UK Gravity Enduro Season Opener - Triscombe, May 9th-10th 2015

I was delighted when The Daddy, Steve Parr, announced that for 2015 one of the venues for the UKGE was going to be Triscombe, a mere fifty-minute drive from where I live!  This area is an understated biking gem hidden deep in the South-West of England where you can ride as hard as you like, I love it there and if you can’t find it I will happily show you around one day!

Living in the South-West I am blessed with great areas to ride my Orange Five.  Bike Park Wales, Afan or anywhere in Breacon Beacons are all within two hours, however I'm normally found at the Haldon Forest Park where I can ride straight from my work door and be there in 45 minutes, awesome!  If that doesn't tick your boxes the stunning scenery of Dartmoor or Exmoor surely will especially with their great surfer's coastlines thrown in for a good measure!  A lot of the people I ride with rave about how sensational Scotland is however my area is proof that you can always find great trails to ride with like minded people, and this is true wherever you are, the fact the UKGE came to Triscombe is proof of this.

I arrived ready to practice the race course and transitions on the Friday, the weather was fairly bleak with fine rain and low lying cloud. Stage one and two both had freshly cut sections which, although were a riders paradise whilst the racing was underway, were as sticky as hell in practise!  Both of these routes were going to see a lot of traffic with being raced upon across the whole weekend and I liked everything about these stages, tight, twisting turns, jumps and berms!  I rode the transitions over to stages three and four, the stage three transition was the longest at 45 minutes and was a breeze compared to the hour plus transition over at Afan!  The route here took you along a beautiful ridge where you were rewarded with sweeping views over the distant Taunton and despite the hard pedalling these stages were great fun with plenty of airtime to be had off all the jumps.

Race Day Saturday, despite being so close to home I was slightly less organised with food for this event than I normally am, I didn’t panic though as I knew the awesome Billy Can Catering team would be on site.  And sure enough a little while later I was patting my tummy after a huge bowl of their creamy porridge laced with some cheeky chocolate buttons, I was now set up for the day, bring it on!

My seeding run was clean and I felt good on the bike taking the steep freshly cut section in my stride, with hindsight though I should have pushed harder on the flat section to make more time. The second run on Saturday went really well too, well until the end when I lost concentration and caught my handlebars on a tree seeing my catapulting skywards and, thankfully, landing softly in a large bush. I've only just got all the blasted ticks off my body!

Race day Sunday, I was pleased with my first two runs which went fairly smoothly, I got some mint air-time off some great little jumps and really enjoyed my riding. No dropped chains this time thanks to the Rideworks enduro chainguide which I am race-testing for them. 

Ooooh, shiny!

I was absolutely flying on stage three when I clipped another tree with my wide bars and lost a load of time trying to re-align my cockpit. Struggling, I cruised down the fourth stage not wanting to push it with wonky steering and feeling absolutely gutted with that carry on.  I finished the weekend taking 13th place in the Elite women category.

Wonky bars aside it was a wonderful event and I for one am grateful to the amount of hard work being put in behind the scenes to stage them.  It is a hard kick in the privates then, as some of you are aware, when learning that so many bikes were stolen by professional bike thieves that evening, it really beggars belief and I hope that they're caught sooner rather than later.  Maybe we could crowd-fund some replacements for the riders, just an idea?

It was lovely to see so many friendly faces from last season and, especially as a PE teacher, it is great to see so many young people coming into the sport, I was really impressed with Tyde D'Souza and Martha Gill.

A big shout out to Steve Parr for hosting such an awesome event and again to sing the praises of the little guys like The Billy Can Catering and the other unsung heroes behind the scenes who help to make the events what they are.  Well done guys, see you all at the next round.

Robyn

x


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One Industries Mini Enduro Round 2, Forest of Dean, 26th April 2015

After a two week long touring bike fest under the gorgeous Spanish sunshine I was excited to be railing my Orange Five through the Forest of Dean's relentless twisting and turning trails with the One Industries Mini Enduro Series.

The race stages were looking full on and challenging in practice, the dry conditions suiting my riding style perfectly. On top of that I had two good friends racing alongside me this weekend as well, Gemma Ingall and Hazel Townsend, we all a great day practising the stages.

