[Closed] British Enduro Series 2016 - Dates announced!

2 "national" series is a situation where no one wins imo. It just leads to confusion and the possibility of two series not selling out. At best, one will be so much better than the other that one will be forgotten about. Also, howany average joes are likely to follow a full series around the country?

Red Kite has a good rep for challenging courses and has run plenty of enduros, numbers haven't been great, so better advertising and PR would be good.
Theyve also been involved with other enduro organisers, to an extent.

BDS crew have proven track record with DH, great PR, look at their legends category for the last round of the BDS, genius! No history with enduro though and it's a tough format to get right. And I expect it will be pricey if the BDS is anything to go by.
Tho they could afford to keep prices low for year 1 and raise them a bit in year2? If it's good enough people will pay.
My only concern is that if they are chasing BC support I hope BC have a more realistic approach to enduro now.

Agree with wrecker for once.

I doubt two national series will work. Your average Joe keep mtb going, they buy the expensive stuff, pay the entry fees, but the beer and the unhealthy food. The elites don’t have to buy bikes....(I know how stereotypical I’m being here). Your average Joe funds the series, hopefully the organisers will realise that.

Also, I race to compare myself to the best guys, not that i’ll ever beat them, but sometimes when I’m close it’s a good feeling, I won’t get that if it’s separated.

Also, howany average joes are likely to follow a full series around the country?

endurofactory - Member
Neil of Redkite has been busy setting up a national Enduro series for a year without keeping tabs on his Mondraker series with very low entry's?
No idea why brands would consider such a small promoter taking his eye off the ball?

Mondraker UK must be so pleased there investment into a series is wasted for Neil to work hard on a national.

POSTED 13 HOURS AGO #

That some assumption right there. Some people can multi-task you know.

Its an interesting two posts from a new member though. One promoting Si Paton and one sledging Neil at Red Kite. An agenda perhaps?

I'm liking what I've heard so far. There is the W.E.S Mash Up which sounds a lot more accessible and enjoyable for your average racer.

And, quite honestly, the idea of a UK series using some tried and tested venues with a twist of some new, specifically cut stages sounds great. I've not done a Red Kite / Mondraker race as they're just a bit too far away, but the idea of stages that push your limits yet mostly range between 1-4 mins is right up my street. The more BDS-esque they are the better.

I've also heard rumblings that Eastridge will be on the calendar. 2016 could be a good 'un...

Agree with wrecker for once.

I've also heard rumblings that Eastridge will be on the calendar. 2016 could be a good 'un...

[i]"Charlie has so far sorted out one venue at Afan and the last round will possibly be in Shropshire’s Eastridge Woods; others still to be confirmed. The dates will be January 23-24th, February 20-21st, March 19-20th, April 2-3rd (Afan) and May 21-22nd orMay 28-29th."[/i]

Maybe not but everyone did the full series of the UKGE. I only tend to do one a year(closest one).

That was my point. To have a worthwhile series you need a core of people who will travel around going for the overall. UKGE had that plus the normal punters.

Enduro's gonna end up more confusing than boxing at this rate - but two series is better than none.

Good luck sorting it out fellas.

That was my point. To have a worthwhile series you need a core of people who will travel around going for the overall. UKGE had that plus the normal punters.

What this situation really needs is some yanks. To declare a Galactic Enduro Series to beat all enduro series or something. And they look better in leather pants and cowboy boots !

What this situation really needs is some yanks. To declare a Galactic Enduro Series to beat all enduro series or something. And they look better in leather pants and cowboy boots !

Won't they just have a "world series" that only they can enter?

😀

Anyone here about any of these 3 running a series in 2016?

Enduro1 Series
Mini Enduro
Spike sports

Its an interesting two posts from a new member though. One promoting Si Paton and one sledging Neil at Red Kite. An agenda perhaps?

I know endurofactory, he has no affiliation to either, he does race lots of enduros though so he has a good perspective,
he is full of opinions, most of its bollox, but there are some gems in there, sometimes 😉

yeah the core traveled and did the series, that included those sponsored in some fashion and those plebs that finish at the back but enjoy it anyway (me),
but last year it filled up with locals only doing their closest rounds, this years extra insurance costs etc put those guys off, your average beer guzling weekend warrior wont pay too much to race his local trails

I also know endurofactory and agree about the bollox and gems too 😉

Spike Sports might do a couple of bitesize enduros again early next year I'd imagine...although having said that, they've usually advertised it by now. They didn't run the Mondraker Exmoor Gravity Rally this year citing change of landowners and letting them 'settle in' but did say it would be back for 2016...but things change so who knows.

