State of Enduro: Peaks Enduro Series Round 4 (BNES 3) report

Originally scheduled to take place in the Peak district, the venue for the 4th round of the Peaks Enduro Series had to be changed due to ‘land issues’.

Enduro is unpredictable, pretty much everyone who talks about it utters those words at some point. But the third round of the British National Enduro Series was evidence that even just organising an Enduro race can be just as unpredictable as racing one. Originally scheduled to take place in the Peak district, the venue for the 4th round of the Peaks Enduro Series had to be changed due to ‘land issues’.

At the start of the season I thought it was especially sad to see a British National Enduro Series without a round in Wales, therefore the choice of new venue in Machynlleth was a great opportunity for a return to Welsh racing. I’ll admit that I am slightly disappointed not to be racing close to home in the Peak District this weekend. However, I caught up with Kev (this weekend’s organiser) earlier in the season, and I think his attitude to race organising and the fact that he was cutting in 2 brand new stages meant this disappointment was short-lived.

As for this new venue, Machynlleth was last year’s series opener for the BNES and provided some good racing. A mix of rough rocks, steep woods and some scenic meadows provided a challenging race in 2025, so I was keen to see what was in store for us this weekend.

The stages

5 stages including 2 ‘freshies’ and – to be frank – a really hard day out on the bikes. The two fresh stages even had the riders at the top of the leaderboard stressing, and the other three stages were tried and tested Welsh Enduro favourites. The loop was fairly short so to make for a longer day of racing stage 4 was repeated. Of your two stage 4 runs, your best time counted, meaning that the effects of this loose and challenging stage on race results were lessened.

Stage 1

Sometimes enduro races start off with a nice easy first stage to warm you up. Stage 1 was not that.

Starting with some classic rutted singletrack, the stage then got super steep. Two blown-out ruts then lead riders into one of the trickiest sections of the race. These ruts were crucial in setting up for what was to come, but they got increasingly blown out through Saturday, making a really tricky section even trickier by Sunday. After the ruts was a fairly severe off camber. This got so sketchy in practice that Kev had to get the mattock out to make it rideable for race day. If you survived this a steep chute then led you onto a fireroad back into a fairly short but rough section of singletrack and into the finish. Dancing down this tricky section was one of the highlights of the day for sure.

Stages 2 and 3

More relaxing, stages 2 and 3 were fast and tight, meaning a mistake and losing momentum on these would be much more damaging to the results. The attitude for stage 1 was just getting down safe, whereas these stages provided a real opportunity to push. Starting out fast in the open the stages then twisted through trees into the finish. There isn’t much to talk about for these. A punchy climb on stage 3 caught some riders out with a tricky rut to set up the climb. Otherwise it was just about finding a flow and managing the breathing. With not much in these stages to separate riders out so as long as you could stay in touch through these woods the real racing happened on the rest of the more difficult stages.

Stage 4

The difficulty level was raised again for Stage 4. A deceptively fast and fun loamy open section gave way to some tight and really difficult riding. I’ve been racing enduro for a while and I don’t think I’ve ever come across a stage that caused this much bother on a practice day. The bottom half of this track wasn’t fast or rough, there were some steep sections, but ‘tricky’ really is the best way to describe it. Super-tight precise riding where one mistake would see you into a tree, through the tape or at best stalling out.

There were sections of this stage that I didn’t see a single rider manage to ride with their feet up on Saturday. On the one hand, stage 4 may have been a frustrating and feared track for a lot of riders. However, on the other hand it gave the riders with the best bike handling skills a real chance to gain an edge.

There were some serious doubts about the sanity of this stage but by the time it got to racing the lines had cut in and it actually became my favourite stage of the day. Despite a crash on my second race run down it, I made a lot of time here and really enjoyed the lower woods.

Stage 5

With the mistakes of stage 4 still fresh on riders’ minds, the final stage was a nice reward for tired racers. One last fast and fun stage down to finish the day with enough pedalling to really empty the tank. Tempo started high and stayed high. There was a really cheeky straight line to cut out a slow corner at the top, but with a horribly sharp rock it was a high risk high reward kind of job. Speed remained high with a couple sketchy rough sections and some unique rock features to keep you on your toes. There was some clear line choice with ruts separating to give riders options. But, as is so often the case, this stage was just about finding a flow and keeping that average speed high.

Race reflections

Overall the 3rd round of the BNES and the 4th round of the peaks enduro series provided a seriously challenging two days of racing. Running a race with tracks as fresh and untamed as this provides some challenges for organising a race that won’t lead to a riders’ revolt. However, Kev’s unique and down to earth approach really worked to make this event run well. I think sometimes the temptation for organisers to ‘leave it as it is’ in stubbornness or some allegiance to ‘the spirit of enduro’. However, I think after seeing blown tape on stage 4 and frustrated riders on these fresh stages, on balance, the right changes were made on race day to ensure a fair and enjoyable race. At the end of the day, this is not a World Cup, racing should be fun and the stages, even with these changes, still remained bloody difficult.

In the aftermath of racing there I have seen some complaints from a few of the bigger riders about these stages. To be honest, if the track rode as it did on Saturday I could see where these complaints are coming from. But enduro (especially a national round) should still be a bit difficult. Enduro racing is not about perfection and I think perhaps a few egos were bruised when riders couldn’t find this perfection. We don’t often get sections like this in the Enduro season and I think it’s always important that stages like 1 and 4 are included in a national season.

This event was turned around in three weeks after land issues forced a venue change. So I think it’s extra impressive that we got such a good mix of tracks given the circumstances.

The results

A few big names were missing for finals on Sunday, notably the Elite winners of the last two British national rounds were out. Will Brodie was still in Europe getting ready for Val di Fassa and whilst Joe Varndell was in attendance, after a crash on Saturday he was sadly relegated to heckling on Sunday. However, we were not short of talent or tight racing.

Starting with Elite, Oli Poulter returned from Leogang last weekend and took the top step here in Macynlleth. Henry Timewell took P2 with some serious displays of fitness and James Nixon rounded off the podium after another elite podium a couple of weeks ago in Dunkeld

Ruth McDougall is having a pretty excellent season in 2026, once again proving herself as the fastest woman of the day by 35 seconds. With Niamh Creig and Coral Heginbotham taking 2nd and 3rd overall.

Joe Carpenter took the fastest time of the U18 category beating Charlie Poulter by 35 seconds which would have impressively put him 2nd in the Elite category.

Tom Mynott took the win in the U21 category after performing when it counted on the technical stages 1 and 4 with Charlie Baker managing to make some time up on the sprint focussed stages 2 and 3 to take 2nd.

A good battle in the senior men’s category saw Mackenzie Pullen share out stage wins with Brodie Hayes with Mackenzie taking the win at the end of the day by 8 seconds. A similarly close battle in the Master’s category saw Jamie Jonhson beat Jack Sunderland by just 4 seconds. The ever quick Kyle Hayes took the win in his category (40-49) by a decisive 52 seconds!

On the E bikes, Dylan Hayes took the fastest time of the day beating a visibly quick Adam Hopwood by just 2.5 seconds with Sam Shucksmith coming in 3rd 4 seconds behind Adam.

For myself, this weekend’s racing was as frustrating as it was fun. After having some great stages on the more technical 1 and 4 I sat happily in 4th. However, on stage 5 Machynlleth’s least popular rock robbed all the air from my tyre and I dropped swiftly down to 14th in the senior category. Taking risks on a long enduro race is sometimes not worth it and on stage 5 my race proved just that.