Team Wideopenmag were out in force at the second round of the 2019 Scottish Enduro Series and Christo bagged himself a 2nd Elite spot.
Off the back of his top 50 at the Madeira round of the Enduro World Series, Team Wideopenmag pinner Christo Gallagher bags himself a 2nd spot in Elite at the Scottish Enduro Series/Continental Enduro Series double header at Innerleithen.
Photos by Lewis Gregory.
The second round of the Scottish Enduro Series was set in the town of Innerleithen. The race was also playing host to the second round of the EWS European Continental Series, which meant there was plenty of fast riders like World Cup Racer Reece Wilson and the constant threat Ben Cathro.
Coming into the weekend, the weather in the Tweed Valley had been blue skies all week, but the forecast was threatening rain for the weekend. True to its word, the clouds rolled in on Friday night and rain was falling throughout practice on Saturday, turning the dry dusty trails into slippery snakes.
The Scottish Enduro Series had put on one epic course with 1800+ metres of climbing, a 40km loop and 6 stages. To say it was going to be a hard day would be a bit of an understatement, with most riders taking over 5 and a half hours to complete the course. The stages that were waiting for the riders consisted of three up the Golfy and three up the Innerleithen downhill side.
Stage 1 started out in the open heather at the top of Caberston with fast wide open turns before going tight and narrow in the woods. Stage 2 was a firm favourite starting on the old school downhill and then blasting down flat white. Stage three took you down the longest track of the day on a track called New York, New York before a quick sprint up a fire road into the bottom of repeat offender.
Moving over the Innerleithen downhill side, starting at the top of Plora Rig all three times, riders were met with some classic enduro on stage 4 down Mince Baby Mince, followed by a mix of the downhill trails on stages 5 and 6.
Race day proved to be much better weather than practice, with only one rain shower to make sure everyone got suitably soaked. In the women’s race it was Louise Borthwick in third place, Jessie-May Morgan in second and valley local Jess Stone taking the top spot.
In the men’s race with so many of the top guys out injured, the podium was going to be under fierce competition. In the end it would be Reece Wilson who would take the win by 12 seconds ahead of myself in second place and Ben Cathro not too far behind in third.
Team Wideopenmag’s Chris Hutchens finished a respectable 11th spot in Elite, as he currently taking it easy at the moment whilst recovering from an injury.
The team at No Fuss put on another incredible event and it was great to be part of another EWS Continental race as well.
Next up for the team is the third round of the British National Series down in the South West of England at Minehead.
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