National enduro racing is back in the UK… and about bloody time too!
When Steve Parr stepped down in 2015 and two subsequent organisers couldn’t make it work, bike racing was stuffed.
We had a whole sport worth of people buying the right bikes, scores of manufacturers pitching teams and a tonne of young, talented racers hungry to go fast. We had great regional and one-day events but for big, gnarly, tough races there was a big, empty, silent gap.
There was plenty to offer the folk that fancied a quick day out with some timed stages and the ‘festival with a bit of racing’ crew were covered. Anyone that wanted to get stuck in to some proper, competitive, big mountain racing was left hanging.
Till now, that is…
Photos by Euan Camlin, words by Jamie Edwards
It felt perfect to be kicking off the new season and the new series at an old venue. Innerleithen is THE classic British mountain bike venue and racers have been bombing those trails for as long as there’s been bike racing. There’s plenty of history in those hills and they’ve helped many World Cup winners and World Champions learn their art.
Roots and Rain lists the first event at Inners as the British Cycling Foundation National DH back in 2000, won by Peaty and Helen Gaskell but I’d wager there was timed runs going on long before that.
The UK Gravity Enduro team put on 5 big stages, spread across ‘the Golfie’ and the classic Innerleithen hill. They were every bit fitting of a ‘National’ title with some challenging downs and some big, tough ups. We had tight, snotty, rooty tech and we had flat out, white-knuckle bombing. There was the well-ridden and the fresh and loamy alike.
If you’re thinking of racing a UKGE my advice to you would be to get some big miles in. Even without any sneaky pre-practice you’ll ride somewhere around 50km a day for two days in big, blustery, windy hills.
You’ll probably grind your way up the Golfie four times on Saturday then spin down the road and climb Inners twice. Then you’ll wake up achey and tired and do it all again – except at race speed.
You’ll definitely earn that McDonalds on the way home!
Coming into the season, Steve Parr must have had to take a leap of faith that the riders would turn up. He needn’t have worried though, the start list was packed and the men’s elite field was stacked with 32 riders going hard.
A real surprise was a full turn out from the 50:01 crew with Josh Bryceland, Josh Lewis, Sam Dale, Craig Evans and friends on track and going flat out. Those guys might have stepped back from racing but they’ve not slowed down one bit.
Josh – photo’d above – scored 5th place overall with two 4th place stage results. Not bad for a retired downhill racer eh?
Let’s talk about enduro practice.
At UKGE you’re meant to practice on Saturday morning then race a seeding run in the afternoon. Sunday is a full day of timed stages.
The complication to that, as with most race venues, is that the trails are open the week before and the organisers need a few days to get the stages taped out. That means riders can, and did, turn up during the week and practice.
Some folks lapped the trails on the uplifts, some hopped on their ebikes, Bryceland told us “I walked the track with a helmet cam in time lapse and I’ve been sleeping with them subliminally, taking them in”.
What’s the problem? On one hand it’s fair. Everyone can pre-practice and has the same opportunity. On the other, it pushes the series once again into a battle of time-off work. The riders that are full-time racers or can escape the office have the advantage and the guys that can’t are throwing results away, right?
Steve Parr told us:
Practice is on Saturday. Anything before that is nothing to with us. Forestry Commission and National Resource Wales permissions only start on Saturday.
How do you Police it? You can put as many signs as you want out but riders will still ride it.
The photo above is Intense Racing UK’s Andrew Titley.
Titley first raced a mountain bike in 1990 and was already racing in elite at the first ever downhill national at Inners in 2000. By the time Inners hosted its first raced, he’d already raced two DH World Champs events in Bromont, Canada and Vail, USA!
All that experience must have helped and Titley took first in the 40 – 49 category, two seconds up on Dan Bishop. That’s the first National downhill and enduro of 2018 in the back for Bristol’s fastest 40+!
Titley told us:
It was a cracking first race back for Steve Parr.
It was a great race, well organised, but still chilled. The stages had a bit of everything and the transitions were hard but fair. Every category had some really tough competition.
My race was good and I had to use every bit of race craft and experience to win. After going 7 second behind Dan Bishop on the Golfy stages I went all or nothing on the the last 2 stages, to claw back the time and take the win.
Goal achieved winning the first National DH and Enduro of 2018!
The photo above is a pretty good sum up of what riders were faced with.
Thick, black, peaty dirt. Green, mossy rocks. Tight, dark trees. Technical, fast, fun. The weekend started with base-layers, sleet, howling winds and wet roots. Things changed gradually through the race and Sunday was sunglasses, short sleeves and beautiful powdery loam. It was a proper mountain biking adventure with some World class trails.
The race.
Once a World Cup downhill regular, Sam Dale is now taking a different pace. He told us he’s now focussing on “having fun on my bike” with plenty of one-off events like the Mega and Crankworx.
Just like Ratboy, Sam isn’t slowing down and bagged himself 4th overall. Nice one Sambo!
Mark Scott – local legend and fast as all hell.
I put my money on Mark taking a step on the podium and I was bang on, just in the wrong order.
Mark put in a strong ride and placed 2nd in two stages and 3rd in another… but he couldn’t quite break out of 3rd place.
Over in the female field, the competition for 2nd and 3rd place was fierce – but Katy Winton was riding her own race.
She started out in first place, won every stage by a country mile and finished four minutes ahead of the competition. The elite field saw Katie Wakeley take second overall and Katherine Sharp in third.
It’s interesting to see the turn out for the women’s UK Gravity Enduro field. Where the first National downhill event of the year had 42 women racing, the enduro had just 12. That feels significant given that downhill is supposed to be wilting, in favour of enduro as a more accessible format. 
How would you not bet on Ruaridh Cunningham to win this one?
World downhill champion, National downhill champion, top 30 at EWS and a local to Inners. Ruaridh has been racing Inners longer than most of us have been riding bikes.
Ruaridh started strong with a 1st/2nd/1st attack on the timed stages. He slipped and took a 4th place but then clawed back two stage wins to finish the day. Incredibly, despite near perfect consistency it just wasn’t enough and his laps on stage three cost him 1o seconds and put him less than a second behind overall.
Second place for Ruaridh but overall an incredible ride.
Leigh bloody Johnson every body! What a boy, what a ride.
South Wales shredder Leigh Johnson came into the season on a new team and a new bike, having parted from his previous sponsor. His bike turned up late into the winter and he was, by his own admission, worried how it would all work out.
How did it work out? 10 seconds faster than Ruaridh Cunningham on stage 4 and a brilliantly consistent race through the rest of the day.
Arguably, Ruaridh rode a stronger race throughout the day, but Leigh’s times were fast. He took two stage wins and put 10 seconds into Cunningham on stage 4. It scored him his first elite National win and, no doubt, a huge boost as he heads out to France for the Enduro World Series.
Thanks to the UK Gravity Enduro team and to Innerleithen for making UK enduro racing happen again at a National level. You guys rule.
Round two of the UK Gravity Enduro Series will be held at Eastridge on May 26th and 27th.
For more info, visit ukgravityenduro.com
