I’ve previously been put off DH races due to the amount of time sat around waiting for a few timed runs (this expectation is based on experience of ski races), plus I’m far too slow to be competitive! However I’m now considering some of the smaller (and hopefully friendlier) Enduro races next year, but wondered if there is much hanging about involved? How are the races typically organised (are you given a start time to arrive by and then crack on or do you arrive in the morning and wait for your turn to start)? I don’t intend to be overly competitive, but would like something I have to train for so I’m not last! Thanks

Some waits at stage starts but other than that zero.

Turn up for practice, get your start time, practice, turn up at your start time on race day, race.

You’re on your bike pretty much all day IME.
Maybe a bit of a wait for the halftime flapjacks…

You have a start time, and a start time for each stage normally.

Depending how un/fit you are, will vary the time waiting for each stage. I can’t imagine you want to be hanging around for more than 10-15 minutes at each start, so you vary your pace accordingly for the transitions 🙂

It depends, some events you get to pick your start time, so if you are near the start you don’t have to wait around much.

PMBA series was set up like this last year, and the slower riders generally set off first.

Some are a free for all, so if you don’t get to the start of stage 1 early, you’ll be waiting round for people to set off. I did hamsterley this year, and was near the back and had to wait around 30mins at each stage. The track also got chewed up more so you were at a bit of a disadvantage, was my excuse anyway 🙂

at the last enduro1 on the quantocks I was managing to get to the start of each stage with about 30s to spare, but then I wasn’t on top form and suffering a bit.

even the quick guys were only getting a couple of minutes to spare.

Sometimes you get a long wait, especially if there’s been a red flag- I think the longest I’ve ever been stopped was about an hour but in most races there’s almost none

(most races aren’t seeded but in practice, that doesn’t actually make all that much difference)

Thanks all, I now need to find something suitable to book and train for (hopefully the FoD enduro will be on a suitable weekend). I’m sure this has already been done before, but do you have any specific areas to look at while training? My main goal for this year is to get fitter (and shift a little bit of weight that’s snuck on since my son arrived), so I can enjoy riding more, but are there any other areas that in your experience may need a bit of attention? Thanks

Going fast when you don’t know the track.

In my great experience of one race I thought that although I’m quite fit and can churn up climbs relatively quickly I found that I did not have raw power to crank out on the pedally bits. I’m slow on the technical bits due to technique but I thought that I’d be able to make up time on the flatter sections. Not so.

Worth being tactical about the liason stages. You’ll be penalised if you miss your gate slot, but if you get there early, you need to wait for your group, and then your slot in that group.

Pay attention to your transition timings in practice and try to avoid the urge to race people who may be a group or two earlier unnecessarily. You’ll burn energy you don’t need to and guarantee yourself a cooling wait.

Unless an emergency makes it impossible, don’t skip practice and ride everything if you want your best race day result.

^ note that enduros vary in setup. Make sure you know if you will have a set start gate time (eg, ukge) or you can go as soon as everyone else already there has started (eg, ardrock)

If you can ride to a decent level, then get fit. Then get fitter. And get some decent, repeatable sprinting power.