Big Picture | The Muckmedden Forfar Funduro – Scottish Gold
As I cut left then right through the dry dusty singletrack I marveled at the unexpectedly amazing trail. A blind crest snapped into view but this was a ‘Fun’duro right – no danger? Surely there would be nothing too technical. Hitting the crest flat out I was suddenly aware that the ground had dropped away and I was in freefall! For the next few seconds after I reconnected with the ground and proceeded to merrily ride down the trail on my front wheel, I had some time to ponder over my predicament, “who would have thought this little hill in Angus would have such cool trails”, “this is quite spicy for a blind race” and “doesn’t the front wheel look big from an inch away”
After a cracking day at the Eliminator race earlier in the year, events maestro and head mucker, Aaron Muckmedden told me that if there’s one race that you do this year, make it the Forfar Funduro. I have to admit that despite living in Scotland for 5 years I had never been to Forfar, in fact I didn’t entirely know where it was, and I was even more dubious as we entered the event car park as the hill looked pretty small for an enduro, even a fun one.
However, the event was being hosted by the excellent Angus Cycle Hub and Muckmedden so I knew we would be well looked after. Right from the off the fun factor was being turned up to 11, with a live band blaring catchy tunes from the bandstand, and like a blast from my childhood a ‘hook a duck’ tombola stand. The beautiful park was bristling with riders setting up their bikes, catching up with old buddies and hunting for good coffee. This was to be a ‘funduro’ aimed purely at fun and giggles without the ‘checking out the completion’ carpark stares that have become all too common at other events. Any last ‘serious’ vibes were lost as three giant bananas wheelied round the grassy pits, this was going to be a great day.
The Forfar funduro was wrapped up inside the Angus Cycling Festival, run by the Angus Cycling Hub and many families were in attendance. It is great to see so many kids getting stoked on the sport, and the oganisers had put a lot of time into making the events as spectator friendly as possible.
After climbing to the top of the small hill, we were expecting a pretty pedally (may I say it boring) stage – well smack us in the face with a kipper as we could not have been more wrong. The trails were simply outrageous fun! Even though each stage was only around two minutes long, every second was filled with riotously good features, fast berms, big compressions, blind chutes and awesome step ups. It required maximum concentration to ride flat out, but could easily be navigated by someone new to the sport. They were the sort of trails you could happily ride all day, each time finding more flow while simply trying to hang onto it.
Stages One, Two, Three and Four were all to be repeated twice, once blind and then once again a little hotter. All featured amazing riding, from the surprise ledges and chutes of Stage One to the mind-altering straight line, tree-dodging racetrack of Stage Four. The team had obviously worked super hard, with huge wooden structures dominating some of the stages. The quarry terrain that characterised the lower half of the stages was filled with ‘sporty’ lines and shin whacking slate. There was plenty of pedalling to do at the start of Stage Two and Three too, and all out in the open so the queuing riders could witness your pedalling prowess, or your feeble efforts.
Stage Nine took the riders back into the main arena, and caught many by surprise with a couple of cheeky rocky drops, before a new wooden bridge that must have been built by someone with a good sense of humour, mercilessly firing you out on a bank that defined off-camber. After a delirious ‘enduro line’ sprint over an open corn field and a ‘thread the needle’charge over the bridge it was over…
But there was still more to come, and the best had been saved for last. Two by two riders lined up for the final dual slalom, one lap on each side. Descending into a busy arena, racers pedalled their socks off of to finish first on the fun stage. After the grassy slalom came a couple of grassy banks that could be hucked, and then a charge to the final ‘road gap’ booter.
While everyone tucked into post-race pizza the atmosphere was buzzing. We have done our fair share of racing all over the world, and second for second, we would happily agree that the trails in Forfar were a rival to the best of them, what a great surprise. While the rest of the enduro world was getting their fix from the Enduro World Series in Spain, something really awesome was going on in Angus. The team put on a great show.
Results
Full results can be downloaded here, thank you once again to the Angus Cycling Festival and Muckmedden for putting the fun back into endure, and we look forward to their next events, the Falkirk Fundro and the Fair City Enduro in Perth (entries can still be brought here)
Words:Trevor Worsey Photos: Cat Smith
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