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I think the idea is likely so that it makes sense that the riders start and finish on the Green where the expo and all the people will be.!!
If they had left off the Glentress stage it wouldn't have made any sense to have everyone ride along the cycle path to and from Innerleithen, they'd have just had to have the start/finish there. Everything that's on this weekend is based around the expo on the Green so that they can keep the place hopping all weekend.
That sounds **** stupid. (The cycle path bits).
I have to say that when I did the King of the Hill enduro a few years ago when they had a similar course (3 stages in the Golfie, ride over the hill and do 2 stages in Glentress), I found the ride out along the cycle path to be a nice mellow start to what is a big day out, got a chance to wave/high5 the kids along the way and chat to some other riders before the serious business got started.
Yeah. That's gotta be at least 15miles of boring flat riding between the 3 hills. I always thought Enduro seemed like the mtb equivalent of a road Sportive. Seems I was way more accurate than I ever realised.
Aye, it is 15ish miles of boredom, have to agree. Should really be either Inners dh and golfie, or GT and Cademuir, spreading it out seems a bit daft. YMMV.
Best of luck all though, have a great weekend!.
It's about half that many miles. Don't really like it myself, it's just because the event village, parking etc is all in Peebles but they want to include inners trails. At the EWS you had to cycle path it out and back, instead of doing the climb up to GT on the way back but at least then there was a GT day too. Not really that big a deal though and the wee kids lining the route that you could fool into thinking you were a real racer were awesome. HIGH FIVE!
As boring as it is & would be much nicer if you could do that transition off road
I am sooo jealous of my mates who are racing it this weekend
Ill happily take a few km of cycle path to enjoy the excellent stages & great atmos of thie race
NW. How do you manage to get from Peebles to the Golfie and Traquair and back in 7.5 miles when it's at least 7 miles drive from Innerleithen chippy to Peebles chippy if you miss last orders after a weeknight ride?
Guess those kids must've been only too happy to raise their new hero high on their shoulders and run back to Peebles with him sat astride his legendary Hemlock? Poor wee buggers. 😉
😀
Kimbers you don't need to race at all to do any of the stages any other time. For the past few months I've ridden down that way a couple of times each week after work and generally take in about an Enduro's worth of descending each night but nowhere near the amount of shit riding to get from one descent to another. I certainly wouldn't ever dream of riding from GT to inners on a mountainbike but have been known to drive between Yair/Thornielee/Golfie/Traquair/GT/Cademuir midride for a change of trail/scenery. Even with no entry you should have just gone with your mates. There's plenty great stuff to ride pretty much right next to the trails used in the race.
cheer up gweex
Google maps has inners to peebles at 7.3 miles by bike each way.
Kimbers you don’t need to race at all to do any of the stages any other time
Likewise Rude, Maes, Hill, etc could just go for rides with their mates & not bother with any of this enduro malarkey 😐
Tweeds awesome place to ride & I love it, but never ride it faster than I have when racing there
Long live enduro !
Pretty sure those guys wouldn't find it difficult getting an entry.
Just thought you might actually have enjoyed riding there this weekend too.
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<div class="bbp-reply-author">geex
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NW. How do you manage to get from Peebles to the Golfie and Traquair and back in 7.5 miles
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I don't but it's outbound only on the cycle path, then back to GT offroad on the climb up to the mast, isn't it?
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I genuinely gave some kid an autograph in the first EWS, (after cadging a lift back from innerleithen because I'd snapped a chainstay) He probably put it straight on ebay and made a fortune, I'm quite a big deal.
I think the cardrona kids highfived everyone, they were awesome.
I don’t but it’s outbound only on the cycle path, then back to GT offroad on the climb up to the mast, isn’t it?
Looks like the GT stage starts at the Fort, so it's back along the path to climb up Janet's Brae only.
I certainly wouldn’t ever dream of riding from GT to inners on a mountainbike but have been known to drive between Yair/Thornielee/Golfie/Traquair/GT/Cademuir midride for a change of trail/scenery.
Is it possible to ride from Inners to Thornielee without going on the main road all the way?
We'll be stopping in Inners soon and want to ride Thornielee but want to just dump the car once we're there.
Equally I'm not keen on riding up the main road.
