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Enduro6 2007
Pete entered this solo. He felt good and the results proved to be better than last years.
Here's the full report from the British cycling website
Pat Adams and his hard working team pulled it off once more and delivered another memorable enduro weekend under warm sunny skies, amongst bluebell strewn woods, with plenty of likeminded people riding the dry, fast dusty trails.
The weekend itself kicked of with a Women's Challenge ride part of a series of rides put together by Specialized and Giant around the country encouraging people to come along and try out new trails on new bikes. Saturday saw the challenge being promoted to complete lady novices, the idea was to bring along a lady friend who hadn't ridden a bike for years or never ridden a bike at all and give them a chance to try the latest designs of women-specific bikes around the same circuit the hard core riders would be tackling later. The take up was encouraging as groups of women tentitively made their way round the course, all with wicked smiles on their faces enjoying the whole experience, tumbles included!
Then as the sun began to set, competitors began to gather at the start line for the first proper event, the night time trial. A one lap burst of speed around the Enduro 6 course in complete darkness, just you, your bike, a good set of lights (hopefully) and a sense of adventure. With both last year's winner and the previous year's winner away on road racing duty, spectators were speculating who would be worthy to take the TT crown. With the past 2 editions being won by mere seconds, would we be treated to a similar exciting outcome?
We had just over 22mins to find out. With a distant soundtrack drifting over the road from a local wedding, setting the scene, Hope rider Paul Oldham, showing his emerging form after a few years in the doldrums, flew home to claim the first prize in the elite men's race. Behind him the battle was fierce for the remainder podium positions. Jon Pugh came in 61 secs behind Oldham and just tenths of a second faster than Gareth Montgomerie. Stuart Bowers screeched into 4th spot just 2secs adrift.
Jenn O'Connor took a comfortable win in the women's elite race, finishing in 13th spot overall out of the 56 competitors, her only rival an unfortunate Kate George who disappointedly had to abandon the race due to light failure, while Christian Acoute took the honours in the fun men category just 9secs ahead of Paul Ashby. Sara Randle made short work of the competition in the Fun Women's race coming home nearly 3mins clear of second placed rider Jo Kennedy.
As the newlyweds continued parting over the road, the camp site settled down to a dream filled night of more dusty trails, swooping singletrack, mixed with an olfactory banquet of bluebells and wild garlic, washed down with copious quantities of energy drinks. All too soon the dreams were over and the big race day dawned.
With over 540 riders signed up to take on the 6-hour enduro either solo or in pairs, the field was the biggest yet in the event's history. As the minutes edged ever closer to the allotted hour hundreds of riders, bundled behind the start tape jostling for position. Then it was all systems go as on the stroke of 10 the horn was sounded to be replaced by the thundering of cyclists temporarily turned runners as they sprinted a few hundred meters to be reunited with their bikes before they rode of into the distance; the race had begun.
In the elite solo men's race, seasoned pro Nick Craig joined forces with the previous night's TT winner Paul Oldham and the two of them held court at the front of the field. With 10 laps under their belts, the previous night's efforts began to tell and Oldham suffered a bad patch. With Tim Dunford and George Budd not far off Craig kicked and left Oldham to the mercy of the riders behind. 4 laps later and Craig took the win, with just over 6 hours of racing, timed to perfection. Oldham meanwhile regained his composure and holding off the threatening challenge from Dunford took 2nd spot.
Jenn O'Connor continued her winning ways by cruising to a comfortable 1 lap lead to win with 13 laps over 12 laps put in by Wendy Cashmore in 2nd, while the remaining 3rd spot was fought out with just seconds separating the riders. Lynne Taylor finally took 3rd with Heather Dawe just 15secs behind.
Matt Barrett took a convincing win in the fun men's solo race with a clear 14 laps. Steve heading took 2nd with Shaun Wells 3rd. Debbie Cooper, a 2 time winner from previous years on a fully rigid bike, returned to winning ways having traded in her old steed for a new machine with suspension forks to take the win 1 lap clear in the women's fun solo event ahead of vet rider Tracey Miles, with Sarah Lafferty picking up 3rd.
Meanwhile in the men's pairs a right old ding dong battle was taking place, with Evans riders Jamie Newell & Jody Crawforth taking on the mighty Scott riders Stuart Bowers & Jonathon Pugh. As the race unfolded, each rider had close tabs on his rival, the split times keeping apace. Then the previous night's TT again took its toll, and Bowers couldn't keep on the ever-attacking Crawforth's wheel and ever so slightly he started to lose contact with the eager Evans rider.
As the 6 hours ended a delighted Newell hugged his colleague delighted that they'd got the win opening up just under a 3min margin on the gutted Scott boys. An even closer race was being played out behind the first & second spots as 3 teams fought for the remainder podium. Eventually the pairing of Ben Freeman & Andy Cockburn just stretched their lead over Dale & Weaving to take 3rd.
Women's pair Kate George & team mate Gemma Collins of the newly formed B3Sports/Extreme medics team took a comfortable win over Climb On Bikes pairing of Fran Mundy & Kate Wheeler, while their team mates, husband & wife team of Paula & Luke Moseley took a surprised win in the mixed pairs, coming home a lap ahead of father & daughter team of Amy & Roy Hunt. A distraught Jules Toone was gutted to slip down the finishing order when a puncture robbed her & team mate Oli Cox of a podium position that pleasure went to Jill Hume & 24hr road specialist Andrew Wilkinson.
As the event came to a close, hundreds of riders with sore legs and sunburnt limbs but with huge grins made a cheery goodbye to the traditional the start of the XC season. And what a start it was. It had it all, great weather, brilliant atmosphere and a fantastic turn out. Let's hope that it now rains in the week and remains glorious on the weekends so that events like these can run smoothly.
