Where’s the obligatory SES thread? Just home so thought I’d start one, if I’ve just missed it then shout me down…

…disclaimer, I didn’t actually do the race! Timing and weather meant I could only ride one day so I decided to do away with the hassle of race day and just make a massive day of practice. That’d have been anathema a few years ago but you know, I’ve done a lot of enduro races and it’s hard work. I’m on holiday damn it 😆 I was there to ride a new spot mostly and, great success.

My first time down there and the stages were bloody ace. The out-in-the-open rocks and mud stuff was so cool, like a less relentless Kinlochleven, I love that sort of thing. Quite hard to find flow especially with the occasional seas of mud and bottomless ruts, and generally haphazard nature, but when you get into it, it’s pretty awesome. Pretty rough and ready and obviously had struggled with the rain on friday but I guess that’s also what makes the good bits so good.

Stage 6 was just fantastic, loved surfing down the top mud-and-ruts deal, then it just kept on going, and going… The dam made me laugh out loud. Maybe I’d have been less keen at race pace but as a ride it was just so damn good. Pedally, sure, but it had a sense of progress and it didn’t feel like spurious pedalling for the sake of it like that shit EWS stage did.

The stage in town I’m kind of conflicted on… Bottom line, I don’t think 50 seconds makes an enduro stage. Maybe I’d oversold it to myself thinking “castle hill” would be more than a slightly bigger rock on the beach 😆 And I really don’t like anything that messes with the practice day/race day format, same with UKGE seeding- just makes it more hassly to do your thing. I often arrive late and practice into the evening and I know I’m not alone, and other folk will rock up on the day and race blind, not an option with this.

Buuuut, it was awesome wasn’t it? The festival feeling down at the front is something I’ve only felt at the EWS before. All I can think of is how other venues could emulate it or find something else to match. The closest I’ve ever seen was the fair city enduro’s junior kickstart stage at the end but it didn’t compare. It felt like being part of something a bit bigger than just 300 idiots riding into trees- so often, enduros start quietly and fizzle out, we lack fireworks.

All in all, felt like a bloody triumph to me. Dunoon Presents smashed it. Road closures ffs! For us! The best race HQ ever, a lovely town to visit, a boat trip to kick it off. And first class riding to back it up. When you consider the location and the size of the town it’s fairly ridiculous. There’s things that I’d change and about 100 drains I’d dig but then I’m a moany prick.

(oh OK, on that note… stage 3 was bollocks IMO. It did have some great riding in it, but it had quite a lot of rubbish riding in it too, and a horrendous transition. And unless I missed a sign, a fire road descent afterwards. To be fair, I might well have missed a sign, because as per No Fuss tradition the signing was a bit crap. OK moan over, it was still ace)

And as an aside, what a great place to visit. If Fort William wasn’t shite it might be a bit like Dunoon. I’ll be back for sure.

Great stuff. I’m from sunny Gourock across the water, and used to go across to Dunoon in the 80s with friends on terrible early MTBs to hack our way about the forests and over the hills. Was great fun, always felt that the general area must be ripe for MTB development, fantastic to see this happen.

Proper gutted at missing this one but the bike was out of action. My mates had a great time.

Nice write up from Trev Worsey: http://enduro-mtb.com/en/poc-scottish-enduro-series-round-5-dunoon/

That looks ace.

Not enduro, but a few months back Dunoon hosted a round of the Scottish XC series using – from what I can see in that ^^ write up’s photos – much of the same terrain.

Probably the least ‘XC’ course on this year’s series (the descents scared the bejesus out of a load of people!) it was a fantastic weekend, primarily because of the work done by Dunoon Presents, the SXC folks and the local trailbuilders. Those trails were built with LOVE. A really demanding race but all run in a wonderfully friendly atmosphere with the town totally welcoming the event, both for practice the day before and on race day itself.

Cowal peninsula’s a great place to take your bike, I’ve always loved riding there on the road, the Tighnabruaich/Otter Ferry loop or down from the main road from the Rest & Be Thankful/Hell’s Glen; until we went racing there I didn’t know how good it was for MTB. Look forward to going back.

Nice one, sounds like I to need to get over there.

FWIW I’m also not a fan of evening prologue stages – although closed road town centre MTB racing is amazing – the only one of those I’ve done before*, I was still in the car for, so was awarded the slowest time of the riders to complete it.

*Dunedin 3 Peaks

Anyone have a gps or strava of the route please?

As one of the Cowal Mountain Bike Club members who was marshalling all weekend, really glad you liked it and said nice things about us. I was the marshall at the start of stage 3 (the pedally/uphill/burn-crossing start that got such stick!). Was great to chat to everyone and to have loads of people coming to ride in our back garden.
There’s a hardcore of about 5-6 trail builders who have handcarved most of the routes and built many of the bridges (including the slippery one at the bottom of ‘Burnside’).
There’s other trails that weren’t used (including ‘Hobo’ which was used for the SXC and did indeed scare the bejesus out of plenty of riders!) and more if you head south towards Innellan & Toward, or equally north over to Sandbank & Kilmun.
Have a search for the CMTB facebook page and give us a shout if you’re thinkin of coming over, there’ll probably someone happy to show you round the trails. And the coffee & ice cream shops!

Rob

Best bike race I have done in the UK. Prologue was fantastic. Understand an evening commitment can be problematic for those with other commitments (kids ect) but suspect most folks were staying in town due to the whole across the water business. Really set the race apart. Other wise trails very good especially 5.

I was there and thought it was awesome from beginning to end. It was way bigger than I expected. I’m sure organisers said it would be 15 mins of racing. Well elites were around 20 and I was past 28 mins!
Northwind, you may have had a slightly different experience on S6 come race day. It was extremely slippery. I loved it on practice but struggled with it in the race. Much of the pine needle loam had been dragged off to leave slick mud and roots. S3 was a good challenge.
Thanks for marshalling tandemwarriors, you were one of many great folk I met that day.
I agree, bella, prologue was fantastic. It didn’t matter it was 50s (or 62s for me), it was a hoot! It wasn’t compulsory to race either, you just had to accept slowest time +5s.

I did S6 pretty late on saturday, it was slippery death then 😆 But I likes slippery death. Except for the bit where I fell in the stream

It wasn’t compulsory to race either, you just had to accept slowest time +5s.

Not compulsory but if you don’t do it you get a massive penalty? Makes it a bit compulsory really

There was a video posted on the CMB Facebook page of the Prologue https://vimeo.com/cfproductionsvids/review/182597022/ba305f2ebd

And loads of great photos too http://ronniecairns.instaproofs.com/store/?page=singleCategory&event=1400957&reset=1&id=3366761