Saab Solomon Enduro – Ae Forest, UK

A couple of weeks after Kielder the enduro fraternity moved north again, this time to Ae Forest in Dumfries. After the solid but conservative approach of Kielder the plan here was to open the taps up a little. Especially as this was a stand alone event and we weren’t looking for series points.

The format was the same as Kielder: 7 stages plus the seeding run, ride between each of them and have all the times added together to establish your overall position, much like the WRC. The difference here was that the race was run around a loop rather than the toing and froing approach of Kielder, no repeat stages here!! Stage 7 of the race was going to be the NPS DH track, however, due to bad weather in the week leading up to the event it was cancelled, which was a bit of a shame.

Qualifying was run on what would be an uphill in the Ae Forest loop if you went there riding with your friends, which meant lots of flat hair pins and plenty of opportunity for washing out. This would also be stage 1 in the race and had probably the best section whole event, a muddy chute with a big rutted turn at the bottom. Team manager Sandy would have loved it!!

A steady run in qualifying left me 15th which would be improved on in the re-run which was stage 1 with a 7th. Stage 2 was a good mix of fast and open with a good bunch of turns. Sadly the ‘open the taps’ idea led me to fly off the side of a jump and loose some time fighting my way through the rough. A healthy ninth kept me in mix moving into the flat but fun stage 3. Stage 4 was the killer, with a minute thirty plus steep climb in it!! Luckily the closing section was quite good fun. Stage 5 I could barely remember from practice due to the horizontal hail we had to ride through, so it turned out to be a bit longer than I thought.

The final stage 6 was comfortably the most DH orientated and a whole lotta fun. I had good run, a couple of small mistakes but nothing major. As it turned out I managed to bag the final stage win which I was pretty chuffed with, my team Santa Cruz Nomad was absolutely awesome and I could finally and successfully open the taps up!!

The final stage win pushed me up to 8th Overall and a 2nd in seniors. Another great event and soon we move onto Round 2 of the Avalanche Trophy Series in Andorra for some bar bashing fun on an unfeasibly big hill! Hopefully I’ll make it down in one piece! For full results listing follow this link.

S.S.A.T. Round 1 - 2009 - Kielder, UK

Great weather an a dubious hire car marked the start to the 2009 race calendar for the Leisure Lakes Gravity Team as they went their separate ways on the weekend of 25th/26th April. Whilst the downhill riders headed off to Ae Forest for round one of the NPS, I set off to Kielder to battle some the best Enduro riders Europe has to offer.

Kielder is the only ‘Enduro’ format race of the Saab Solomon series, the rest being mass start Maxi and the better known Mega-Avalanche races. An impressive cast of World Cup riders past and present were there, not to mention the Enduro DH specialists. This is truly a great series, no-where else can you pitch up with almost any style of mountain bike and try your hardest against world class completion whilst getting to ride your bike solidly for two or three days. This open to all ethos will hopefully go from strength to strength.

So with Friday and Saturday mornings practice out of the way on the largely rocky and sandy tracks, Saturday afternoons focus moved to the Prologue, or seeding run. This was held on what was to be Stages 4 and 7 on race day which meant that the longest and most pedally stage of the race would be repeated 3 time – doh!!. A solid but conservative effort in seeding left yours truly 26th out of about 240 starters.

Race day started early for the fast guys and with 7 stages to complete, faffing around in the morning was not an option. Stage 1 was the most varied of the day and it was a shame it was the only one not to be repeated. Another solid but conservative effort (which seemed to characterize the race for me), a quick interview with Eurosport and off to stage 2 which was probably the fastest and most open. Stage 3 was the most DH orientated stage, and the most popular judging from the people I spoke with. Stage 4/7 was a repeat the prologue, 5 a repeat of 2 and 6 a repeat of 3. Apart from a couple of little wobbles the day went smoothly but I didn’t mange to improve on Saturdays qualifying position of 26th, which left me in 6th in seniors. David Vazquez took the Pro and overall win with Tracy Mosely Taking the Women’s title.

A bit of a wait now before round two in Andorra but ill be back with the next enduro race report from Ae Forest in a couple of weeks, so stay tuned!!

For full results listing follow this link.

2009 NPS Downhill Round One - Ae Forest

After a long cold and wet winter of riding and training the 1st round of the National Points Series (NPS) was finally upon us for the weekend of 25th & 26th April, at the well known Ae Forest track nr Dumfries in bonny Scotland.

After a 5 hour drive we arrived at the venue on Friday with the sun shining. Upon inspection of the track on foot, it was apparent that there was a whole new final section to the finish and a few tweaks here and there up the top, all appeared on first take to be for the better. Practice started promptly on Saturday morning with all the team riders heading up the hill together for their first chance at taming the hill. First reports back to the pits were good with most people finding the lines picked out on Friday inspection and the bikes were performing as expected (top drawer). After a full day’s practice and around 6 or 7 full runs the energy levels started to drop a little and some riders decided to call it a day, which turned out to be the best plan as the heaven’s opened for the final runs which left the track sodden and the riders caked in mud, and struggling for traction with dry tyres laced to their rims. Although it was a blast riding in such conditions and spirits were still high as we all retired for the day.

7am……..time to get up and change those tyres for some cut down spikes I reckon. This was a good decision as we headed up the hill for a final practice run before the timed seeding runs the weather was looking anything but stable.

Emma (Wareham) was off first in the Elite Women category and clocked a time of 3:13.840 placing her 4th which she was happy with but felt she could have gone faster if she could just piece everything together. Next off were the boys in the Expert category with Andy (Woodvine) first off the blocks posting a time of 2:28.603 placing him 7th, he was happy enough with a solid run but made a few mistakes and felt he had got more in the tank, next off was Rich (Challinor) posting a time of 2:30.576 some 2 seconds off Andy, he wasn’t happy as he had been off the track in the lower woods but again he knew he was capable of more. Jethro (Whitfield) was next to hit the hill posting a time of 2:35.415 which he was not too happy about as he knew there were seconds to be shaved off his time.

The bikes were then cleaned (again) and prepped ready for the race runs by Tom the mechanic (hero) who excelled all weekend in keeping the team above water and running smoothly. Again the first rider going to the top for their race run was Emma, we wished her well and she headed off into battle. She came through the finish with a time of 3:05.107 Shaving over 8 seconds off her seeding time placing Emma 6th and 17 seconds off the leader Helen Gaskell. Emma wasn’t so happy - feeling deflated as she had made a big mistake on the first right hander up top causing her to crash and drop precious time, regardless, 6th place is a serious result and a good boost for the team.

The boys were next to head into battle embarking on the coach taking them to the top of the hill. First man off was Jethro who screamed down the wet track posting a time of 2:31.897 knocking 4 seconds off his seeding run and placing him 23rd in the Expert category. Rich was next off, knowing he had to pull things together posting a time of 2:26.669 with a solid (ish) run and no crashes placing him 9th and 6.874 seconds off the leader Jack Reading. Andy was last off the gate with a finishing time of 2:27.086 placing him 10th just behind Rich, those boys can’t be separated. The boys & Gals were happy to have bagged their first results of 2009 and are now looking to improve on them throughout the season. So Watch this space.

This was a very successful weekend of racing for the Leisure Lakes DH Team, thanks to all the riders for their efforts and Tom the mechanic for all his support. A big thank you to Sandy the team manager for making it all happen and letting it roll, and hats off to the organiser’s Si Paton and Steve Parr who worked hard to pull it off.