Many thanks to all the suppliers who turned out to support the event village and gave the spectators plenty to ponder over as the race took place. See you at the next one; make a date as the 10th anniversary of Mountain Mayhem, another Pat Adams production rolls into a field near the Malverns. It's gonna be the big one! June 23rd-24th Enduro racing at it's best!
Rider Reaction:
Jamie Newall & Jody Crawforth - Evans
Jamie: It was a very close race all the way through, neck and neck. We were hoping it was going to be a three way race to begin with Gareth Montgomerie & James Ouchterlony in the mix, but James had a bit of a problem on the first lap so that put paid to them. It was nice to be duking out with Stuart (Bowers) & Jon (Pugh) though. The boys in the Scott team are definitely going to be our big rivals at mayhem. Hopefully we can have one over them again at Mayhem. Jody: Yeah it was okay, the running was a bit hard, but as I was the only one doing the cyclo cross I had to do the run. It was great teamwork, I did the run and one more lap than Jamie and it worked out okay in the end.
Kate George & Gemma Collins - B3Sport/Extreme Medics
We just went out and rode as hard as we could. We both did really well; we both brought in some really good lap times, consistently. We knew that one of wasn't going to come in and make the other do a gnarly last lap to make up lost time, we were pretty evenly matched. The course was great, though somehow when I went out the first time it seemed a lot hillier. It's our first win for the new team and manager Dan Jarvis is now going to give us a bonus, but he doesn't know that yet!
Stuart Bowers - Scott UK.
It was a close race all the way from the gun really Jody and I ran together and we stayed together the whole race. Jonny and Jamie were having exactly the same battle, neck and neck all the way. Jonny was on paper the stronger of that pair but Jamie did a storming ride to hang in there. Jody and I were pretty well matched to but when it came down to the last lap Jody was jumping a lot, unfortunately my legs didn't have any jump left when he went and the gap went. That was it once it's gone it's hard to get back. I gave Jonny a hard task on the last lap trying to make good that gap, but he couldn't get it back, it's a real shame as it's been so close all day. I'm a bit under raced at the moment I think that's my problem, I can go hard but I'm going hard at one speed and soon as Jody started attacking that's what killed me in the end. Mayhem should be a different story?
Nick Craig - Scott UK
Me and Paul (Oldham) were riding round nicely and he had a bit of a rough patch, normally I wouldn't have ridden off but there was a guy, Tim Dunford, a few minutes behind us and with Paul feeling a bit tired. I decided I'd better clear off so he wouldn't catch us up. Paul carried on chugging round and kept 2nd - Tim must have slowed down a bit as well by then. I came in at 1min 30secs after the 6 hours and was delighted as it wasn't planned, that was completely, I did what ever I needed to do and I couldn't believe that it worked out so well. If I'd have been earlier I definitely would have joined the lurkers, I didn't want to go round again! Me head was heavy, after over 5 hours of riding it gets really heavy, it's the worse thing. Really good course and great that they changed it a bit - we knew some bit s of it but it was different and we were ready for a change. I finally got to ride my Spark in anger and I can honestly say it's the best bike I've ever ridden. If I had that 15 years ago I'd have been pretty quick!
Amy & Roy Hunt - Orbea
Amy: It was a really good race; I've never done anything like that before. It wasn't as bad as I thought it were going to be but the laps did come round pretty quickly. Dad deliberately came in just before the 6hours were up to make me go out again! I wouldn't expect anything less from my Dad. It was a last minute decision to ride this, I didn't want to ride it on my own it would have been too much, so I asked my Dad and have used it as training really. It's better than slogging out on your own. Brilliant event, the course was good and the atmosphere was excellent. Dad did the run, I didn't want to do that and then we did 2 laps each rota. I drew the short straw and got the last lap so it worked out even in the end really.
Roy: It was good today nice and fast, great event. I thought I'd better get my own back on the last lap as she (Amy) got me to do the run. I enjoyed the run it went better than I thought, in the race itself, my lap times were faster than I thought and I'm flippin well making the most of beating her (Amy) lap times while I still can!
Paul Oldham - Hope
Excellent weekend for me, about time really, I don't win much but when I do I win stuff that I work with? Great. The TT was excellent; I like riding round in the dark and to win it was brilliant. I suffered a bit today though because of it I think. I started to fade a bit but still had a good race and got 2nd, I think I've won enough now to cover the cost of a new sterilizer for the baby, result!
Jenn O'Connor - Patterson Training
It was a long hard race today it was very bumpy out there obviously there's not a lot of climbing or descending so there's not a lot of respite. I was pleased with my result I was sure that my form was a 100% but I got there in the end with a good result. It's been a great weekend, the weather especially made the going easier. The night time trial was great fun, I love riding at night, it was a real blast. It was much more fun riding the course last night as you just had to do the one lap!
Sara Randle - Climb On Bikes
I really enjoyed the night time trial it went really well, I just decided to go flat out caught a couple of people in the first 1/2 mile and decided to try and catch everyone else! I did so I came in first after starting 7th so pretty happy with that. Not a a good race for me today, didn't quite make it to the start?
Debbie Cooper
I love this event, I've won here previously not last year as I had technical problems and didn't even get round the first lap. I've been doing this event the last couple of years on a rigid bike but after last year, I've got a new bike with front suspension, so that helps. This is all part of my training really as I'm looking to do the Xterra events, I'm a triathlete really but just love the mountain bike side of things. I had a fantastic race today, I really enjoyed it nothing went wrong, it was perfect which was so different from last year.
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