Enduring #1 - UK Gravity Enduro Innerliethen

A bit past the event now, but still. At the end of March's sensational dry spell Josh and I were heading north to represent the West Cheshire Massive at the first round of the UK Gravity Enduro series. Due to miscalculated driving distances, and accidently staying in the pub until midnight the day before we rolled into Innerliethen just before lunch on the saturday. On the plus side the instant coffee had exploded somewhere in the depths of the boot and we would race smelling like a high class bistro.

So, what of the racing. It was bloody awesome, knackering and a little scary all at the same time. Pretty early on it dawned on me that I hadn't ridden my bike down hill with out stopping for 7 minutes in a long time. To unfit to attack the whole course, I opted for to stay on, and hope for the best. Trailcenter black runs, old downhill tracks and fresh cut loam/mud death ruts seemed to be the order of the day. Pre-race I was feeling a little nervous, but just about up to it. Pretty much hit me that at a national level race, everyone is pretty bloody fast. Clearly I was near the bottom of the 300 strong field, the plan was hang on and hope, and try not to get beaten by too many girls.

Stage 1: Saturday night's (late afternoon) all right for seeding. In the queue, damn scared. The field is unseeded, fast guys littered throughout. A gated start and a shitty clip in kicked things off badly, few corners in and things had relaxed slightly. Things go well, then someone is on me, 30 seconds lost on the downhill bit. Sprint the fireroad then into more trails, it feels like it is going well. Two corners remain. 'On your left mate' Shit, lost a minute, though he sounded local, thats ok. Seeded 234 out of 300. Crap, but I'll take it.

Stage 2: Much happier, in with people my pace. Relaxed chat at the start of stage 1, and then we are off. Old DH tracks ridden on sight, stay calm, get down, no one caught me, happy days.

Stage 3: Again no idea what is coming up. Get clipped in, crash, shit. 6 minutes of it all going to shit, followed by two of competent riding. A bad stage

Stage 4: Huuuuge transition, times are tight. Drop in to the most glorious bit of singletrack, probably had a bit too much fun, should have pedalled more. A glorious start gets better. Loam shoot-traverse-repeat. Happy days, not caught, good stuff.

Stage 5: Worried, we practised this one, no idea how I am going to ride it fast. Opening death ruts are clean, trail center stuff is fine, though I'm pretty sure it is up hill. 6 minutes in, I'm knackered allready. Man ahead is taking a rest at the top of the 'death section'. Probably a good plan. Fuck it, drop in, it goes well to start with. Really shouldn't be too finger braking, too knackered not to. Oh Shit, over the bars we go. Have a sit down. Are you allowed to have a sit down in a race? Probably not. Get it finished. A disaster, though not just for me.

Stage 6: Stage 1 again, I know where I'm going, I know it is a fun one. I'm hanging, menatlly & physically. Get down well, pleased with that, pleased to finish. 31km, 1500 meters up, 1500 meters down, brutal. 233rd, beaten by girls and old men alike, happy to finish.

Despite a fairly rubbish result, this was the best mtb event I have ever taken part in. The race was knackering, yet awesome, and the course was unrelentingly brilliant. I will be back to 'just ride' it for sure. Hats off to the team behind the race. Superb from start to finish.

West Cheshire Massive:
97) Matt S 100) Ryan 197) Josh (On a hardtail) 221) Dave M 241) Russ (With a puncture in seeding) 252) Ian S (A whole world of issues)

Enduring

Enduro: Mountain biking’s activity du jour. It seems like it might just be a large part of the future of racing bicycles up and across, but mostly back down the mountains. As normal with ‘The Future’ it has turned up not a moment too soon, for me at least. Yes, I am clambering aboard the Enduro racing bandwagon, but I’ve been waiting for it to turn up for some time now. Going as fast as possible down whatever trail I can find is pretty much the rhyme and reason of why I mountain bike and finally it seems what I enjoy about mountain bicycles has been turned into a race. No longer must we compromise in order to race. No longer must we choose between endless laps of the same XC course, or a 20 minutes of fear filled DH time on a bike that is ideal for neither. The days of racing in an XC queue or Queuing for a DH race are over, An Enduro race is a Mountain Bike Race.

