Should racers expect more groomed trails? Mud; roots; verticality; carnage – all these are words typically associated with racing in many places in Scotland and elsewhere. Should Enduro be any different? Would a simpler course which lets more people compete – or at least induces fewer people to drop out – be better? The debate is raging on the EWS Tweed Valley forum thread.
BoardinBob writes: “Hearing a lot of people moaning about the trails. Surely they didn’t enter expecting groomed trail centre stuff?” After mentioning riders dropping out of the event because of the technicality of the course, he continues: “I know a lot of people who didn’t manage to get an entry and they would have loved these trails.”
Wysiwyg is not convinced it’s overly technical: “Well I’ve been down all the stages now. Nothing overly gnar. Slidey and muddy. All perfectly doable on a hardtail.”
But perhaps the issue here isn’t so much the technicality of the course, but the ‘open to all’ access requirements. After all, as Legend says: “Ordinary punters wouldn’t try and get themselves into a WC DH or XC event, but they can and do get into the Enduro equivalent.”
Chris85 thinks that “it’s a skill to ride technical steep sections; far too often these Enduro events are based more on fitness”.
So what should it be? Fast and groomed? Steep and techy? Let us know!
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I think Cedric didn’t even make it to the hard bit before falling on his arse 🙂
Looks great in all the photos & headcam I’m seeing! Can’t comment on how it compares to other UK enduro stages, but I’ve ridden a few stages from Italian and French series rounds and I think a lot of folk would be very surprised at how technical the trails are, and the consequence of falling in some areas, esp the “rallye format” french rounds with no practice. Dare I say there’s no such thing as too hard, just not good enough….
I agree with Grum P. I’ve done a couple of the rounds of the Itailian Enduro series, Sauze d’ Oulx and Finale Ligre twice before the WES came in to being. If you fell off on some of those exposed sections you quite probably wouldn’t be cooming back.
I think grump p sums it up, “not good enough”. It’s about riding a bike off road I thought and that can be anything. Isn’t enduro supposed to encompass abit of everything? I would love to have gone, shame on those that pulled out because it was beyond them.
I would of walked the bits that I didn’t have enough balls for. Some of the trails look like my local woods in any wet winter.
what about having different courses for each level? After all, XC races usually have a shorter, easier route for sport class than pro class, why not enduro?
Everyone wants a course that is fun and challenging, but what is challenging is vastly different for a pro rider vs a beginner.