POC SCOTTISH ENDURO SERIES #3 – GLENLIVET
You may not know this but Tomintoul is home to the world’s largest bottle of Single Malt Whisky, a 105.3 L bottle containing 5250 drams. Impressive enough, but now Tomintoul can also claim to be the host of a rip-snortingly good enduro race! The POC Scottish Enduro Series Round 3 delivered the sunshine, great trails, a stacked line up and enough gnar to keep everyone happy.
This is the second time that the Scottish Enduro Series has visited the Glenlivet Crown Estate, hidden deep in Moray. A polar opposite to the fierce and comically steep trails of Dunkeld and Fort William, Glenlivet offers trails that are fun and accessible for riders of all levels. Last year the organisers faced some negativity from some of the more gravity focussed riders in the field, complaining that the race was not technical enough. Sticking to their guns, the Scottish Enduro Series quite rightly realised that a series should have something to offer every rider and brought the series back to the flowing and mellower trails of Glenlivet, they also added a sprinkling of new fresh cut trails to add some spice. With a full entry list, a 40 km loop with 6 diverse stages, it was shaping up to be an awesome day.
The day kicked off with a cheeky new fresh cut trail, dropping down the hillside via a collection of right-angled and loamy turns. This was a trail where speed was both your best friend and your worst enemy, many spent a large portion of it on their bums, or engaging the ‘safety foot’ outrigger. This was a trail for the Scottish specialists and unsurprisingly it was Canyon’s Joe Barnes who took the fastest time of the day. The soft moss ensured that any ‘eeek’ moments were not too painful, and many riders will be picking foliage out of their riding gear this morning. Stage was done, it was back up the hill to Stage 2.
Stage 2 was one for the pedalers, a flowing but flat trail centre blast that needed constant stoking to keep momentum high. This was the first stage for the very important Lite class, where riders could get their first taste of enduro racing and was a nice introduction to those who prefer their riding a little tamer, while challenging the elites fitness and mental resolve. Stage 3 could not have been more different, a huge and very rugged stage. Starting high on open moorland, riders could give it full gas down the open heather covered hillside, good old-fashioned high-speed shenanigans down the rutted sheep track. High-speed shenanigans gave way to low-speed huffing and puffing when racers hit the formidable mid-stage climb where all were reduced to sitting and spinning up the steep incline. Clawing over the summit the final half of the stage was in the trees and full of awkward corners and fun whoops. It was a true monster of a stage and all agreed it was a lot of fun at race pace.
Stages 4, 5 and 6 were held back in the Glenlivet Trail Centre and featured a nice mix of machine built trail and easy natural loamy singletrack. The sun was now shining bright and there was even evidence of Scotlands most elusive terrain, dust! Racing was fast and close in all the categories, with stage wins being traded around the riders in both the male and female elites. In the men’s racing it came down to just 12 seconds separating Canyon duo Joe Barnes and Liam Moynihan, with Joe taking the overall win with a time of 23:31, with Wideopen’s Chris Hutchinson not too far behind in third. In the women’s field, it was a victory for the juniors with Ella Connoly setting an amazing time of 29:52 closely followed by Elena Melton and then senior shredder Fiona Beattie. The full results can be found here.
As the many podiums wound to a close and the last spot prize was thrown to the exhausted crowd everyone agreed it had been a most enjoyable day. The Glenlivet round brought a change of pace to the series, after the full on stages of Fort William and Dunkeld it offered less experienced riders the chance to race hard without the worry of leaving body parts on the trees. The round also demonstrated the benefits that enduro racing can bring when brought into a village or town, connecting the event to a new audience of curious locals and benefiting the local economy. The POC Scottish Enduro series now moves on to Laggan on the 13th and 14th of August and it sounds like a belter of a round, to get signed up for the action head over to the Scottish Enduro Series website.
Special thanks to POC Sports, CUBE Bikes and the Crown Estate.
Podiums
Everyone deserves their podium glory so here are the podium shots from the day.
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