So yes, this is a blog about doing a bit of enduroing (endurage?). If all goes to plan 3 of the UK rounds, a splash of euro action (read: being destroyed by the euro brigade) at a Superenduro and whatever else the budget will allow. The bike? A 140/120mm Stumpjumper of 2007 vintage since you ask, chosen because it is the bike that I own. It’ll have three chainrings on the front, a nine speed cassette on the back and a normal ‘just a tube’ seatpost, because that is what it has. I could pass those of as disadvantages, but this bike has one trick up its aluminium sleeve; It is mine. I ride it every day, on everything. It is not dug out the shed three times a year, it is the bike that I ride, the bike that I know. And if I come last I’ll keep the ‘no dropper’ card close to hand. Any other preparations then? Aside from the daily bicycle commute through umpteen sets of lights, the monthly fight club that is the local mate’s race and all the ‘just normal mountain biking’ I can fit in, that is a no.

The plan is to race for fun, but nothing makes me question myself like finding out how fast I can actually ride a mountain bike. As I sit waiting at the top of another trail about to twist its way into the darker parts of a English/Scottish/Welsh plantation hopefully the self doubt will not weigh to heavily on my shoulders. If I can keep my chin up both physically and metaphorically and keep it together for long enough to reach the fireroad and marshall at the other side of that particular bit of forest all should be well. Fingers crossed, the lower half of the seniors cat won’t know what’s hit it. Whatever happens, it is better to know where you stand, and nothing makes me push the limits of what I can do astride a bicycle like knowing there will be a few mates waiting at the finish line, with times to compare. I may not be riding particularly fast, but it is fast for me. Thing is, fast is fun, there is something good about ragging yourself silly, putting in every pedal stroke possible, that doesn’t seem appropriate on a normal ‘just riding’ bicycle jaunt.

So there you have it, riding fast, for fun, on my bicycle. Sounds like a good way to spend a few Sundays.

Not Racing #2

8:15 pm on a friday evening and I am one of a group of 14 bicyclists stood in the fog and drizzle . My bike is somewhere ahead in the dark. We have just walked up a course containing pretty much every mountain bicycle based test known to man. A rocky opening which would be far from charitable if things go wrong. A road bit with a van. A kissing gate, some rock, some root, an awesomely silly 50 meter stepped climb and a whole load of muddy singletrack goodness to the pub to finish it all off. Now we are going to race back down.

Not Racing

If you ask Dirt Mag what two of the most important things in mountain bicycling are at the moment, I give you any money Mates Racing and Enduro feature highly. With The Woods being a bang on trend sort of place we knew this already. A such Dave W and I headed out into the dark dark woods to represent Pretty Sweet in a bit of Nightime Mates Enduro(TM).  Read on to find just how good it was...

A Day at the Races

The only experience i have of the word 'race' would be primary school sports days (those held at secondary school would be spent at home skiving under the façade of ill health). So i mean it when i say i didn't know what to expect from Tour de Ben Nevis, the newest 'race' event to No Fuss Events' repertoire.

It turned out to be bloody brilliant.
Great route, even by my standards the adventure level was high; waist deep river crossings and prolonged hike-a-bike. But, best of all was the great company; so many like minded people to share in the agony. I am positively looking forward to the next season of No Fuss Events - hopefully to contend for the Britain's Best Mountain Biker (unofficial) title!

Here are the thoughts of Pretty Sweet throughout the race:

We're Going Racing

Yup. it is all on the line now. In a month or so's time the Pretty Sweet Race Team (ha..) will be heading of to this:

On the No Fuss website it is described as 'The race that took mountain biking back to the mountains' and a 'mountain biking adventure race' which sounds right up our street. As far as I can tell the format is sort of like an Enduro, with both downhill and uphill stages on a course that circumnavigates Ben Nevis. The stages look like they take in some sweet out the way singletrack, plus a stage on the Fort William Downhill Course, and a hike-a-bike section.

Anyway, it looks like Dave W, Cal and I are all going to be there, so bragging rights are on the line, plus it sounds like a pretty good excuse for a roadtrip whilst we are up north. Cal and Dave W are talking of training programs so they should be super competitive. I am aiming to avoid the wooden spoon. The clown is down.