The name “Enduro” has been hotly disputed since its beginning.

Has it really, though? [/quote]

Perhaps not so much on STW but there was a lot of debate early on, particuarly from DH guys like Peaty.

Interestingly almost the exact same conversation as this thread was being had over 4 years ago when it was all kicking off: Pinkbike article and comments

It also requires a high level of organisation. I’ve raced two EWS’ with timed transitions, you have a set start time for each stage to the exact second. What that meant was very little queuing at each stage and it was all very organised.

On a non-timed event you have folk arriving at stage starts randomly, even with staggered starts at the very beginning. Needs much more strict organisation and would really reduce entries in my opinion

Enduro is so yesterday, it’s all about Endooro now.

limits on transition time are fine but tend to go to shit so needs good organisation.

Timing any uphill stage would be shite and I suspect you would get sod all entries as I’m not sure who you would appeal to. If I wanted to be timed racing up hill I’d just race XC as that is the proper test of fitness. If I didn’t want to ride uphill I’d race DH.

Enduro works as it is in its own sort of way. Enduro is just meant to be a race that mirrors how most people ride. Up then go fast on the downs.

No problem with introducing technical downhill stages as it should be progressing peoples riding. Even the odd piece of flat sprint.

kimbers – Member

Enduro1 did the odd uphill stage, they were shit, especially the round at Aston
They also used to do trials sections with penalties for dabbing too!

Worse race I have ever done but some of the skills sections enduro 1 used to run were good.

but the required a judge and not really very enduro.

My definition of enduro: Ride to the top of the hill, race to the bottom.

tomhoward – Member

The trouble with timing the transitions, and them counting towards toward the race time, is that the races would be won and lost on the climbs.

Yup. In fact not even on climbs, a lot of people think that even a long pedally stage can turn a race excessively. Not so much that “pedalling isn’t part of racing” or whatever, but that by definition a long stage has more impact on timing than a short. But there’s other ways, you could weight the stages so that it averages out, if you really wanted it- so a minute on a 20 minute climb would count the same as 15 seconds on a 5 minute stage.

But that all gives up on simplicity for, well, for a climbing stage that I think most people don’t want.

The original tweedlove enduro has 2 long timed climbs but you could drop IIRC your slowest 2 stages. I don’t remember how it all really worked, whether it was your longest stage time (so it’d be the climbs) or your worst place, or what. But I beat Crawfy so who cares? 😆

OTOH the Fair City Enduro had a single steep sprint climb and it was actually hilarious- it was so short that it couldn’t dominate the racing and it was interesting to do. Also it had a man at the top with a trumpet playing you home. Done right it can be a good addition.

(they also had a trials section in the park at the end which was good fun but too easily cheated- you could just ride round sections without penalty. OTOH it was a prime chance for everyone to see Joe Barnes’ sportsmanship in action. And it had a deadly seesaw that if you rode it too fast, was essentially just a ramp into the sky, awesome)

The last KLL enduro had a stage that had 2 grim climbs in it, I think one was effectively a push for most of the field, the other became a push for a lot. It was pretty interesting though, I think a lot of riders just lost interest. From somewhere i produced some actual willpower and suffered the climbs but then charged on after and even though I flatted late in the stage I still pulled out a not-bad result. (I passed a couple of riders who were just trundling down, they’d let it beat them) It did define some people’s results but I think mostly because they let it.