it many riders just seem to be so happy about, no start times, no having to ride with your category, just mates riding around together having a laugh then being timed on the stages as a bonus! We soon headed back up to one of the many pretty easy climbs of the transitions between the 4 stages to be ridden on day one, that is if you were a two day racer; some opting for the separate blind racing of the 7 staged Sunday only. We all said the same, about how you feel so good nailing the stages in practice, but come the first couple of timed runs and it just all seems to go out the window, as nerves easily seem to take away that feeling of power and suppleness on a bike! Our group of Saturday riders, myself, Stu Hughes, James Allaway, Gary Allen, Allan Pugh and Sonny Baston were having a great day in the sun; Sonny and Al spending a bit too much time on the floor than they had planned!
On arrival with our timing chips we were treated to instant results with no issues and the general feel was of success, with myself a comfortable 4th Vet, James 2 Master, Gary leading Grand Vets and Stu 3rd Elite, even having beaten Sam Shucksmith and Greg Callaghan in one stage; phenomenal!
In the evening after a good hot shower in the £20 per night dorms we hit the old school dining hall, where a great beef stew had been put on for riders, but being greedy buggers, we downed that then headed out into the nearby town of Taunton for a cheeky Nandos and to watch the highlights of the DH world cup, where mates Billy and Coop joined the crew, they were there for the blind racing the following day, both chasing the previous round’s podium finishes. We were soon in a local drinking establishment, where the pull to party was strong, but as some of us are now wiser and older, we refrained and headed back for a brew; oh how times have changed from the good old DH days!
Sunday saw the return of the two day racers and fresh arrival of the many one day competitors, the place was packed, finally giving the feel of a proper UK Enduro Series, we felt pretty happy for event organizer Neil, as his dream was coming true in front of our eyes; we just hoped the much busier Sunday could remain a success with the larger amount of riders. Stages 1 to 4 were to be open in the morning, then the following stages in the afternoon, but some bellend had decided to nick the timing chip reader from the top of the –paddally stage 3 overnight, meaning that stage had to be ditched, fortunately only a very few had been down it before its closure. It seemed like a lot more commotion throughout the day, as riders queued up for stages in the sunshine, all chewing the fat of previous runs and their experiences on or off the bike. Us lot were all going pretty well, putting in some good runs and thoroughly enjoying ourselves whilst putting the world to rights.
Finally we were at stage 7 after what eventually seemed like a big day on the bike, all be it a quite simple 800 mtrs of climbing and around 25k . James had hit the deck hard on stage 6 and was being carted off to hospital with a suspected fractured hip, this put a fair dampener on our day, but we carried on, trying to put his injury to the back of our minds. We were the last riders on the hill, we (like on stages 5 & 6) walked the track and ended up near the top with around 20 other riders; Greg Callaghan and Sam Shucksmith included. The taping on this stage was so minimal it could only be described as a free-for-all. There was a main rooty line of fantastic corners lining the woodland, but with the lack of direction from the tape, riders ‘special’ lines became more and more ‘special’ until it ended up one ridiculous straight line avoiding all comers and knocking at least 20 seconds off the stage time. We weren’t happy and with a group meeting decided to boycott that stage and do a big group train down to confront Neil about the situation at the bottom. The train was actually a real good laugh, except I got held right up then crashed after letting her rip!
To cut a long story short, Neil agreed to scrap stage 7, as it would have been unfair on other earlier riders if we started pinning straight lines to move up the standing by default only. After all riders had left the event, Stu and I went and had a good chat with Neil, and as a mag and riders who really want to support this ‘mates racing’ format we have spoken about continual support of the series as long as certain issues are addressed. Neil has promised tons of taping for future rounds to avoid this problem again, even putting out an apology to riders online, explaining how he will sort this in the future. We have to remember here that this is a sport still in it’s infancy, as is the UK Enduro, and as long as they are willing to listen to the riders and make changes for the future, then we are willing to work with them as a media partners in the future. Stu and I and two other guys have agreed to go and track walk on the Fridays from now on as official track inspectors to help make this series grow, as we have real confidence in it as a whole.
As for the racing itself, winners in Sunday’s blind racing were: Grand Vets- Simon Vernall, Vets- Guy Cobbe, Masters- Kye Forte, Juniors- Jack Davies, Elite Women- Becky Cook, Elite Men- 3rd Chris Keeble Smith, 2nd Andrew (Cuprinol) Cooper, 1st Rowan Sorrell. And in the two day racing winners were: Women- Sarah Crellin, Grand Vets- Gary Allen, Vets- Tim Ponting, Masters- Si Wakely, Seniors- Charles Jones, Juniors- Mason Pritchard, Elite Women- Katy Winton, Elite- 3rd Rob Newman, 2nd Sam Shucksmith, 1st Greg Callaghan.
Apart from the balls-up in stage 7 we (like most of the racers) had really had a blast, we took home some podiums a very bruised (in the end) hip and me one off in 4th. We look forward to the next one, and with riders like that of Greg Callaghan, Katy Winton, Si Wakely, Kye Forte, Sam Shuksmith and Rob Newman showing, it would seem to be dropping it’s reputation of races just for the grass roots riders, which can only be a good thing.
Full results: here
Event Website: http://www.mtb-enduro.co.uk
Words | Jim Buchanan Photos | Dan Wyre, Jim Buchanan
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