Stage one was my favourite, it involved a steep start straight over a fallen tree followed by tight twists and then a steep root-strewn section which lead into a drop at the bottom. I nailed the start but on a sneaky fast line dropped my chain, I’ve become pretty rapid at putting it back so thankfully didn't lose much time.  You need to keep a level head as you can't let these things make an impact on the rest of your runs.  I’m also excited to be race-testing a prototype Rideworks Enduro chainguide soon too, watch this space, good times! 

Stage two felt like the longest with a mixture of fast stretched out pedal-as-hard-as-you-can sections at the top with some rocky berms keeping you in check and a twisty woodland section at the bottom.

Stage three was amazing, I felt like I was flying as my Manitou equipped Orange just soaked up the terrain. We started off on a slight descent where keeping a good cadence up was key, the hardest part was further on where a fresh line had been cut through what I can only describe as a ploughed field!  Despite all of my hard training over winter I really had to keep psyched up for this section, it was hard.  The second half of the trail was sensational though, I really felt like I was flying and my line choice was perfect, well it was until I took a sharp right hand turn too late resulting in me taking the corner on the floor!  It wasn't pretty and the stage is never over until you’ve crossed the finish line, everything in equal measure, ahem!

I was feeling apprehensive on stage four, it was with regards to a long traverse through the forest which went on for a fair while and by this point I was feeling a little fatigued.  Over-psyching myself on the start line resulted in me pushing too hard through the first couple of turns, I took a wrong line and came off the bike. This lost time was made back up with a gutsy push down the straight section towards the end though, move over boys!

Once the times were tallied up I was relieved to take second place in a closely finishing field but also felt frustrated that I didn’t get a run in where I felt a 100%.  With Enduro racing it all needs to come together on the day and I was a little out of the zone for this race.  All of that aside it was great to see so many friendly faces from last season too, I've missed you guys!

Thanks to the organisers, all of the marshals and competitors for making it a top event.  See you all at the next one!

Robyn

x

The Brutal Planet.... Enduro World Series/Tweedlove, Innerleithen, 31st May - 1st June

Photo copyright of Ian Linton

"That was probably one of the toughest weekend’s racing of my life. I’ve never dug so deep and had so many words with myself. Eight awesome stages, 94 km and 2,900 metres of climbing. Pretty happy to place 28th against the world’s fastest riders."
- Angie Coates, Enduro World Series, Innerleithen.

Photo copyright of Ian Linton

For me this race will go down as one of the most exhilarating and soul destroying, yet in the same breath, also one of the most amazingly fun weekends of my life.  I almost didn't end up going after having my driving licence revoked the day before but shit happens and I just worked around it.  Steve being ill didn't help matters much and I'd been super busy at work, if I am honest just didn't feel like racing my bike, especially competing against the world's best. 

I motivated myself with the fact that I would get to see my friends for four days of pandemonium and throw my Orange Five about with aplomb, couldn't say "no" then really could I?!  

Photo copyright of Ian Linton

After heading up on the Thursday morning, I met up with Helen and Sarah and we got the wheels rolling straight away.  The race was a two-day format with day one taking us from Peebles along to the infamous golf course finishing on the Innerleithen side before spinning back to Peebles. Day Two was at Glentress equally as intense. 

The Weapons; Sarah Newman, Helen Gaskell, Angie Coates & Bex Barona

Our medicine show was soon on the road and we headed to the golf course for some practice, the tracks were sick, steep twisty turns littered with roots and rock, the transitions were tiring, draggy fire road. We finished Thursday on Stage 4 across on the Innerleithen side and that was me done. On Friday we all decided to take it easy, Glentress wasn't as technical so I opted to race those blind on the Sunday in order to get a bit of practice at Inners on Stage 3.  This stage put the biggest smile on my face ever, it was on 'Pro Spacer' which is one of my most favourite tracks ever, the steep turns brought the old full on downhill lass out in me, I could ride that track every day for breakfast. So.Much.Fun!

Waiting at the top of Stage 4 with my amazing Michelin Wild Rock R2 tyres all set for the assault...

Photo copyright of Ian Linton

After an evening of relaxing and preparing on Friday evening I was race ready, the girls were first off at 8.15am (How early? Yes, I know, that's what I said!).  A 12km spin along the Tweed Valley to Inners and then up towards the golf course tracks, we only had 1.5 hours to get to the top of the hill for Stage 1 from Peebles so I channelled my inner Linda Carter!  It was hard to gauge how much time we had, for me the stages were pretty tight over the whole weekend, but this is as they should be really, it was achievable and not impossible. 

