State of UK Enduro: Bolly Skyline

Following Ardrock the other week, Bolly Skyline felt like a similar yet distilled version of this bike-show-festival style of event. The stages too seemed to have an almost distilled and concentrated vibe to them, yet its still the uniqueness that makes one-off events like these so popular.

Sometimes the suspicion with these ‘athlete-organised’ events is that the athlete doesn’t actually have much to do with the event other than its title and perhaps a cameo on the day. This certainly doesn’t appear to be the case for Bolly Skyline course; the signature Ratboy x 50to01 flow and creativity really shone through when it comes to the stage design.

Interestingly, a rider that has made such a clear and public step away from racing to pursue riding for the sake of riding might be one of the better candidates for organising a race. Josh seemed to really grasp the concept that the racing is almost secondary for a lot of the riders that turn up to these events. Of course riders will still want to beat their mates but – for a vast majority – racing serves as an excuse to go and ride stuff that you wouldn’t usually get the chance to, with a bunch of mates that you might not see very frequently.

Stages

Stages 1 and 2 clearly highlighted the draw of the unique Bolly Skyline stages. Two short, punchy, but well built stages started the day off intensely with some baked and dusty conditions making for some loose and challenging riding at race pace. Stage 2 featured the iconic hand built jump-flow line that followers of Josh Bryceland and friends will recognise from the many social clips. And yes, it is just as fun to ride as it looks.

Stage 3, 4 and 5 brought the average speed up after the two relatively tight stages that started the day. Starting high, with a great view over to Manchester, these stages were pretty much flat out from top to bottom. It wasn’t just your traditional blast down through grassy turns though. Plenty of dicey rock gardens and tricky lines over square edged rocks throughout the stages kept riders on their toes and allowed the more observant to gain an edge. Stage 4 featured a rim destroying on-off over a rock slab that cut the inside out of a corner. The rock claimed so many wheels on Friday’s practice that Josh and crew had to reshape it adding a lip onto the feature in time for racing.

Stage 6 started similarly to 3, 4 and 5 in the fast open fields, but, after what can only be described as natural grassy berms seemingly offered up by the hills themselves, the stage got steeper and more akin to what you might be used to riding normally, with some tricky steep singletrack through the woods. The stage then finished with quite a challenging set of grass turns into the finish on a deceptively steep gradient.

Stage 7 followed suit, beginning again high in the fields before twisting in and out of the trees. Stage 7 was the shortest stage of the day with the fastest time just dropping below 40 seconds, but this shorter stage allowed riders to save energy and build the intensity needed for the final push down Stage 8.

Stage 8 was a spectacular way to finish the day of racing. Again whilst the stage wasn’t super long, there was plenty to get riders excited and finish the day with a dusty grin. Perhaps one of the most talked about features of the race was the infamous bomb hole in the bottom field. The line most riders were adopting was a squash or pre-hop into the hole, hoping the compression didn’t cause too much drama. The other option was an almighty pull over the whole thing. You may have seen clips of this, but until you’re standing there it’s quite hard to grasp just how massive this second option is. For me personally though, what got the envy and FOMO bubbling over as I sat trackside with my camera, was a set of steep dusty ruts into a really tricky rutted left hander further up the stage. Drop in too close behind a rider and you wouldn’t be able to see your own handlebars through the wall of dust. Get your timing right though and you could be surfing down deep supportive ruts kicking up clouds of dust behind you and making for some excellent content for the many photographers who sat waiting below.

Results

Bolly Skyline once again attracted some big names including, Joe Barnes, Phil Atwill, Jono Jones, Craig Evans, Martha Gill and Morgane Such to name a few along with national enduro big hitters including Henry Timewell and Chloe Taylor.

Chloe Taylor set the fastest time for the women winning all but stage 7 and beating the frenchwoman, Morgane Shuch by an impressive 17 seconds. Charlotte Kay finished off the top three after starting the day in second before Morgane was able to begin clawing back time after stage 4.

In the men’s, newly-crowned national champion Henry Timewell set the fastest time of the day finishing 7 seconds quicker than Brady Stone. Phil Atwill took the win on stages 6 and 8 to come in third just 3 seconds behind Brady and setting the fastest E bike time of the day.

Struggles

My race weekend did not go to plan. The day began to unravel well and truly for me after a bizarre flat at the top of the allegedly smooth and flowy Stage 2. I managed to get a fresh tube in and get rolling on my way to stage 3. However, after this tube also went flat (likely due to the hole in my tyre or just dodgy storage), I had to head back to the car without another replacement tube.

I’ve been racing for 7 years now and this was my first DNF, so on reflection I can’t be too annoyed. Although sitting trackside on the spectacular Stage 8 – getting the dusty photos you see in this article – I don’t think I’ve ever felt more jealous. A DNF is always going to be disappointing, but I was especially sad to miss out on riding stages that were this fun.

Bolly overview

This weekend has left me with a hunger to race this event again. Shorter stages provided a nice antidote to traditional enduro racing; what this lack of length produced was eight fun, unique stages that more of the field had the fitness to attack from top to bottom.

Whilst the National rounds might be more catered towards the top riders that can put down race runs on longer physical stages, Bolly Skyline caters to what most normal riders want from racing. And based on a few conversations with top riders, it’s an event that is enjoyed across the field. Whether you’re going for the win or going for the beer at the end, there’s something to smile about everywhere.

Get informed for next year @ bollyskyline.com