Funny one from the Mean and Dirty events guys.
I did their XC winter series- the races at Ebworth park had a fair bit of tech. I loved it- tech is were I fair well. Lots of riders pushing and falling off. Huge bottlenecks.

I came back to do the Mad Enduro at Ebworth and they made a big song and dance about all new course. Low and behold half of it was the same descents. Some people still struggling on the same tech bits with their 160mm carbon bling machines.

Makes you appreciate what a good rider with a 100mm of travel can get away with.

Really good events by the way- well priced, good course and nice staff.

I was actually taking the piss, i’d rather stop cycling. 😉
I was always a far far better climber than i was descender, i could hold my position (without getting in the way, Molgrips) going down, and make up big chunks of time on the next climb. Thing is, in an XC race (the race thing is important) you are trying to complete the entire course in the shortest possible time. You can make up much much more time on the climbs than you can descending. So why risk pressing on while descending? Why even set the bike up for descending? Even a terrible descender, on a slammed, skinny tyred climbing machine will only lose 20 odd seconds on a typical 1-2 minute UK descent, yet make up twice that (or more) on the next climb…… and most of them aren’t actually that bad at descending. Not at the pointy end anyway.

Maybe molgrips needs to do some training.

Yeah I was just jesting too. Im also way way better at climbing. My descending is awful though, I can loose a lot more than 20s on a descent 😆

@cokie – there are a fair few hand cut hashtag enduro trails near me. They are way easier than a lot of the xc race descents.

Go and become an enduro racer then!

Tempted, never done one though.

So why risk pressing on while descending? Why even set the bike up for descending?

I don’t take big risks but I often seem to catch mid-table riders up on descents easily enough. When I’ve done team lap races I can keep up with elites on the flats and downs, they just don’t seem to slow down for climbs!

Maybe molgrips needs to do some training.

Don’t we all? 🙂