Practiced Stages 1-5 yeaterday at Inners and Golfie. Trails are running dry and fast though Stage 4 (FEAR) is a little damp and struggled a little for braking in a couple of points - soz to the photographer I nearly took out!
Going to practice 2 or 3 stages again today and then do Stage 6. Really want to practice them all again but need to save some energy for the race.
Very jealous of the locals who get to ride this whenever they want... there's nothing as long and steep like this home in Cornwall!
Didn't know you were racing it oreana, enjoy !
I think you can get to Walkerburn from Inners off road, there's a path along the river side which is ok when dry, not sure what it's like when wet.
Awesome trails! Did 3-5 in the morning and then 1 and 2 in the afternoon. Some dodgy taping at the start of 3 meant I actually went down 3G at first so had a nice extra steep run to wake me up.
Going to do 6 this morning and probably 1 and 2 again this afternoon.
There was a great vibe in the village last night and it was great to beating pizza and drinking beer while watching the mini cyclo cross event around the tow centre.
Just praying the rain holds offf now... 😬
"Is it possible to ride from Inners to Thornielee without going on the main road all the way?
We’ll be stopping in Inners soon and want to ride Thornielee but want to just dump the car once we’re there."
Firstly. Wow Stu. You've quoted me and asked a direct question with no snidey remarks! This is progress. 😀
Secondly. Being Scotland and us having the "Go where you want, just don't be a dick" policy it is entirely possible to ride from most forests to the next without using roads. This doesn't mean it's the funnest way or most sensible but plenty folk seem to enjoy carting their bike over horrid terrain. (ie. straight from the Golfie to Thornielee - You can see Golfie trails from Thornie and vice versa so it's entirely possible and you can almost guarantee someone will have). I used to do this sort of thing but life's just too short now I'm old.
In answer to your question. You have a few options. The back road from Innerleithen DH car park goes all the way to the A72 roundabout down from clovenfords following the Tweed on the south of the river. You can see this road from Thornielee car park. The truly adventurous/brave could cross the river and head straight there. obviously you'd need a portable Kayak. Not being a fatbiker I'd ride leave my Kayak down by the coast where it belongs and just ride to that roundabout and back along the A72 for 2 miles. (it's 3-4miles from Walkerburn).
In my opinion (I know you have trouble with my opinions but I'll say them anyway) if Innerleithen is your base it would be a much nicer ride to climb from Inners car park up to the Southern Upland Way and ride East to Yair. From Yair you can ride to the same roundabout I mentioned above to get to Thornielee.
My true opinion is. Just drive. Inners has enough riding no matter how fit or good a rider you are you could ride new trails all day long on the longest day of the year until you colapse and you'd still not have done anywhere near everything there.
Yair has tons of trails (if you include the Selkirk side and natural trails) do them all and your probably talking 30miles of riding and somewhere north of 10000ft climbing. I usually do about half that in a loop at Yair.
Thornie has 6 main trails (and derivatives). I tend to go there and just do 5 climbs/descents. it works out somewhere around 12-14miles and 4500ft IIRC
There's actually still trails in Walkerburn too BTW
When are you up? We should meet up for a few runs. I'm down that way between 2 and 4 times a week anyway. I'm pretty sure we'd get along fine.
Geex.
Thanks for that advice most helpful.
In fact I'd go as far as saying I've noticed that you've been a lot more helpful on here recently.
I'm actually here now as it goes. The offer of a ride is also appreciated but as I'll be riding with Mrs stu i think you may get a bit bored.
If we see you out though I'll be sure to stop for a chat.
I think I know what bike you ride and as theyre not that common I think I'll know who you are.
Thanks Kimbers!
Practiced the bottom third of Stage 3 today plus Stages 4, 5 and 6. Had a silly OTB on Stage 3, wasn't feeling it on Stage 4 and only started to feel like I could ride a bike again on Stage 5. Stage 6 is short but fun, loving those final berms...could ride them all day!
Started thundering and raining as we finished Stage 6 so pegged it back to the house. Hoping the rain doesn't affect the trails too much 😬
Ended up free this afternoon at short notice so drove down to Inners and rode the Golfie for a couple of hours. rolled down one section of Offender, went back up and rode Aussie rules, something else I don't know the name of and finished off with ALF/Spanner just as the rain started.