I know endurofactory, he has no affiliation to either, he does race lots of enduros though so he has a good perspective,
he is full of opinions, most of its bollox, but there are some gems in there, sometimes

Well thats good to hear. I just hope the series can either coexist peacefully or come together somehow using.

And Enduro1...I'm sure I heard rumblings that it might not happen next year at the last round. Turn-out was quite low for Triscombe and Grogley I think. Hope I'm wrong as I enjoyed it and was pretty relaxed, but maybe the new SW Gravity Enduro series will take over more?

I have dabbled in most of the Enduro series that are out there... enjoyed them all to be honest.

I'm no top dog or 'owt, mid table seems to be my place.

To me it makes no difference at all what a series calls itself; date, location and cost are the factors that decide whether I can attend.

Once there so long as the course is fun and the atmosphere good i'm a happy bunny.

I will just doff my hat to everyone who puts on an event, doubly so to those that get a series together.

What I would really appreciate is a central website where I can find out what events are on when with plenty of notice. Some events take some hunting out at the moment and I often miss out due to being something of a novice around the interweb.

Fingers crossed the Enduro pond is big enough for a couple of big fish and lots of little ones.

One national series with 23 rounds and seven promoters?

What I would really appreciate is a central website where I can find out what events are on when with plenty of notice. Some events take some hunting out at the moment and I often miss out due to being something of a novice around the interweb.

chakaping - Member

One national series with 23 rounds and seven promoters?

This is/going to be confusing!!!

I do feel they need to sort this out, which one is the "British" Series. 😯
More so the best riders want to ride/race against the best riders, their sponsors what them to ride/race against the best, so if they do well they can both have the bragging rights.(more so with nat champs!!)

Also the event sponsors what the most return for there £££s.
Joe public like to be at the same event as the top riders, compere times, be part of the the "British" series, help support it etc.
Most people can't afford (money & Time) to do 2 full series
Also from the organizer side as well, they want max numbers at as many rounds of possible. to get their investment/money back.

Thou I not a big fan of want BC do (or more like want they DON'T do) they would stop this kind of confusion. they just put out a a release/tender asking someone to run the series (XC, DH, BMX etc) and then give the winning bid/tender the "official" tag, to the series.

As BC is not involved, I say let us, the riders decide! 😈

What I am thinking is get a independent cycling website to take a poll/vote!

Both organizers to get as much basic info and what they planning to do, their history, rules etc ready by a set date ([b]End of Oct/start of Nov[/b]?)
Said website to have post both set of info with a vote box at the bottom.

Info I think we need are;
Dates,
venues inc Brief overview of type of course, trail center/new cut etc
Cost of entry
Format, (2/3 day, practice, seeding, set start times etc)
points system
Cats
Timing system
Basic rules, do we need full face, personal insurance etc
sponsors

Thou it be hard on the one who gets the lest votes, and does not stop them from going ahead and running their series, I do think it help both in the long run, less risk in a way, give them a chance to change/tweak what they planned (maybe reduce number of races)

Cheers Scott, I relied on More Dirt this year so will add Roots and Rain to my bookmarks.

who gets the champs?

Game of pass the parcel to decide this next time you have one of your federation meets?

Jeez, my head's spinning!

I hope this gets sorted out so the whole thing doesn't become a farce.

The situation would be solved if there was a national series backed by BC/FeD , but the possibility of either appearing in Enduro for now is almost zero.

So we're left with the Enduro organiser wars, more events then we can imagine coming in 2016

My biggest concern the racing field/line up will become diluted

scottfitz - Member

who gets the champs?

Greg Callaghan 😆

It's interesting the view from several people that the BDS are great events, in some ways they are - media, marketing, coverage, and event feel - but many average racers that I speak to feel that they do not care about them - uplift, venue selection, things critical to the rider are overlooked and that the normal riders are not important or valued.

BC won't be getting involved in the discussions about who should be the British/National series but I'd agree that their should definitely only be one.

So reading all the post, everyone seens to be happy someone is stepping in to run a national series.

Most people also seem to think or be of the opinion there isn't room for 2 series to run.

So what's the solution?

midwales - any chance you would work with the BDS guys?

As far as I am aware Si Paton and Krien Dawson have not race an enduro let along organised one.

Organising enduro events is very different to DH and hard to get right first time.

