Race Report | Endura Whyte Vallelujah : Scotland
Going Where? Going Yair, that’s where. This weekend saw the first big enduro race on the Tweedlove calendar take place, the Endura Whyte Vallelujah. Yair is usually the domain of rally cars and dog walkers, but for the weekend it became a mountain biking playground. The trails in Yair forest are situated slightly further down the Tweed Valley than the more well known favourites as seen in the Enduro World Series, however all participants were promised a variety of hand cut and natural trails, some of which had been built specially for the event.
As is customary in Scotland, the weather had a hand in proceedings come race day. A 4-stage race was shortened to 3 for fear that the high winds could become dangerous on stage 1. So we were left with stages 2, 3 and 4 for racing. This didn’t make things any easier with Strava clocking the day 18miles and 2,946 feet of elevation. A lot of riders were thankful that stage 1 was no longer to be included.
With an entry list 500 strong and damp conditions the trails were going to take a real hammering. Sure enough after practice big ruts had developed and age-old roots were rediscovered, lying in wait to grab your front wheel.
We began the day with Stage 2, which forged a path from the top of The Three Brethren down some loose muddy turns and into the trees. The stage required some death gripping along the fast straightaway, before making its way into a well-known local trail, Double decker. The stage had developed some monumental ruts and riders struggled to hold what was left of their lines. It was here that CUBE UK rider, Thom Mitchell opened up a lead on the chasing pack, winning the stage by a close margin of 2 seconds.
Stage 3 was an entirely different affair, The Craig Hill and Buzzards Lair descent mixed off camber corners with steep, narrow, root laden climbs and a fire road sprint thrown in just for good measure. Out of the start gears crunched as wheels spun, kicking up fresh mud and driving the bike deeper into the already large ruts. It was CUBE UK rider, Stuart Wilcox who kept a cool head under pressure and claimed the stage win.
With heavy bikes, covered in mud the transition to the next stage seemed like an eternity, riders were rewarded for their efforts though with Big Bear Bakery providing a welcome cake stop at the top of the hill.
Refueled with cake riders headed to tackle the most technical stage of the day, Stage 4. An almost entirely new stage, stage 4 began with a flat, pedally sprint though the woods, ducking a diving between trees before spitting you out into the open for a few seconds to catch your breath. The stage then plunged you into rock gardens and off camber rooted corners. But, the killer in the stage was the middle, a flat traverse that had only been built on Friday before the race. It had churned up beyond all recognition and many riders chose to run the section before jumping back on and tackling the steep switch back corners to finish the stage. In practice, watching all the riders come through the stage it was clear that one man above all was visibly faster. Tweed Valley legend, Crawford Carrick-Anderson pulled out a commanding stage win, going 6 seconds clear of the field.
A quick ride back to Selkirk allowed riders to chat about how the day went and compare stories before the times were in. Once back and the dust had settled the results looked like this;
In Junior woman Kirstin Moynihan took the win with an overall time of 00:23:46, In Vet Woman Sarah Mulligan came in 1st with a 00:27:03.
Senior woman was a closely fought battle between Maddy Robinson who took 3rd and Roslynn Newman who took 2nd with just 53 seconds between them, but it was Jess Stone who dominated with a time of 00:18:51 which put her ahead of most of the male participants.
Onto the men and in Super vets Chris Norman came home first with a time of 00:17:29. In the Vets, Crawford Carrick-Anderson stormed to victory with an astonishing time of 00:14:01, giving him the fastest overall time of the day.
The master was a closely-fought battle between Dave Duggan who took 3rd and Stuart Nicholson who took 2nd. However it was Keith Buchan who took the win despite a few crashes on course with a 00:14:35. The junior men saw some tight racing with Whyte Bikes’ Peter Lloyd edging out local boy, Calum Grant for the win by 28 seconds. Calum has only done a handful of Enduro races so far and he is a bright talent for the future.
The senior men provided the tightest racing. CUBE UK rider, Thom Mitchell, Canyon’s Liam Moynihan and Basecampbikes’ Chris Hutchens all finished with a time of 00:14:22. The rule in this situation is to take the last stage time positions to separate the riders. So the positions would fall: Mitchell in 4th, Hutchens 3rd and Moynihan 2nd. The victor of the day was Stuart Wilcox with a time of 00:14:05, despite a small crash on the final stage Stuart rode consistently on his new Cube team stereo 160 to take a well deserved win in a competitive field.
A massive thank you must be said to all the marshals and Tweedlove crew for organising such a unique and fantastic event. Thanks to event sponsors, Whyte Bikes and Endura and prizes from Osprey Packs and Alpine Bikes. Finally a huge thanks to the locals who helped build much of the trails. The community really came together to create some truly awesome stages. The race was a huge success and many happy riders will be making the long trip home safe in the knowledge they achieved something great this weekend and that the Tweed Valley is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to riding bikes.
Words: Thom Mitchell
Photos: Ian Linton
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