I can’t make this upcoming round and despite various riders saying they’ll have my entry it’s still unclaimed. I know these races sold out very quickly so I’d like someone to have it, aside from the fact I’ve paid £40 for a race I can’t do. You can change the category to whichever one you want.

Emailed you – bit late in the day but hoping this is still available!

Damn, I was definitely gonna beat you at this round too chief

I’ve had to withdraw from the rest of the series as my job has changed and I can’t make 2 out of last three. If anyone wants my places drop me an email [ stevensjono at hot mail dot com ]. I have emailed Scott but I think he’s probably flat out at the moment.

Milland was really well organised and the last round is there too. It’ll be ace in the dry.

*Hijack*I assume I could go and spectate at this? Would I see much to make it worth going? I’m only 20 mins up the road.

Jono – emailed you 🙂

Well that was fun , shagged after 10 runs down the hill, didn’t go quite as planned chain jammed at end of 5 and start of 6 , think I’ve bent my mech hanger,
Would’ve been nice to do a big loop there, but it was hard enough as it was!
Was surprisingly grippy too and the weather held out very well

I had a shocker in practice. Fell of 7 times between stages 1 & 2. Couldn’t get the rock gardens on 2 dialled. Humidity made my glasses fog to the point I couldn’t really see most of the time and my freehub decided to start sticking so my chain would unship at random times.
I had a strop/sulk and for the first time in 20-odd years of racing took my number board off and dns’d.
Hoping the QE round gets my mojo back, I am sure today’s stages were good but I was utterly awful on them and I couldn’t bear the idea of having to ride 1 & 2 twice at race pace.
Well done all who had more moral fibre than me…

I feel your pain..! I’m a bit of a fair-weather rider and just couldn’t get to grips (literally) with the slimy chalk so I DNS’d as well rather than risk the massive off I was likely to have. Need to ride more in wet weather I think, I just lose all confidence otherwise.

I’m sure it’s a great venue but for an Enduro race doing the same transition climb six times and two of the stages twice would have just sucked the fun out of it for me.

Was good fun, I suck though. Not really ridden droppy jumpy stuff at all this year so just about got my mojo by the last run. Ride everything well, unfortunately not all on the same run so dreadful performance but loved it.

Wow, really surprised by the above comments, I thought it was all really good and was far grippier than I expected given Tidworth’s reputation.

I did 12 runs and was absolutely loving it. I bottled the jump at the bottom of 2 every time, but apart from that I’m happy with how I rode.

^^^ As mark88, surprised by the comments. It barely rained in the end and was surprisingly grippy by the race. The little rock garden after the jump on 4 was perhaps the trickiest line to get. I fell off about 20 seconds into my first practice stage (Stage 3) which wasn’t confident inspiring but all went alright after that although I only ended mid rankings 😥

From the clips and pics I’ve seen it looked like a good race, shame I couldn’t make it! I understand the point about riding the same transition repeatedly but it’s pretty much impossible to arrange an enduro race in the south east of England that isn’t like that – there just isn’t enough open space that landowners will allow racing on.

I have nothing but respect for what the Southern Enduro crew were able to come up with in such a small area. The stages were as usual inventive and challenging & I don’t really mind using the same transition for all, certainly at Nilland it was great discussing the different stages with riders who’d all started at different times while we pushed/rode up. Really helped the atmosphere & at least you know what to expect!
I was on my usual Vee Fluid/Flow dual compound tyres which work really well over at QE but I seemed to have little to no front wheel grip, especially in the loamy stuff.
I guess I just got into a bit of a downer during practice, seemed like trying to ride a greased pig. Was on my tod as mate who usually races was away so there wasn’t the usual thing of having someone to tell that I was sucking who could have kicked me up the arse and got me to tough it out. (Hell, I raced the QECP summer Enduro last year so I’m obviously not scared of crap conditions!)
I am firmly a back of Masters cat guy, seemingly more so this season for some reason despite loads more riding and better fitness on my part. I always take that in good spirit and only race for fun so I guess once I’d decided I really wasn’t enjoying myself that was it. I loved Milland & the Day/Night, did terribly in both. Not sure what was different really. Mind you, mechanical issues and crappy fogging of glasses certainly didn’t help.
As I say far more a reflection of me than Southern Enduro & I’m hoping I can shake some life into my mojo for the next round.

Thanks for the updates guys, I saw the video all looked quite straightforward ;). Next year, next year.

BTW same transition ? I would assume there’d be no complaints taking the same uplift between stages eh ?

I think the guys did a great job with mixing it all up, even the locals didn’t really have an advantage.

I don’t really like Tidworth as a place to ride, so manage to avoid it like the plague. It was slick first thing, then dried out a fair amount, then a late shower seemed to turn it back to ice for the few who went after.

