Scottish Enduro Series Round 2 - Innerleithen

Just about anyone who mountain bikes, whether it be in Scotland or from further afield, will no doubt have a delicate soft spot for Innerleithen trail centre.  A soft spot not dissimilar to that of an 80's child's recognition for Bill Murrays voice in the new Garfield cartoons…

So I was more than delighted to take myself and the grand see saw of the Patriot to round 2 of the Scottish Enduro Series, and the destination I once labeled ‘Innersanity’. Using a new Car park and creating an event village with all sorts of delights, it was great to see the Innerleithen Mountain Bike Racing crew back on form for another season, and with their new partners No Fuss Events had the ambience of a reunion party with all your mates back together again.

My Enduro companion and her cousin. 

Sun baked mud tan 

After a prompt and damp registration catching up with biking buddies, chatting tyre choice, chain devices and speculation on our forthcoming adventures we picked up our POC goody bags and start times for race day.  The Inners round included a total distance of 26KM, 5 timed stages and about 1000m of ascent. This was going to be an epic weekend.  As its now officially spring I left my tights and 3/4 length under shorts at home and bared the white pins to the Scottish Borders.  Just as well I had my fab Dare2B waterproof, as the rain turned on and off, and the mud was gloopy in places.

Practice was awesome with an instant sense of relief that I had opted for a clipped in approach. Knowing how the Inners crew love to add a fire road ascent in between some technical and demanding descents - I had my guns loaded.  On the long climb up to stage one I witnessed 3 guys cycle up a muddy, boggy ditch that a number of people struggled to even scale with the help of other friendly race entrees.  This reminded me early doors that the Scottish Enduro Series riding is a hugely technical ordeal, with a wealth of super talented individuals competing.  I had the worst crash of the weekend when I head butted a tree at the bottom of the steep entry shoot on stage 3. Later on in the day aafter competing stage 5 I knew that this would be the stage the  would separate the men from the boys. The girls from the ladies. The bikers from riders.

A damp but fast flowing Stage 1
Photo courtesy of Ian Linton

On race day the climb up to stage 1 came with a strong wind and the drizzly rain that sticks to flesh and fabric, and soaks to the bone. It was great to venture into parts of Innerleithen that I rarely ride.  I noticed so many trails that I had forgotten about and made a little mental note to reacquaint myself with these hidden gems. Stage 1 went really well, and knowing I would be at a disadvantage due to my bikes portly figure I got on the pedals the whole way down. 








Thankfully very little climbing was in store to the start of stage 2.  I really enjoyed this stage in practice and on entry pedalled hard, but was taken by suprise how little I could see upon entered the deep forest with my goggles on.  I tried to keep my seat high to help pedalling efficiency but my old school Gravity Seat Dropper only provides two seat heights - high or low, and somewhere in between would of suited better.  The secret to this stage was to keep the flow. It was windy, slippy and rooty, and a lot of dynamic body movements were required.  Early on I started to tire and I could hear my breathing becoming louder and louder.  Noticing the fire road ahead the bike slipped sideways and I fell off the trail and had to drag the 40lb beast back onto the track.

Putting in some banter with the photographer on stage 2
Photo courtesy of Ian Linton

Unfortunately this stage yielded three more tumbles. First after my goggles steamed up due to my full Darth Vader on steroids impression.  I later stopped to take them off which was promptly followed by a smack in the face by a pine branch…my timing is impeccable. And most annoyingly on an uphill stretch my hand slipped right off the handle bar when I tried to change gear and the bike shot out off from underneath me.



I finished the stage feeling delighted that I had made it, with all the dramatic overload of an East Enders omnibus.  Bloody hell...

I headed up to stage 3, still scared about the entry shoot that nearly wrote me off racing in practice. Sitting at the dibbing station repeating to myself "don't look at the tree" subconsciously (more likely aloud with an audience of fellow bikers) I thought it best to head. I managed to complete the stage without adding to the fall count but had to run up a steep climb. There's only so much abuse the knees can take of powering a tank up mud. Smiles all round though!

