This weekend we made the 4 hour journey up to Kirroughtree for round 3 of Empire PMBA Enduro series. After another successful event at Grizedale, the grass roots racing series moved out of the Pennines and up to South West Scotland. Thebreakpad shop in the Kirroughtree visitor center set out an amazing course for the weekend’s three stage race, a seven and a half mile loop had been selected using some of the trail centre’s well known blue and red routes added with some fresh cut loam goodness.
After a steady 15 minutes fire road and blue route climb, Stage One start was in sight. A quick sprint and pump along the fast top blue section got you warmed up for the sprint back up the fire road before entering some rootsy woodsy natural trail. After negotiating a few sketchy rooty corners, you were spat out onto a fire road for a short sprint to the finish.
Another short fire road climb up to an optional special Strava timed section, was followed by the red route down to the top of Stage Two, a nice idea to give racers another chance to battle the clock and fellow racers. Stage Two saw a similar layout to Stage One with a start on the well maintained pedally, fairly flat trails which then led onto some super tight, super fast secret(ish) natural trails lower down to the finish.
The last climb of the day had a nice mix of fire road followed by a nice tight in the woods trail to get to the final stage. The fresh cut, loamy, steep(ish) first section was the best of the day, smashing corners and kicking up roost, which then led into a pedally fast red route descent. Seat down and sprint was painful but necessary on the longest stage of the day.
A small flat pedal back to the visitor center and the day was done, unfortunately this did then reveal there had been an issue with the timing system. A problem that could be fixed and would still produce reliable results, but they needed all timing chips back and a long uninterrupted night to sort it. So podiums have been moved onto the next round at Gisburn Forest in September.
Results.
Pro/Elite
| 1 | 1 | Lee KERMODE | PIONEER SCOTT SYNCROS | 2:47 (1) | 2:18 (1) | 4:52 (1) | 9:57 | – |
| 2 | 3 | Ben WHITEHEAD | All Terrain Cycles | 2:52 (3) | 2:28 (3) | 4:56 (2) | 10:16 | 19s |
| 3 | 164 | Brad MATHER | EMPIRE CYCLES | 2:53 (4) | 2:21 (2) | 5:05 (4) | 10:19 | 22s |
Women
| 1 | 150 | Sam HILL | TEAM BREAKPAD | 3:46 (1) | 2:50 (1) | 6:02 (1) | 12:38 | – |
| 2 | 8 | Nicole MALLETT | Twelve50bikes Race Team | 3:50 (2) | 3:04 (2) | 6:27 (2) | 13:21 | 43s |
| 3 | 5 | Liz FARLEY | Dirt Muncher | 4:06 (3) | 3:08 (4) | 6:52 (4) | 14:06 | 1:28 |
Men Under 18
| 1 | 21 | Scott WOOLLEY | Yorkshire Mountain Biking/Bikewright | 3:13 (2) | 2:24 (1) | 5:15 (1) | 10:52 | – |
| 2 | 16 | Rowan CARPENTER | All Terrain Cycles | 3:07 (1) | 2:30 (2) | 5:21 (2) | 10:58 | 6s |
| 3 | 11 | Daniel BLADON | Singletrack Magazine | 3:18 (3) | 2:39 (5) | 5:30 (3) | 11:27 | 35s |
Senior
| 1 | 61 | Sebastian STOTT | USTACC | 2:55 (1) | 2:22 (1) | 5:06 (7) | 10:23 | – |
| 1 | 53 | James METCALFE | 2:55 (1) | 2:25 (5) | 5:03 (2) | 10:23 | – | |
| 3 | 31 | Ryan DUTTON | One Planet Adventure | 2:57 (3) | 2:23 (3) | 5:05 (4) | 10:25 | 2s |
Master
| 1 | 92 | Bruce MCCLEARY | Galloway Hillbillies / Next Level Bikes | 2:47 (1) | 2:15 (1) | 4:46 (1) | 9:48 | – |
| 2 | 155 | Mathew PRICHARD | 2:54 (4) | 2:22 (2) | 4:52 (2) | 10:08 | 20s | |
| 3 | 104 | David READ | Twelve50 Bikes Race Team | 2:56 (5) | 2:25 (3) | 5:04 (3) | 10:25 | 37s |
Vet
| 1 | 171 | Chris WHITFIELD | All Terrain Cycles | 3:02 (1) | 2:25 (1) | 5:03 (1) | 10:30 | – |
| 2 | 132 | Andrew MEE | 3:06 (2) | 2:32 (4) | 5:13 (2) | 10:51 | 21s | |
| 3 | 124 | Daryn FURNESS | 3:10 (4) | 2:31 (2) | 5:24 (4) | 11:05 | 35s |
Grand Vet
| 1 | 149 | Craig WOOLLEY | 3:30 (2) | 2:49 (3) | 6:06 (2) | 12:25 | – | |
| 2 | 143 | Tim MARTIN | Biketreks Ambleside | 3:42 (3) | 2:48 (2) | 5:58 (1) | 12:28 | 3s |
| 3 | 148 | Dave WOOD (vet) | Team DJ | 3:51 (4) | 2:53 (4) | 6:20 (3) | 13:04 | 39s |
So there you have it, Round Three is over. Another successful grass roots enduro race, great atmosphere and awesome trails.
A bit of a gap now until Round Four where we will be returning to Gisburn Forest:
https://www.sientries.co.uk/event.php?elid=Y&event_id=1340
Comments (3)
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Bottlers, I was hoping for a timed McMoab stage 🙂 And someone with a brush and shovel for the teeth.
Can I just repeat my thanks to Chris @ Empire Cycles who very kindly let me borrow a MX6-EVO for the race runs after my bike developed an “undocumented feature” on the frame – it snapped!
Top bloke, lurvely bike – now all I need to do is get some gaffer tape and zip-ties to fix my frame!
Looks great!
But what’s ‘Roost’ and ‘Loam’?