Is the Tweed Valley the best location for UK Enduro mountain biking?
At least from my perspective, unquestionably.
The sheer number (I think it’s 48) of lengthy, technical singletrack trails accessible from two or three climbs at ‘The Golfie’ makes Innerleithen one of the great mountain biking destinations of the UK. My excitement and anticipation for Round 1 of the 2026 Scottish Enduro Series was sky high and the racing definitely met expectations.
Stacked field
With Innerleithen being the proving ground for some familiar names like William Brodie, Bex Baraona, Lewis Buchanan, Reece Wilson, Stan Nisbet et al, it’s fair to say the town produces some seriously fast talent.
This year the entry list was once again not sparse of quick locals. Elite Female Chloe Taylor has multiple World Cup top 10s last season – and a win back in 2024 – so eyes were on her in her home town this weekend. After two Elite podiums last season, Hollie Vayro was taking on the likes of Charlotte Kay in the Senior Female category, with Katy Kaos McGowan also in attendance after two Scottish Downhill wins at the end of last season.
Innerleithen royalty, Bex Baraona was also present and going for the win in the 30+ Female category. And talking of royalty, even Tracy Moseley made an appearance in the E-MTB cat.
The Elite Male category was the most stacked I’ve seen for some time at a UK enduro. With over 20 riders, I’ll just. bump through some highlights…
It’d be hard not to mention William Brodie, hot off a strong Enduro World Cup season in 2025, he was coming out swinging in the warm-up to this world cup season. Current British Champion, Henry Timewell was looking to start his season well and Merida’s new rider – and Golfie Local – Joe Varndell, was looking to come back strong after an off season shoulder injury.
It was not just the Elite category that was stacked. In the Open Senior category there were some seasoned UK enduro riders such as Rhys Gelder, Lewis Brown and Dylan Boyes (the latter pair both showing their fitness with Everesting challenges this winter). Mackenzie Pullen was hot off the win in the opening round of the Peaks enduro this season also staked a claim as a threat to the Senior top 5.
The Stages
In total, a 40+km loop with 1500m of climbing was in store for riders. Featuring five stages, some familiar ones to Golfie fans, some less well known gems too.
Stage 1: New Skool > Jollifes
Stage 1 set the tone for the day ‘nicely’ by harshly introducing the importance of fitness, which was the recurring theme of the weekend’s race. Once you were down the first straight, Stage 1 presented riders with a fairly flat, rooty singletrack section. Tthe name of the game here was trying to keep momentum going. After about a minute of tiring, momentum-sucking slime, riders crossed over the fireroad into steep, rooty corners and into a fun blast up and down the edges of a large gully. The nature of the stage then changed into loamy and felled (but still very rooty) corners. This open section was one of the highlights of the day; trying to pick your way through the roots and small stump drops was extra challenging after the demanding first half of the stage. Stage 1 was a clear introduction of what was to come on one of the most physically demanding races I’ve done for some time.
Stage 2: Lone Wolf
Unlike Stage 1, Stage 2 began with some classic full pelt Innerleithen tree-dodging, before opening out into some fast, wide and very fun corners. Here, knowing the track, or at least keeping eyes-up to spot sneaky lines, was key. Plenty of high set ups and cheeky straight line cuts were there for the taking. Riders were then shot out into the newly refurbed bottom section. Blind rises, fresh turns and all out flowy goodness provided a much welcomed reward to the already tired legs and arms. Stage 2 was relatively short, comparatively less physical but instead flat out from top to bottom. Demanding enough to still leave you with sore forearms though!
Stage 3: Wolverine
Seemingly the most feared stage of the day, Stage 3 very much embodied what enduro racing is all about. From punchy sprints to seriously chunky technical descending, Wolverine had it all. Starting with some of the most iconic corners in the Tweed Valley, riders were then returned to some more rooty, snaking singletrack (with a bit more gradient than Stage 1). The gradient then slackened off teasing the climb that was about to come. Then came that dreaded climb, for most it was a case of easy gear and spin it out, or get off and run, either way it was pretty unpopular! Before you could get your breath back and heart rate anywhere reasonable, you dropped into the most technical section of the whole race. Extra chunky, extra slimy and extra steep riding with some challenging little features. A little rock drop here took a lot of puzzling on practice day. The most common solution was just pop the front wheel over the big root on the entrance and muddle your way off the rock. Once riders had been put through the wringer with this rough rocky carnage, they were granted the reward of more flowy fresh corners out in the open. Similarly to the end of Stage 2 these fresh corners were a lot of fun and brought some smiles back after the stage’s previous punishment.