Back up the hill to stage 4.  I tried to de mist and keep my goggles in working order for the machine gun splattering of mud to the face in the Tunnel and Luge. Setting off with fingers off the brakes I came in hard up to a right hand turn, and my bike slipped out to the very loud external scream of ‘BAD CRASH!’, then straight into a bar hump that ended up in a sideways limbo under the race tape.





A bit stunned with this latest crash, and feeling a wobble in my front wheel from a loosened front Maxel, my normally fastest sections took a beating on the clock.  It was still great fun, even though my calamitous finale was the exiting at the wrong part of the forest, culminating in climbing down the bank, then a run with the bike whilst doing a gymkhana vault on manoeuvre. How dramatic!




The climb back up the hill to stage 5 was long and I was beginning to feel like I'd be slogging a 40lb Orange Patriot about for 2 days.  Ah yes, I had.  The saviour of the fuel tent and the usual banter of well-known faces perked me up. Funnily enough the shoot into stage 5 did not conjure up the same feelings of fear as the previous, but this was the shoot I slipped out on.

I was loving this stage, it was riding so much better than the day before, I even caught up with my handsome Mr Buwert, and as soon as I seen him, boom I fell.

Similar to stage 2 this was all about maintaining swift flow and momentum. Just as I could see daylight spilling into the forest and  sense the fire road, I was upside down again, with my bike all tangled up about me, the handle bars were wrapped in the seat dropper cable, which was now out with my command.

Making up for lost time on stage 5 at Caddon Bank
Photo courtesy of Ian Linton

I rode the rest of the muddy mentalness with a high seat - adapting the tripod look of the Mega Avalanche. On the fire road I regained control over my seat height but found this was a false sense of security in Caddon Bank when again it failed.  Bollocks. I was so tired on this run to the finish, but battled through and was delighted to have completed another Enduro.

Next up is Laggan and I’m  cleaning up my act and halving my fall count. Might even try to buy a lighter bike that has a Reverb too. Does anyone have any good bike suggestions of a bike for a midget?

Another great turn out for the girls, with a very high standard of female riders. I came in 8th, with my fastest time on stage 1.  Clean runs would have catapulted me up the results I reckon, it’s not the crash count that loses time I’ve realised, it’s the time it takes to manoeuver a bike that ways as much as me back onto the track! There was some great results at the end of the day.  Fellow Wheelers member Fiona Beattie came in joint 2nd with Lesley Ingram, and Jess Stone smashing it with a 3 minute lead.  Another great result for my mate Nicola who has proven her confidence is coming on miles. It looks like everyone is training for this Enduro craze!

Full results can be found here.

The Coe Cup - UK's Freeride World Tour Qualifer

Anyone who has engaged in or overheard a conversation regarding the 2013/14 Scottish ski season may have got wind of descriptions like "dumping" "caked" "buried" "stacked" "too much snow" "filled in" and or "amazing conditions".  Is it true that Scotland is having a season of "too much snow?"

Photo courtesy to Glencoe Mountain

Whilst driving back from Edinburgh the week leading up to the Coe Cup.  I observed that the normally rocky and gnarly East side of Glencoe Mountain seemed rounder and less extreme than I had previously remembered.  A round bowl like feature with a few scattered black spots had replaced the 15+ foot size rocks that normally protrude from various places.  Where have all the rocks gone? I at this point was hoping for the usual conditions of +10 and rain, followed by a Western warm wind that acts like a hair dryer after the warm shower.  This may just let the rocks awake from hibernation.  Who am I kidding, at 49 degrees the competition face of the Fly paper and Baileys Gully are terrifying enough without any rocks.  



Lots of snow may be the talk of the season, but little attention has been publicly mentioned about the incessant and persistent low cloud that has sat on the Western hills for what seems like since November.  I have actually adapted a theory that a new generation of bat like skiers have developed in the young children who rip around the hill as if ZERO vis is only a slight hindrance of not being able to recognise your mates on the T-bar.