If BDS and Red kite where to team up and bring red kites enduro experience to BDS national series experience it could be a really epic series.

As for BC I would never say never but personally they would have to win me/my events back and prove to me that they are capable of supporting enduro from the ground up.

FeD is very unlikely as not all organisers would be on-board for various reasons. However I think with the right people running the FeD it would be the best way to progress the sport.

Its probably already beyond descending into a farce with 2 series announced with the same name!

I think we will probably not run either as a main focus of the race season if the 2 way carries on, There's little point in putting energy into a 'national' series when the numbers will likely be moderate, and its all for something fairly illegitimate (national title) at the end. I suspect a lot of teams will be the same. There's plenty of well attended regional events that offer more variety in terms of audience and style, which is what we really want. We've generally not had the opportunity to do many of these with the exception of our local QECP ones to date because of the 'national' level stuff but we are likely to shift away from that this year I suspect.

There's so many series now you can only realistically pick one or two and focus on those, and then backfill the gaps. For us we'll probably work around European EWS, Scottfitz' Southern series, The Welsh Gravity Mash Up series, Ard Rock, and a couple one offs. We'll fill the summer gaps with the most interesting of the rest no doubt, but that won't have left many spots to fill as we don't actually [i]want[/i] to be racing every weekend!

Next year will be interesting, I didn't race an Enduro in 2015 so had no idea about dwindling numbers across several organisations....for seasons prior to that events were selling out the day entries went live!....maybe things have peaked?
2015 for me was about finding DH races with a HT category as that's what I wanted to do but next year with my 140-160mm Enduro gnarpoon built up I'll look at doing a few....but by Christ there's quite a few organisations now!...my fear as echoed above is that the number of potential riders will now be spread too thinly for an enjoyable event.

What was great about the early years of UKGE was that there was very little else like it, if you got an entry it was a great weekend, festival like almost....I took my better half to Eastridge and she loved it, couldn't believe how friendly everyone was, music blasting out of the PA system and bonkers racing to boot...that's what I'd like to see again.

With regards progression to the EWS, I suppose if you're trouncing everyone in regional Enduros then it's probably time to test the water with an EWS entry, how did Greg Callaghan progress?...he didn't need to win a national Enduro title, neither did Tracy Mosely....I reckon if you're racing DH and or XC at a national level then your transition to the EWS should be fairly straight forward once you get your head round the format.

I'd like to see a national series, for the guys and girls who race every weekend, live the sport and carry sponsorship then it's a big deal but (and I hate to say this) it does almost need BC to step in and take control and formally nominate a national series.....otherwise it's farcical like the numerous different belts for the 'champ' in boxing.

UKGE is still like that,but poor PR and unpopular FF and helmet rules have seen the numbers drop

As said there are now lots of really good regional races too

And TMo did start out racing UKGEs some of the young racers on teams there are incredibly fast and I expect they will do sell at EWS on the future.

A national series would be great for the sport, but unless Si and Neil can come to some sort of agreement, 2016 at least may be a bit of a list year

Interesting times 🙁

I didn't race an Enduro in 2015 so had no idea about dwindling numbers across several organisations....for seasons prior to that events were selling out the day entries went live!....maybe things have peaked?

Not strictly true,
most PMBA races sold out this year.
Ard'rock had 1300+ riders.

As for the QECP events they went mad in 2015 even with us pushing the numbers up, QECP Day & Night sold out in 2 days (18 day quicker that 2014) and the QECP Enduro sold out in under 2 hours (22 hours quicker than 2014). This is the main reason for starting the Southern enduro series.

kimbers - Member

And TMo did start out racing UKGEs

Nah, she was in it with the bricks in the UK and had done some abroad too back before anyone was really doing it here.

Im not sure about the EWS point as its different to DH because anyone can enter an EWS event. For example I am a middle to back of the field master but I have raced three EWS races in the last two years.
If you look at EWS riders like Greg Callaghan or Jamie Nicoll, the reason why they got pro deals is because they saved their cash over the winter while training and lived in their van in europe for an EWS season and got the results in the races. To be able to do that you probably have to ignore your national series anyway because it would be too expensive to keep coming home.

Im sure the two series will be ok once they don't have date clashes and use different names. I think they will have different audiences.
Regarding the numbers issue - that might be the case at UKGE but lots of other races/series sell out pretty fast.

I can understand the uneasiness about the BDS guys jumping in and imposing a national series when they've had very little previous involvement in the discipline.

