Slideways in the South West! The UK Gravity Enduro Series Round 1, Triscombe

·Wednesday 13 May 2015

Enduro season is GO!

Round 1 of the UK Gravity Enduro Series kicked off at Triscombe this weekend.

Elite winner Mark Scott shares his weekend…
Photos by Ian Lean

The British Enduro season kicked off this weekend down South at Triscombe in Somerset. Whilst it was the first race for the UKGE, it wasn’t my first race of 2015. Having already raced the Enduro World Series in New Zealand and Scottish Enduro Series I was feeling warmed up and ready to get stuck in. Just as well as my coach Alan Milway had me training right up to the event!

Friday began with unofficial practice and a chance to catch up with the Wideopenmag team at their #LocalKnowledge BBQ with Fox Head Europe. With BBQ’d burgers in the tank I got in a quick pedal round all of the stages with Josh Lewis, even managing to lap a few a couple of times. It was a short lap but with some good techy stages. Triscombe is natural, rooty and loose that’s much more like an old school downhill track than a trail center. All in all, there were only 4 stages but we were racing stages 1 and 2 twice, so 6 stages in total. All promised short, sharp racing!

Check out the complete list of our 2015 UK Gravity Enduro content right here

Saturday

Saturday’s weather didn’t look too promising on paper, so the plan was to get another quick lap of all 4 stages in the morning then rest up ready to race the first 2 that afternoon. As usual, the weather man was a bit off and it turned out hot and sunny for the evening’s racing! Conditions were tacky and still a bit slick in places so it was hard to attack some sections as much as I’d like to have. Still, I stayed on the bike and held on through the roots!

Sunday

We woke to the unfortunate news on Sunday morning that a ton of bikes had been stolen in the night. Not good news on the day of the race, with a whole MDE demo fleet and a load of Whyte’s going missing. Lets hope something can be recovered!

It was looking to be another dry day of racing and a only a quick 10 mile lap of all 4 stages. The stages were a little bit more blown out and greasier than practice which made it really hard not to make mistakes.

On track it was clear that loads of riders have been putting in the training over the winter and enduro is getting more and more professional. I was well impressed with Rob Young, he managed his first podium in elite and proved that he could carry his speed through the whole weekend! He’s always pinned but is usually victim to a few crashes! I think he managed to limit it to one crash this weekend and pulled out a 5th in elite. I’m buzzing for him as I know he’s got the speed.

In the end though, it was a good day out on the bike. It was a short one but a fun one! I had a few mistakes on most stages but I honestly don’t think many got through the day clean. The results came in and I was really chuffed to be sitting at the top with 15 secs on 2nd place. Training has been going really well and it’s a great feeling to feel the real benefits of it all!

So with a great result in the bag the plan is a mellow week at home tuning up for the next 2 Enduro World Series events in Ireland and Scotland. I’m hungrier than ever to get the results in! See you there!