And this is exactly what the weather had brought to us for the 15th and 16th March, Coe Cup day. Moreover, the "too much snow season" has also brought with it, a strong and consistent air current that "impedes walking".

Low Vis at the top of the mountain

As usual, Glencoe Mountain and the excited Coe Cup competitors enjoy a challenge. This year being the most popular, the event was sold out and with a field of 7 other Female Snowboarders and 13 female Skiers, boasting an impressive 60% increase in female competitors from the previous year. Proving that including the event in the Scottish Freeride Series maybe paying off, along with bringing in some International skiers as a Freeride World Tour Qualifier.

The standard of female riding is generally becoming really high, more and more girls with solid stances who hit big booters and pull off sweet tricks are coming out of the woodwork. Even though this is my third year participating in this event I had some tough competition.   

So after a crowded and energetic competition briefing and some safety talks, we had the all clear to head up the Access chair to rendezvous at the Spring run to checkout our prospective line choices.


Heading up the access chair I start to realise "I am totally in the mood for snowboarding today!" and I’m going to have fun no matter what, as my Canadian friends would say "Just give er!"

However as we queued for the Poma button tow we were informed that the lift status was pretty bleak.  Another hindrance from the "too much snow" season, the lifts are being buried in the snow on an all most daily occurrence, much to the despair of hill maintenance crews around Scotland.  Still there was sliding to be had and all the competitors started to session the blue beginners slope.  Myself and Mr Buwert, challenging ourselves to find patches of grass to ollie over, 180's and riding switch, until enough was enough and like all the other competitors we decided to start hiking up the hill.






At this point I find my good ski buddy and extremist of all extreme parents, Muzzz Small, she had good foresight to attach her skis to her rucksack, and was all smiles. I also found Classy Lass Lesley, who runs the Ski and Boardroom shop next to the base cafe. Both lassies bubbling with banter and Coe Style.  On our hike, we meet many fellow Coe Cuper’s in a similar way of walking like Frodo and Sam’s journey to Mordor, but they were in a slightly more perilous and dooming environment than our misty and windy conditions.  It wasn’t long before we found a common ground and met up with the majority of competitors. 



And as soon as we arrive, there is banter and chit chat bouncing all over the place, within minutes some skier guys invite me to participate in a mass start race, and I quickly move around spreading the word.  

We are directed down to the judging arena, and in a spontaneous but effective way we decide to slide down one by one or in small groups, each one of us, showing off some of our cool moves; from flowing techy carves, to Ollieing (if thats what its called on ski's) a large spread of rocks or pulling of 360's. And with the tricks came the applause of the crowd. We were a great bunch of snow loving Scottish partying skiers and boarders.  A unique feeling of pride sits with me knowing that only Scotland could have so much fun during a postponed competition in the mist, while mother nature blows a houllie. 

So at the confirmation of the competition being postponed to a later date on the 26th April, due to the Sh*t F**K conditions" the mass start race was on, and after a few photos and some media PR. We were off, and from the start point to the top of the access chair, I did not turn once.  I actually adapted the lowest stance I've ever had on my board and hoped for the best, and the only person I could see who I was never going to catch in supreme tuck for speed mode was Muzzz Small, who did indeed make it to the Access Chair first! Well-done lass! 

A great way to end the day. photo by Peter MacKenzie

So that was that, but no it wasn’t.  As I sat at the base cafe with a beer in hand chatting with the “weedgies”, (the name given to Glaswegian Glencoe regulars) who were sporting a bottle of Mescal and giving some West side humour.  A group of Skiers and boarders made their way down the Creag Dubh shoot, a really steep shoot with a crevasse at the top. It was fine viewing - i tell ya. That would of definitely added some Freeride edge to the day –“I’m going do that tomorrow” I said.  Manana, Manana eh!

So until the 26^th April the Coe Cup still belongs to last years winner and local Freeride hero Dave Biggin, I reckon he still has it in him to win it for a third year.

Please let the sun come out and snow cease for the time being

Skiers in the mist