Photo copyright of Ian Linton

Photo copyright of Liam Moss

My first two stages were utter crap, I just wasn't in the zone and maybe still asleep. Bex was behind me and we ended up overtaking each other at different places laughing as we went. It made it really fun but not great for times and positions obviously.  Soon we were off over to Inners and Stage 3 which cheered me right up, my Five felt absolutely amazing down there, just like a mini DH bike.  I held it together and kept it clean, the same with Stage 4 really although I over-cooked the brakes here so popped to see Tim Flooks once I got back down who sorted them out. 

One Orange Five, fully primed and ready to rock....

Once done dunked my big ass in the River Tweed to cool off!!! Phew!!  That night Steve came up to support me with the Bo dog, happy days!!  Still a poorly mite though.

Day two; we had just one hour to get to the top of the Black Route at Glentress next to the mast! I made it with just 45 seconds to spare, wiped my goggles and hit the trail blind. Wiped out some tape after missing a turn but it was an awesome trail, in fact every stage at Glentress was new to me and I cant wait to do them again. I had a couple of moments on some stages and a stall on Stage 3, bugger, but all in all I was fairly happy. The last track was the best by far, it felt like the bottom of the Megavalanche track, absolutely blinding.

Photo copyright of Ian Linton

Photo copyright of Ian Linton

Photo copyright of Ian Linton

Sarah and Helen, such natural posers eh!

Come of the end of Sunday I placed 28th out of about 40 girls in the E1 category and was really happy considering everything.  I just had a mint four days riding with my best mates and soon-to-be bridesmaids :)

Roll on the next one. 

I would just like to add a big THANK YOU here going out to Ian Linton for the pics, they are amazing, thanks Ian x

Hope everyone's doing well out there, my next report will see me taking you all on a journey around the Tour de Mont Blanc, join me soon!

Angie

xx

Into the rugged North... the Alwinton Enduro, May 4th 2014

(Photo copyright of Geoff at Backpacking in Britain)

Whilst Angie's away with the Team Berghaus crew in sunny Spain the Seagull’s here with the Alwinton NDH Enduro run down, let’s do this!

Last weekend saw the second round of the NDH Enduro Series at Alwinton forest, for those of you who didnt race it last year this is probably the meanest most testing Enduro race in the UK, putting it bluntly you go there to hug trees and get bruises!

(Photo copyright of Paul Mears)

Alwinton’s tracks are notoriously steep, fast, rooty and all out naughty, absolutely perfect for my trusty Orange Five! There’s not a lot of pedalling involved which is what makes life great. With its wild nature it’s insanely fun to ride and incredibly hard to race on as the majority found out, myself included!

(Photo copyright of Victoria Dawe)

The tracks were in awesome condition, still fairly wet from the previous week’s rain but that just made for good entertainment. Just about everyone on the hill seemed to be smiling even though the majority of us spent a lot of time on our arses!!

(Whoops….!)

This was probably one of the best races i’ve done in over two years, there were 3 race tracks in total (all dirtily technical) and due to the nature of them it was damn hard to get clean runs, I tip my hat to the few that managed it.

(Photo copyright of Paul Mears)

It certainly felt like I was riding fast yet couldn’t quite keep it together and kept humping trees hahaha! Luckily for me that was the only order of the day as most people took a tumble or two, I finished in second place which I was very chuffed with, flat pedals for medals at Alwinton I tell ya! 

Mega apologies to Orange Mountain Bikes for not wearing a team jersey on the podium, I think the previous bloodied arm photos explain why and me not wanting to look like an extra from ‘The Walking Dead’ up on the step!

(Photo copyright of Paul Mears)

All in all it was a great weekend and a massive thanks goes out to the NDH crew for making these kinda races take place. In my opinion the no-frills approach along with Carl Davison’s track building skills gives way to some of the best racing in the country, well done again bro’!

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The future's bright.....

.... the future's purple....

Bigging up the mighty guys at Orange Mountain Bikes for their amazing support with Steve and Angie this year, Five RS abounds.... they've just gone live with a write on their website, go and have a look: Orange Support The Development Enduro Team