But if the UK federation doesn't feel ready to step into the breach with a truly credible series then it's hard to complain.

Is it just gonna be a case of natural selection?

BC would add very little I think. The reason BDS exists (not to belittle the hard work of the team) is because if you want to race WC then you have to have National points, and BDS is that access route. Teams & top level riders support BDS because of this, those top riders make attractive races, which attract middle riders etc... its a trickle down effect.

Enduro doesn't have that. Theres no feeder series for EWS (although that would probably be a good thing) you just pay and play. At least with UKGE we had a defacto UK series - it worked out fine as it was the biggest, one of the oldest, and probably the best distributed around the country. Everyone just kind of agreed it was our national series. If we end up with two series of similar scale then its more likely no-one will be realistically able to call themselves national champ, as opposed to having 2.

My thoughts are that while we need a series across the whole country, we don't necessarily need a "National Series". Look at Superenduro - yes they have just had a year out, but I had a very interesting chat with Enrico at Eurobike and I think we'll see something in 2016 from what he told me. Superenduro was never a "National Series" - it was an umbrella organisation that worked with local event organisers, leveraged the tourism money and big headline sponsors and produced high quality media content/video etc to keep exposure high for sponsors and teams, and so ensure their commitment.

I reckon we need something like that over here - in years of racing, I've always felt we almost apologise to local areas for the "inconvenience" of bringing hundreds of riders to an area, rather than selling them the dream of all the extra money to their campsites, pubs, farm shops etc etc etc. Essentially a charismatic frontman who can sell the value and so create excitement all round.

Hope this all settles itself down soon!

My thoughts are that while we need a series across the whole country, we don't necessarily need a "National Series". Look at Superenduro - yes they have just had a year out, but I had a very interesting chat with Enrico at Eurobike and I think we'll see something in 2016 from what he told me. Superenduro was never a "National Series" - it was an umbrella organisation that worked with local event organisers, leveraged the tourism money and big headline sponsors and produced high quality media content/video etc to keep exposure high for sponsors and teams, and so ensure their commitment.

I reckon we need something like that over here - in years of racing, I've always felt we almost apologise to local areas for the "inconvenience" of bringing hundreds of riders to an area, rather than selling them the dream of all the extra money to their campsites, pubs, farm shops etc etc etc. Essentially a charismatic frontman who can sell the value and so create excitement all round.

BTW Steve said on more that one occasion that UKGE wasn't 'the National series'

Or frontwoman - are you wearing some of those misogynist socks there ?

I offered you the job, you refused!

Where MTB Enduro and our British Enduro Series Stand.

We are not involved with Si, BDS or thankfully BC.

The series is supported by Marin plus a growing number of other sponsors, I will releasing this news out over the next week or so.

We started looking at running a national series this year, and would have run with or against the UKGE crew.

We have published dates and we have venues sorted, we will release the venues when we release the full website on the 9th October, if we can publish the site before that then we will.

The venues are fresh and we will have proper infrastructure in place to make our series worthy of a national series. We also have the backing from great sponsors who are investing into the series.

As some of you are aware I am happy to push the boundaries with technical tracks, and this will continue through next year, and we will also have some more pedally tracks so that we can find the best all round rider for 2016. I feel that enduro is a test of fitness and skill, our series will bring that out in the winner.

The format isn’t changing from the Mondraker Enduro Series as it worked so well. We need to explain the one day or two day format better, and we will get resolved on the new website that is due to be released on the 9th October. We will not have timed transition times or seeded start times, without these the races have a more ride with your mates feel. Personally I feel this is important. We all want to have fun and ride with our mates with a fair bit of banter thrown in. The feedback from the riders this year totally supports this format.

As for the overall result, we have seven rounds in 2016. We are going to allow one round to be dropped from the series – whether that be the riders worse result or one they cannot attend due to injury or other commitments and so on. So basically your 6 best rounds out of 7 count.

I can’t stress this enough though. IF THE RIDERS HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS FOR THE SERIES THEN PLEASE SHARE WITH US – THE SERIES IS YOURS AS MUCH AS OURS. We want the riders to feel that this is their event series so please talk to us.

So finally we are trying to deliver what we feel the riders want from a British National Series #BES2016 and, importantly, a fun weekend/season of riding. We are going to deliver a non-elitist series for you the riders. Hopefully we have come across the right way and we will attract more riders into our sport of Enduro

Feel like I am jumping into a lions den!

Do the misogynist socks come free with the leather pants and cowboy boots?