It's mental how quickly an Enduro race changes a trail, A few new straight lines and a few blown out corners on offender but parts of ALF is almost unrecognisable from a week back. loads of schrapnel dragged down onto chutes and catch corners and loads crumbling edges if you end up wide/low. A shit load of hardtail braking zones will pretty much not slow you anymore. Oh... well either pinnit or binnit from now on I suppose.
There seemed to be little ettequate for sectioning/walking the track. I had to brake and squash the second double as you enter the woods on ALF as it was full of little Blue and Dayglow Yellow Ewoks stood on the track and only jumping out the way just in time. Maybe my fault for being an emo.
Are you and the missus racing then Stu?
Good chance I'll be out tomorrow too. probably avoid the Enduro this time though.
First time ever my bike had come back from inners covered in dust.
Geex.
Were just riding.
I've not raced since I stopped doing real enduros on bikes with enginse in the 90's.
I don't know about everyone else, but I thought the course and whole event was fantastic! Tough course and rain would have made it super tricky in places, but my mates and I all had an amazing weekend. Significant improvement in my result over the past 2 years which is nice to see although annoyed at myself for having 4 super clean stages and then having a silly off 10m from the finish on Stage 5 and then dropping it in one of the brilliant berms at the end of stage 6 after having ridden them cleanly 4 times in practice but that's racing and fatigue for you!.
Well done all involved - roll on 2019!
I'm in agreement with you Hughjayteens. A superbly organised race worthy of the title 'British Championships' incredible trails, superb weather! couldn't have asked for more.
Superb course. Very testing, but not ridiculous. I'm glad the weather held out, it would have been pretty sketchy in places in the wet for us mere mortals...
I didn’t race but I rode 3/4/5 today. They were super loose. Must have been fun... set the bar high for any future champs races I think with the excellent overall set up, and the size and technicality of the course.
Finally got around to posting up my race report from last weekend's race...if anyone fancies a read, take a look over on my blog 😀
Had a great weekend, although race result wasn't what I'd hoped...hopefully will make the long trip back again next year for one of their next races!
Geex.
Shame we didn't bump into you.
I'd have enjoyed a chat with you and you could have maybe given us a few more pointers on trails to ride.
Oh well maybe next time we're up. ( might be a little later in the year with any luck)
Got to say we happened to be riding back towards Inners on the cycle path as the event was finishing and some of the guys were right grumpy ****ers. Good job all the girls we saw and the other 75% of guys made up for the grumpyness by looking like they'd had a great day.
I smile and blether to pretty much everyone I see while riding. It does seem to take some of the more serious (and I don't mean fastest by that) riders by surprise.
#Enduroisseriousbusiness. #Lifestooshort
Give me some notice and i'll try and get down. I'm not free to ride every weekend but if not I can get down that way for about 4.30ish a couple of nights most weeks.
@orena45. Just read your blog. Good wee write up. I don't really understand the format of enduro but you described it well. So well infact it has pretty much confirmed I never want to do one! 😀
geex.
That's appreciated and I'll give you a shout when we're back up.
Got to say though we had a cracking week up there and all of the trails we rode were fantastic in the dry with the sun out.
I've struggled before on some of them when it's been pissing down and snowing.
Oh and riding to Thornielee was a stupid idea that we'll not be repeating...
Just a waste of energy along the main road from Walkerburn and back.
Ha ha Thornie is one of my favourite places to ride anywhere, any time of year, any weather and on any mtb...
We'll meet in the car park. In vehicles. Or I'll pick you up in Inners if needs be. 😉
Sound a bit suss to me with some of the trail names there.
I want to ride my bike not get dogged half to death.😨😉
Haha... Busted! 😀
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@orena45. Just read your blog. Good wee write up. I don’t really understand the format of enduro but you described it well. So well infact it has pretty much confirmed I never want to do one!
Ha, cheers 😂
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We stayed in Scotland for a few days after the race so I'm just catching up on stuff now. what a great race weekend, the stages we so much fun. I'm just getting around to sorting out all the footage from my gopro. but below is a link to my first few days in Scotland.