I managed to do a lot of crashing, had a couple of reasonable stages where I was 4th & 5th in masters, coupled with some howlers, falling off in the most amateur of places. Anyway, I ended up completely nailing myself on the last stage. I was probably the 3rd one down after the rain – the odd double/table thing at the end, clearing it fine all day, me & the bike parted company – the take off was like ice.

I think it might just make it to number one on the big crashes list. I’m expecting a good few weeks off the bike to recover from this one 🙁

I’m not criticising the Southern Enduro team at all either – the tracks were quite inventive in the way they cut back and forth across the hill, and in such a compact area. The going really wasn’t bad either; I’m just such a fair-weather rider I literally have no confidence or ability on anything slippery at all – just need to ride more in bad weather and get experience!

Stage 1 had the most dust I think I’ve ever seen in the UK. Proper bo hero dirt. It’s a shame I sucked at the pedal. If that was wet when do you guys ever ride? I have a layer of dust on my bike.
The rocks were ok there was a definite line which was least peril. I fishtailed badly through em in my last practice so toned it down a bit for race.
I was disappointed in my time. I need to pedal more. I liked the jumps. Stage 4 was my fave. I was ruined after practice. Came 4th in fun.

Fair enough Mattbee, some days it just doesn’t happen and you’re better off calling it quits before you get hurt. Have you thought about moving to fun class for future rounds? Masters class is probably the most hotly contested at these events

I hadn’t even given the transition a thought. Unless you’re riding somewhere pretty spectacular, the transition is just a means to an end, so I’d rather just get to the top in the quickest and easiest way.

Nuke – it sounds like we had very similar days, in practice I crashed on the right hander at the top of 3 and got totally off line on the rocks on 4. Finished mid pack in senior.

Hope nothing too serious Hob Nob, you weren’t the guy that took one to the nuts are you?

Had a great day, 5th in Vets.
Plenty of grip considering.
Amazing what you can do with such a small hill!

Van, normally ride QE, Lordswood, both well renowned for being dry as a bone all the time. Respectfully if you’re finishing 4th in cat (whichever cat it may be) perhaps we are approaching this from different levels of ability? Seems riding for 24 years hasn’t made me that good at it….
M88, I had been pondering moving into Fun actually. I have always bounced between Fun and Sport, last year was mid table to top third of Fun, this year will be my last year in Masters which is why I thought I’d do the series in it but as you say it actually seems to be a pretty high standard cat, even more so this year. Perhaps the success of Scott’s races has brought more ‘proper’ racers along? All good for the series and racing in the South but it’s felt like its pushed me down in the rankings!
Pah, it’s all good. I should probably have just manned the flip up but no point stressing about it. It’s pretty amazing what that little hill contained and it’s only 45 min from home, I think I need to get back up there and give the venue another go.

Van, normally ride QE, Lordswood, both well renowned for being dry as a bone all the time. Respectfully if you’re finishing 4th in cat (whichever cat it may be) perhaps we are approaching this from different levels of ability? Seems riding for 24 years hasn’t made me that good at it….
M88, I had been pondering moving into Fun actually. I have always bounced between Fun and Sport, last year was mid table to top third of Fun, this year will be my last year in Masters which is why I thought I’d do the series in it but as you say it actually seems to be a pretty high standard cat, even more so this year. Perhaps the success of Scott’s races has brought more ‘proper’ racers along?

In the nicest possible way, but 4th in fun puts you down in the bottom 20% of Masters, it’s always been the case – in some races the Masters have been faster than the Elites – it’s a quick category, generally full of people who used to race DH (or still do) and have got fit.

There are always ‘proper’ racers at most events IMO, just the way it is I think.

I’m in no position to talk though, 4th Master at Milland to DNF this race – what a shocker.

Cheers for the comments guys, a couple of thoughts:

The transition I always make it as simple as possible, in the past when I have make a longer transition people just ignore it take the easiest route anyway. So I tend to concentrate getting the stages as fun as possible and taking any local advantage out.

As far as the venue went it worked out really well and I would look at going back there in 2017.

Now onto QECP, this will be the 4th year I have organised this race, Its becoming challenging to keep it fresh but as always I have some tricks up my sleeves.

On 2017 I have 3 new venues in the pipeline hopefully at least 2 will come off.

scott, yeah it was a good little venue. i liked all the stages. i cant make the qecp one but i’ll go back to milland if i can. especially if the beer tent is back 😉

masters is a pretty tough category i’ve only done 2 of this type of race so i’m still finding my feet and defo just in it for fun. i`ve not raced anything for about 15 years – i keep forgetting to pedal!

Race report:

Southern Enduro #2 – Tidworth