Scottish Enduro Series Round 5 - Innerleithen 18th & 19th October 2014

You don't have to be a gifted clairvoyant to guess that the October round of the POC Enduro Series may be a bit damper than its summer predecessors.

But then again Scotland’s not exactly known for the flocking tourists who take to the beaches in skimpy thongs, with volley ball nets to display their tans and muscles.  On this occasion the riders who had missed out on their foreign biking trips may have forgotten about the sloppy substance we once called mud as up until two weeks prior to this race, mountain biking in Scotland consisted of bone-dry dusty trails thanks to an exceptionally dry and awesome summer. 

A new addition to this round at Innerleithen was the addition of Caberston or ‘The Golfie’.  A steep and windy technical forest with a copious amount of intertwined trails that have left a permanent impression on both my pinkie fingers and altered my cosiness of mountain biking comforts. Caberston had its world debut in this year’s Enduro World Series and since then has seen a good revenue of bikers amongst its slick forest lines.

Checking the forecast a few days in advance and seeing the stormy weather setting in for the weekend, I got myself a spiky Michelin Wildmud for the front and a nice sleek DHR Minion for the rear in an attempt to shed the claggy crud that the week before had turned my Hans Damps into racing slicks.  Thanks to Alpine Bikes at Innerleithen for their last minute help with my tubeless setup!

A grey ray of sunshine at Caberston 

The weather had certainly not deterred the thirst for competition and the event was once again sold out.  The event village/bog had a good depth of brown smearing skid marks up to the sign in tent.  It seemed it would only a matter of time before the local farmers and their tractors would be called to assist stranded vehicles....

On arrival at practice I met up with the buff Buviliscous biking boy along with the usual enduro crew including fellow female pinner Nicola Fel and enduro mud virgin Henderson. There were 4 stages with the first two starting at Caberston and then heading over to Innerleithen for stages 3 & 4, including about 30 km of cycling and a heck of a lot of climbing. 

Carrying the mud to the dry bits at the bottom of stage 4 

We set off with the sun and rain in our eyes and a momentary questioning of why didn’t we bring any sunnies with us, but this only lasted for the length of this thought.   Starting back to front at Inners and the dreaded climb, we then descended with various oooh’s and ahh’s as Stages 3 and 4 were a great dolly mixture of all the old Innerleithen classics: Gold Run, Alistair Lee’s, The Tunnel and many more.  A few funny detours at the bottom section had me in a bit of a navigational giddiness, but it only left me with more to chat about on the way to Caberston.  The rumour was spreading that Stage 1 (Lone Wolf) was unrideable but to me it seemed perfectly fine! Yeah a bit slimey in some sections, but I’ve seen a lot worse (nothing will ever come close to stage 2 at Fort William).  Stage 2, the old downhill track was defined by a passing Ozzy as just like stage one but more 'off camberrie and steepa'  and he wasn’t too wrong as this was the stage I thought about most for the drive home.

Heading home with some mud decor.  

Over night the heavens opened and it was a wild guess if this would improve or worsen the mud fest.  I set off with the rest of the ladies early in the morning it was pretty dreech.  Stage 1 was the talk of the race with many people discussing how difficult and unrideable the mud had made it. So at the start, my optimism wasn’t too high and I was also one of the many riders that fell at the entry shoot. I got straight back on and maintained my uprightness for a while until I realised that my forks had managed to turn themselves off, so at that, I jumped off and ran through most of the horrid bits at the top and then jumped back on finding it so hard to actually find my cleats under all that mud.  Not long after Lewis Buchanan flew past with an impressive speed and flow, I barely managed to have two feet on my pedals for most of the bottom section and fell just as Alasdair MaClennan flew by with a ‘you okay?’ acknowledgement.  It was great to have a visual knowledge of what it should look like to ride that stuff. 

Mud that sticks on thick- I'm still cleaning this stuff up. 

Feeling like I’d made a massive hodgepodge of Stage 1 I was sure I had to make some time back. I headed up to Stage 2 in a mental world of self-counselling and reassurance, telling myself over and over again ‘you can do this’.  This seemed to do the trick as I managed to hang on for dear life, the Ozzy lad wasn’t joking about it being off camber too, this was a sideways sliding race, if you could keep your bike pointing forward you were a winner.

Heading over to Innerleithen, the mud banter was non stop, people talked of how it would feel like concrete in comparison to the squidge of Caberston and mud tyre efficiency was definitely the theme of chat for most. 

Innerleithen was great fun, some folk had even brought pedals to change over from flats to clips in between the two varying locations, an interesting tactic.  I was so happy to complete both stages without falling or having too much feet out drifting action.  The trails were on the muddy side, but nothing as wild as Caberston, so what would normally be considered as wet and slippy felt like the traction of a fly on a sticky bun.

At the event village I collected my time to find I was sitting in top spot with a good lead too! I only had to wait for top ladies, Emma Guy and Tracey Brunger to return, but to my complete and utter surprise I managed to remain on the top spot, with stage one as my fastest stage... which was the surprise of the day!  

Podium banter with Tracey Brunger (2nd)  and  Emma Guy (3rd)

Full results can be found here.

And a fantastic write up  by Trevor Worsey from Enduro Mountain Bike Magazine.

  

A much deserved gratitude to Helen Findlay
the heart and soul of Innerleithin Mountain Biking
She will be well and truly missed.
Thank you Helen!  

