Signed up for Naughty Northern Enduro. Never done a UK off road event before and was just wondering what the average fitness level will be like here / at other UK enduro events?

Will anyone just be out for the day having fun or is everyone a super serious Strava warrior / pro.

Both! Enjoy!

I also entered the world of enduro this year with ok fitness levels and what I thought was a good technical level of riding
But found the events both physically and technically demanding.
I ended both events in the bottom quarter, but thats not to say I was put off, I really enjoyed the races and its actually spurned me on to improve both my fitness and speed.
So much so that I entered two more this year.

Did my first Enduro at Llandegla at the weekend and I must say I was surprised at how high and consistent the level was. Given I used to race XC and generally consider myself pretty fit I thought a top half finish on my local trails would be attainable. As it was the new stage they cut in for the event was beyond me, steep, loose loam and I had a nightmare first stage with a crash and finished just above the bottom quarter, though I did break comfortably into the top 100 on the final stage which I know very well. To sum up, fitness helps, but technical ability is far more important. I know guys who competed who on a regular ride I can comfortably out pace them on the climbs and flat but beat me because they’re better technically. So practise your tech riding is what I’d recommend!

Don’t go in with any expectations of a decent result. Just aim to get round, gain experience and set a realistic goal for the next one. You’ll get an idea of where you strengths and weaknesses are and what you need to work on before the next one.
They’re good fun and even better if you compete with mates. Once you’ve done a couple, you’ll get a feel for who your rivals might be and who you would like to be beating.
Fitness is important but so is technical ability and bottle.
I thought I was quick until I did my first enduro. Soon realised that I wasn’t race quick. My riding has come along loads since starting but still have plenty to improve on.

The QECP Day / Night Enduro course was 18km with 800m of climbing. Practice time was 2 hours (I think) then the race lap. So lets call that 4hrs with a break of say 30 mins to ride 36km with 1600m of climbing. Sadly I had to no show as thats beyond me, had I known I would not have entered 😳

Cheers all, can’t wait. Not anywhere my peak level of fitness, just wanted to make sure there was no minimum. I’m on the Watt bikes during the week and off road at weekends so sure I’ll be a Strava warrior before long myself 🙂 Just had fun out in Morzine / Les Gets and was fine on most stuff – that pesky newest Pleney red run got me though. Nothing like getting back into MTB to get fitness back.

Jamba, generally time limits are not observed, Get to it.

SillySilly – is it the Naughty Northumbrian you’ve signed up for?

groundskeeperwilly – Yes, that’s the one.

Think it’s 400 riders so there’ll no doubt be a mix of fitness. Although I do believe it is a big day in the hills from what I’ve heard.

I have always been near the bottom/back at races I’ve done but usually there’s some good laughs at the back!

Only done a couple but found the downhill fitness just a different world to general XC capability. The raw numbers of the day in distance, climbing etc were fine, fairly large but basically unremarkable, but I was pure gasping on the race stages in a way I didn’t really know how to deal with. Hands like claws on the bars.
Was chatting to one lad in an EWS event who was passing me on the reg from about 4 back who said he was relatively new to MTBing, and it was only recently that he had gotten fit enough to ride for 3 hours (!) He was, though, ‘quite experienced’ with motorcross.

You should absolutely do it though, like anything you get a few under the belt and you start to learn the ropes, and working up some basic DH fitness wouldn’t be a big deal.

if you can do the distance then you will be fine, just expect to be passed, have very little time at transition and try to keep smiling 😉

You need a few races under your belt to get the feel of how to race them, did a couple of enduros last year (work got in the way of a lot) and I realised I’d forgotten how to race them.

Got my head into the game before EWS at Derby to a point but the main thing that got me was decison making when tired, forgot to eat a couple of times and I paid for that in the end.

A garmin and an idea of the transition times is your friend out there.

Find out from the organiser whether there will be transition times or if riders just have a start time and then queue when they get to stages, it might well be the latter for a grassroots event like this.

Friends who’ve raced there tell me it’s steep woodland trails, so as others have suggested above I think riding skills will make the difference rather than outright fitness.

You need both to be right at the top obvs, but from racing the more technical PMBA rounds I’d say it’s easier to get in the top half of the field being skilled but unfit than it is being fit but unskilled – if that makes sense?

At Enduro events I go to I have more fitness than most though still not as high as good as the top lads. My technical skill really lets me down.

I do regular wattbike sessions by my MMP is 405 on the ramp test and I’m 69kg so that should give you a good idea of fitness.

I would echo those comments about skill being more important than fitness unless there are multiple stages with nasty climbs in them.

Hi lawman91, I was marshalling on Stage 4 at the weekend, scorching day!

It was interesting seeing it from a non riding perspective. When I’m riding everyone seems faster on the stages, I feel out of my depth compared with a good chunk of the field on descents. Pedalling transitions never feels like an issue, I feel great, can pedal up all day (not fast!) and more hardcore gravity orientated folks are totally dead. However I’ve not done some of these big day out mega climb Enduro’s. Clearly not all Enduro’s are alike.

I’d echo what fr0sty said above; generally speaking your technical skills are going to count way more in the rankings than fitness for pedalling up. If you are of average fitness, but you can shrug off gnar with barely a flick of the CTD dial then you’ll probably do well.

If it’s any consolation I’m also doing it as my first endure. My fitness is currently decidedly poor and I’m also probably the heaviest I’ve ever been.

I’m sure I’ll enjoy the day though…got four days in the Alps and some road riding in Majorca in the next 4 weeks to help spur me on.

I also did the enduro at llandegla on Saturday. Ive only done 2 other enduro races, and compared to those it was less technical and a lot harder physically. As I’ve had 3 months off the bike this was a bit annoying for me. Two laps of that wouldn’t normally be hard for me but I found it a lot harder riding it at ‘race pace’ and was tired the next day. Equally you could just ride normally which would make it easier.

@sillysilly – I’m glad you asked these questions 🙂 I signed up for the 3 stage Naughty ‘Lite’ just to get a feel for the type of event. My goal is to get round and hopefully have some fun without ending up in A&E.

For the future a general level of fitness is needed for the day. If you’re fine riding all day you should be ok.
For stages you need good aerobic and strength. Ability to sprint. Remember to breath.

But more important (but don’t forget fitness) is technical skill. That’s not riding trail centres fast. You need to ride loose, technical, multiple line choice tracks.

Find some local tracks and just practice riding them without stopping, ride up and repeat.

But don’t worry too much. Just go and enjoy the tracks with no expectations of a result. See how you do and where you can improve.