Stage 4: Spanner
Stage 4 began with a short sprint which quickly transitioned into a long cut of the camber holding riders against the hill with ruts in the loam and flicky bus stop chicanes. The trees made life difficult with occasional taps to the bars and shoulders just to spice things up on this tight stage. Spanner wasn’t an especially short stage but its riding stayed fairly consistent, not straying too much from this tight, loamy format all the way to the bottom. Spanner required a lot of consistent braking making arm pump a challenge towards the end of the stage. However, this was definitely a fun stage and riding smoothly without any scrapes would reap its rewards on the timesheet.
Stage 5: Repeat Offender
All the way from the top of the climb to the bottom. If you weren’t already tired, Stage 5 made sure of it. Rooty, flowy and all round good fun. It was good to learn a couple of important high set up lines, but mostly it was a case of keeping your eyes up and trying to find the flow and conserve energy as much as you could. After four stages and 1500m of climbing I thought Repeat Offender was going to be more unpleasant than it was. There were a few chances to rest a little on this stage and get some feeling back in the hands. By the bottom of Stage 5 the effects of the day had certainly compounded and there were a lot of relieved and smiling riders at the bottom.
Overall opinions
Should you race this event next year? Yes, absolutely. This is one of those races that really captures what enduro is all about: some of the absolute best tracks in the country and a seriously testing day that even makes the elites feel a sense of accomplishment. Trail length is something we definitely lack in the UK – especially when you start to look at World Cup stages in excess of 15 minutes. Having long demanding stages that are this fun to ride is a great opportunity to challenge yourself and finish the weekend having filled it to the brim with biking.
Results
As predicted, William Brodie was the unstoppable force this weekend, setting the fastest elite time in all but Stage 3, finishing over a minute ahead of the next fastest Elite rider and 22 seconds ahead of Elliot Heap (who won the E-Bike cat). Current British Enduro Champ Henry Timewell and Cam Jackson joined Will on the Elite podium followed by Ben Allen and Joe Varndell to round off the top 5.
Bex Barona set the fastest time among the women, followed very closely by Tracy Moseley. It was a good battle between Bex and Tracey with Tracey leading the first stage, but after winning stages 2,3 and 4 Bex took the overall win by just over a second. Chloe Taylor finished off the overall podium behind the two E-Bikers. As predicted, Charlotte Kay and Hollie Vayro had a nice battle through the day, Hollie winning the physical stages 3 and 5 with Charlotte taking the win in Senior Women by 20 seconds in the end.
The Junior Women also provided a good race with Katy Kaos McGowan battling with Ruth Macdougal. Katy eventually took the win by a close 10 second gap. It was also cool to see the Isle of Man’s Coral Heginbotham taking the stage win on the third and hardest stage of the day.
In the Junior Men it was Oliver Johnstone that put down a dominating performance winning each stage and finishing 27 seconds up on another Isle of Man local, Max Hitchen followed closely by Sam Kaye.
The Male Senior category put on a good show too with Isaac Ellington and James Purvis taking turns on stage wins. With Isaac and James dropping down the times on stages 4 and 3 respectively Isaac had done enough to take the win by 7 seconds and James taking 2nd beating a very consistent Mackenzie pullen by just under a second. Local trail builder from the Tweed Valley Trails Association, Shay Hayton, proved his local knowledge, coming in 4th in senior followed by Lewis Brown who took the stage win on Repeat Offender, a good weekend for him managing to beat some rapid and experienced locals.
Link to full results: www.rootsandrain.com/event15232/
It’s certainly one of them. The best one I have ridden