There can be no question that the POC Scottish Enduro Series has been a great success, the first four rounds wound their way around Scotland offering up some superb riding, and most rounds were sell-outs. For years we have been saying that Scotland needs its own series, uniting riders from all over Scotland and Northern England and showcasing the high level of talent and locations that Scotland has to offer, and we are happy to announce that it will be back in 2015, bigger and better (news coming very soon).
This weekend the series once again found itself back in the Tweed Valley, where Innerleithen would play host to Round Five, but there was an exciting surprise in store! Innerleithen enduros have always been confined to Plora Rig, where the established trail network criss-crosses the hill. However, for Round Five the organisers had managed to include trails on Caberston hill, trails that had never before been raced. Before the days of STRAVA these trails were once a closely guarded secret, more recently they have become a pilgrimage for enduro riders looking to test their skills. The Enduro World Series showed them to the world, and now they were to feature in a Scottish Enduro Series race. These are old, handcut trails that ride best in the dry, so everyone was hoping for a sunny patch, but just a few days before the race, the heavens opened and it rained, and it rained and rained and rained.
So it was with some trepidation and very sodden clothing, that riders climbed up to the top of Stage One, each knowing that they were about to face a trial by fire. The stage ran down a local classic, Lone Wolf, which when dry is a fast and pumpy collection of flowing turns and high speed off camber traverses. When dusty it is riotous fun, when sopping wet it is a feckin nightmare, well, that’s perhaps a bit harsh as it was awesome fun to slip-slide down the grimy turns, but when trying to race many lost count of the number of times they supermaned over the bars. The high speed off camber traverse at the bottom was nothing more than a test of nerve and as soon as you lost your flow, you were toast. Jo Barnes and Kenta Gallagher skipped down though this section like it was a concrete pumptrack, while the rest of us mortals burnt a large proportion of time upside down.
After exchanging stories of misadventure and shenanigans at the exit from Stage One, it was time to climb back up to the shoulder to take on Stage Two, a hybrid of the old school downhill track to the valley floor. Again, as this was a very natural trail mud was a big factor, but it was steeper than Stage One so if you took your brain out for a few minutes, momentum and speed would carry you through. After blasting off the heather, the top section was great fun, with more grip than you needed. A short punchy climb led to a long super fast traverse, desperately off-camber but with little inch-deep catches to pop the wheels up again, there was nothing more to do than look up the hill, hold on and let it run. If you survived the traverse it all got a bit steep and crazy for a few minutes before the final section to the finish. Again it was off camber and slick, I cannot remember ever seeing my back wheel along side me for so long, real speedway stuff, I was starting to think I had pulled it off before a neat pirouette ruined the dream and I finished the last 10m on my back.
If we had ridden stages Three and Four first, there may have been comments of ‘slippy’ and ‘muddy’ but after the Caberston side, it was a total traction fest! Stage Three was the old Alistair Lees trail, a trail that has been raced many times over the years because it is just awesome. A high speed, high thrills blast over rough rock gardens and roots. There was a shock in store at the start though, for the first 100m straight riders squinted against the bright sun shinning into muddy goggles, then snapped right and alarmingly the woods were pitch dark, pupils lept open and the first twenty seconds were pure reaction, trying to aim for anything that did not look like a tree. After bashing trough the rocks for a few minutes it was a sweet trail centre blast to the finish.
With tired legs and sodden clothing it was time for the final haul back up the hill to the top of Stage Four, a Jive Bunny megamix of trails, ISX, Tunnel, Gold Run, Deer Hunter, they were all in there. The taping crew must have been on the sauce the day before as it was a sneaky concoction of unexpected direction changes and dead ends, more than one rider shot through tape having missed the cheeky bus stops. As soon as you started to expect the unexpected, it was certainly a lot of fun, taking in everything from fresh cut natural trail to well ridden in DH tracks. Firing round the last corner, it was all over, mud bearded riders high fived, exchanged banter and instantly started making excuses about jammed gears and falls, as it was time to get the cold hard numbers in print.
As riders congregated on the muddy field, the sun started to shine and conversation turned to the days. Yes, it had been a proper bog fest on Stages One and Two, but we must give credit to the organizers for including Caberston hill. It would have been easier to play it safe and race on the DH side, like almost every race before, but IMBR wanted to bring us something different so ‘chapeau’ to them. When it came to the results, Canyon Factory Team rider Joe Barnes, EWS seasoned and in the best form of his life was always going to dominate, and that is what he did, however Kenta Gallagher and Chris Hutchens were snapping at his heels. It was certainly a packed field too, and it seemed that almost every fast rider from Scotland or the North of England was there. In the Women, Singletrack rider Roslynn Newman has been going from strength to strength and put down a time that was good enough to beat local favorites, POC/IBIS racers Emma Guy and Tracey Brunger.
POC, SPANK and Hope Technology had supplied some awesome prizes for the winners, and as the tent threatened to blow away, everyone agreed it had been an awesome day! To find out more about the series or to enter the final round, check out their website here, the last round is sure to be a belter.
Words: Trev Worsey Photos: Cat Smith
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