Bluegrass Enduro Round 2 Glencoe Mountain

There are some events on the Mountain biking calendar that really get the senses tingling with excitement and suspense.  The annual Glencoe Mountain mass start race known as the MacAvalanche is most definitely one of them, and for 2014 the Blue Grass Enduro Series had partnered with No Fuss to add a crazy twist to the event.  



This was the 2nd year that Blue Grass had crossed the Channel and took a round of their Enduro Series to the North West of Scotland. The series has decided to break from the typical Enduro format and run their rounds 'blind' over one day, with participant’s racing with no practice...a serious game changer.

If you enjoy challenging yourself to the max then this event is for you. Riding blind down a mountain side over snow, rock and heather is probably the most exhilarating and exhausting thing I’ve ever done, however the uplift up to the start of the stages, meant that lots of energy could be preserved for the timed bits.  The weather was in typical Glencoe fashion, changing from warm sunshine to cloud and rain in the blink of an eye.  

There were 3 timed stages including the mass start. The first stage started off left of the Cliff Hanger chair and blasted down toward the dreaded climb up Creag Dubh, followed by a tiring traverse towards the Red Run down to the bottom of the resort.  I don't know what I found the most exhausting; trying to work out where I was going, picking a line through pieces of blue tape, marsh, snow and spikey rocks, or the climb up the Creag Dubh hill side (I don't think anyone managed to make it up with a bike between their legs) or perhaps holding on for dear life down the Red Run, which seemed to have the remnants of scree from the epic ski season scattered down its rocky routes.  At the end of this run my arms were bulging with arm pump and I was bubbling up inside my full face helmet.  Still, better than pushing the bike down from a puncture like many folk.

As I came to the top of the Access chair for stage 2 I could see some fellow racers riding down what is named 'home run' on the ski map, and wow did it look muddy.  This stage involved a bit of snow riding, and  from my previous attempt  in stage 1, I wasn't feeling too confident. Earlier I had span around and slid feet first down the hill, whilst my full face filled up with snow, blocking my nostrils.  I witnessed the most amazing over the bars moment from some guy who I had been chatting to earlier - he had been convinced to take part in his first Enduro race by his mate and had already ripped his clothes from a tumble.

When I set off, I was immediately happy with the terrain, which consisted of grassy mounds and boggy ditches which could easily be cleared with a bit of commitment and speed. It was fairly fast riding and I tried to pedal as much as I could.  As I approached the snow I slowed down slightly and just tried to let the bike go, it’s crazy when you hit that stuff, like riding into a field of thick porridge. As soon as you hit it, you lose your speed but you also have no control.  It is extremely unpredictable. I managed to remain upright and get my tripod stability on the go and after a slight battle with some mud I was down the Red Run for round 2...and it wasn't any easier on the arms.

Another bike wash, some refuelling and catching up with my ski and biking buddies, this event was just getting better and better.  I had some great chat with Claudia Clement and her husband in the cafe who have just started to get into Enduro racing.  Claudia is coming back from an  injury and was tackling the stages fairly well. Originating from Brazil and living in France they were both curious of the ride-ability of the Scottish mountains.  Claudia stated "If you can ride here you can ride anywhere” and they asked if the trails were typical terrain for Scotland, looking back to the Fort Bill and Inners Enduro it was hard to answer. But pondering on my own territory of Kinlochleven I could see that yes the North West is notorious for its loose rocky trails, after all it’s in the mountains.

I also caught up with the hard tail riders who were sharing some great stories of their adventures, one boy had hit the mud on stage 2 and lost his bike and his shoe.  The marshal responded with the help of a saint and ordered him to fetch his bike while he found his shoe, proceeding to hunt elbow deep in the mud for the strange man’s shoe in order to get him back into the race.  Now that's top notch marshalling!

Back up for the mass start and I was getting nervous, the weather was changing slightly and the push up to the snow  was tough. I had a whimsical moment in front of the whole crowd of bikers and had to ask a young lad, to help me carry my bike into a start position. Well it’s heavy! 

The start-up lines were sorted out and the ladies were offered the 2nd line, there was also an announcement of additional bits being included to the Red Run. Once we were off  I opted for running with my bike over the 200M stretch of snow, which seemed to work out pretty well.

With a direct line,  Joe Barnes was first off the snow.

Practicing a running mount proved useful for this race. All was going well until I hit the snow that sent me flying in Stage 1 and all would have been fine if I hadn't freaked out, just goes to show that difficult parts can be all in your head. I had my notorious seat dropper issue and had to ride a large section of the descent with it stuck in full extension.  Heading up to the climb I managed to gain some time back and took over some riders.  One guy behind me was retching toward the top of the hill, adding some quality sound effects to the racing.  I had a good ride down the Red Run, hitting the muddy diversion cleanly whilst a marshal was frantically warning people about a deep ditch which someone was fork deep in. I picked my way around a confused and hesitant biker and managed to get past another 2 riders. Coming up to the finish I was so tired I could barely clip back in, and ended up flailing, feet off the pedals at one point riding some crazy corners side saddle which was really scary - but I saved it to the finish.

I was more than delighted to come 3rd at such a tough race. Hannah and Joe Barnes proved that they are a sibling master team at Glencoe.. and I had the most ridiculous Podium pose ever!

Full results can be found here.

Bluegrass Enduro Tour 2014 round #02 - Glencoe - Scotland from Bluegrass on Vimeo.