well that was hard work
mud cleared up a bit for today but it was colder

glad I got a spot in a bunkhouse last night as camping wouldve been no fun camping!

and was won on a 650b, the 29er is officially dead 😉

(edited for silly spelling)

Dan Atherton won on a 650b didn’t he? A home made one or something…?

http://www.rootsandrain.com/race1596/2013-mar-24-uk-gravity-enduro-1-afan/photos/ some pics up

Not quite homemade, more like custom-factory. EDIT: probably

29er in 2nd of course

thought dan athertons bike looked a bit out of proportion too.

To be fair Dan Atherton could have prob won it on a shopping trolley

That GT is pig ugly with any wheel size on it

agreed atherton would have won on any wheel size the dude is insanely fit.
apparently on stage 4 (total mudfest) Neil Donoghue thought he’d pulled a bit of time on him only to see him running besides him carrying his bike !!

Out of interest, did they use all trail centre tracks, or were some more natural?

mostly trail centre tracks but afan’s are pretty natural feeling by trail centre standards, the exceptions were the second half of stage 4 which was super boggy and a short section joining 373 to the 4x track, good job really because the natural sections were properly boggy with stage 4 being almost un-rideable. would have been amazing if it was dry though.

Two fugly bikes….

Custom dropouts to make the wheel fit according to Dirt… Force has removable/replacable dropouts so wouldn’t be difficult to arrange. Looks a little gawky but I think it’s a large? The Santa Cruz is vile but you can’t see it when you’re riding and if you’re Neil Donoghue nobody else can see you for long either.

Seems a little odd that GT are supporting one of their riders to do UK enduro riding, on a bike you can’t buy in the UK (even as standard) though! Race today, sell tomorr… Hmm.

i quite like the GT but that santa cruz is hideous, i don’t care how much 29ers ignore the laws of physics, i wouldn’t be able to ride the thing because i’d start throwing up as soon as i opened the garage door.

you hit the nail on the head there Northwind dan is likely do do very well in the upcoming enduro word series and the all new 650b 2014 GT force will appear soon after.

Wonder if anyone will sell it!

Haven’t heard from many of the “26” are the fastest for Enduro” brigade in this thread… 😀

Tracey mosely won on a 26

so its just 29ers that are for losers 😉

there were a smattering of 29/650s but most were on 26
being mostly trail centre based it was the least technical of all the rounds it may have suited big wheels better

a higher % of the sponsored riders were on big wheels, whether it is because they were faster or because bike companies want their latest products showcased…..

Haven’t heard from many of the “26” are the fastest for Enduro” brigade in this thread…

“Fastest rider is fastest at Enduro shocker”

The first stage was a cold one, a lot of stuff froze on my bike. Good fun day though although I had a mare in stage 4.

ice in my camelback tube coming off stage 1

I see they couldn’t afford to knock up a podium. 🙂

For a fairly innocuous section of trail centre trail, riding Stage 1 flat out at race pace made it pretty wild, without even considering the ice on a few of the faster corners.

That Santa Cruz is perhaps the ugliest bike I’ve seen in a long time, and Mr Donaghue looks like he thinks so too given the way he’s holding it. I think I’d only ride it if was paid to as well.

saw a few things on twitter over the weekend, all for various enduro:

one 650b won, so clearly 26er and 29er are dead.
one 29er came top of a timing sheet, so clearly 26er and 650b are dead.
one 26er won so clearly 650b and 29er are dead.

That Santa Cruz even makes my Gyro look nice!

a higher % of the sponsored riders were on big wheels, whether it is because they were faster or because bike companies want their latest products showcased…..

Hmmmm, I wonder….

dan atherton wasnt too pleased with the track

and yeah sounds like GT 650b will be out soon

http://dirt.mpora.com/news/dirttv-uk-gravity-enduro-rd1-chit-chatafan.html#comment-798300

Hob Nob – Member

For a fairly innocuous section of trail centre trail, riding Stage 1 flat out at race pace made it pretty wild, without even considering the ice on a few of the faster corners.

Best section of trail on that mountain imo.

I guess Dan is mostly commenting on Stage 4, which frankly was a joke. What I don’t understand is why they didn’t just cut it short? OK, so a 1min section would not have been ideal, but I’d prefer that to trying to run through knee deep slop.

Apart from that, the course was great. Stage 1 was icy and super sketchy. 2 wheel drifts and lots of “uh oh” moments! 2 & 3 were great fun, especially 3 which was really long but loads of fun. Stage 5 was passable too, although there was a muddy bit that wasn’t great, overall I found it OK.

to be fair I saw 1 guy cruise past me while i was stuck fast on stage 4; youve just gotta have the skills!

biggest problem i had was that the transitions were way to lenient, even trying to take my time i was getting to the stages way to early and waiting around, i started every stage with frozen gears due to the waiting.

results are up, my worst event ever! oh dear better get training

http://www.rootsandrain.com/race1596/2013-mar-24-uk-gravity-enduro-1-afan/

Screwed the order up a bit there with all the DNF’s up the top.

Quite pleased with my top 20 in Masters. Shows the strength in depth of the field in that I would have been over 10 places higher in Senior with the same time.

Wish I was doing Innerleithen now.

I really enjoyed it. The training paid off and I didn’t do badly considering I was on a borrowed bike, which I only started riding the friday before the race.

The best sections IMO were the really tight berms in the top/middle of stage 3 and the whole top half of stage 5. I was loving that top section of 5 on the sunday. I almost forgot I was racing, I was having that much fun.

My blog from the race is done if anyone’s interested.
http://peterlloydmtb.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/uk-gravity-enduro-round-1-afan.html