Anyone else doing the King & Queen of the Hill (Scottish Open) Enduro

Penalties would be harsh. We had a minimum of a 10 minute queue at every stage

The guy with the broken frame was riding a 09 Meta 4x. I was marshalling at the bottom dib station of stage 4. I saw him go past on the climb up and was surprised to see one as I used to have the same frame and its not ideal for big days out in the saddle. Given my position on the track I could easliy tell the riders who were pinning it, by the way they tackled that last root/drop/corner section. Now fair play to that guy because he came down that section really fast I could not believe my eyes when I saw the frame, he should have got a prize for bravery/insanity in even attempting to ride that down stage 4

Had an absolute blast the whole weekend , loved it 🙂 …although I did drop my oakley racing jackets at the bottom of stage 2 only for a car to drive over them, pleased with my overall finish time, great days riding 😀

Big queue at stage 1, 2 and 4 but only had three folk in front of me at stage 3 in the queue. Left at 10.40ish I think, got round in 3hr 32mins and 50sec’s so my little slip told me. That’ll do me, was aiming for 3hr 32mins and 52sec’s. Smashed it!

I think the aim is to get fast stage times coogan! 😉

Hopefully he got round safe – I only noticed him at first as he was pretty much sprinting up the hill out of the saddle, good effort that man!

I treated as one big stage. Eye of the tiger etc. 😡

Awesome weekend slightly tarnished by competitors that were an absolute shower of shite on Saturday. Bikes left all over the trails, people pushing up trails with no thought for riders coming down and people standing in massive groups on the fireroad crossing between the tape. Disgusting behaviour, some of it in my eyes should have been a DQ. No thought for anyone but themselves. Idiots.

http://www.trailscotland.co.uk/whyte-tweedlove-enduro-report/ There you go

Awesome weekend slightly tarnished by competitors that were an absolute shower of shite on Saturday. Bikes left all over the trails, people pushing up trails with no thought for riders coming down and people standing in massive groups on the fireroad crossing between the tape. Disgusting behaviour, some of it in my eyes should have been a DQ. No thought for anyone but themselves. Idiots

My brother came up with me to spectate , one thing he did mention was at the bottom of first fire road crossing on stage 2, there were apparently quite a few “local” riders taking a short cut, the lady marshalling knew and turned a blind eye to it.

@monkeyfydger.

I had a big off on stage two by the drop, was just gathering my thoughts as I was dazed after hitting the rather large tree head on, a very nice lady was helping me recover as it was a big stack, next minute some numpty shouted ‘rider’ then flew past inches from me, needless to say myself and the lady helping me were pretty pissed.

“No thought for anyone but themselves. Idiots.”

yeah that’s a bit different endurokid. He’s talking about the fannies wondering about the place ‘checking their lines’ and the like.

Also, with un-marshaled practice would the rider definitely have see you or have been warned on approach anyway?

@legend.

In hindsight, he may not have seen me, but others did. He came flying past so I guess he didn’t stop to check his line.

Either way it was a great weekend, but with so many riders on the trail congestion is too be expected.

but with so many riders on the trail congestion is too be expected

It really isn’t. Go to a DH race, 300 riders on the same trail (not spread around 4) and you wont see behavior like that. If you’re not actually riding down the trail you should be the hell out of the way.

WTF, he’s not smiling!? https://www.rootsandrain.com/photos/767490

*confused* 😕

My brother came up with me to spectate , one thing he did mention was at the bottom of first fire road crossing on stage 2, there were apparently quite a few “local” riders taking a short cut, the lady marshalling knew and turned a blind eye to it.

I saw some people doing this as well. It is fine to do in the practice, but on race day in most races not sticking to the course results in disqualification.

That said, the same thing happened the year before, so I am not sure if anything is going to change.

That was a bloody brilliant race weekend! Stage 2 has got to be the most fun race stage I’ve done anywhere. Slippy but it always catches you. Category win and 12th overall to top it off as well. 🙂

Legend – he’s not smiling cos he was absolutely done in by that point on stage 4!!!!! 🙂

Anyone know who was taking all the pictures during the day? Know there is a link above, any others?

I’m not sure who but there’s already about 1000 up on roots and rain, I’d imagine there’ll be a lot more to come as well.

first ever enduro for me !
NO broken bones
no broken bike

lots of fun and sweat on the way with only a bruised ego after arse over tit moment on stage 2 before the dude with cow bell .
great fun and will probably do it again next year
not really competitive but was surprised that there were a hundred odd riders slower than moi !

Serious question, Having never watched an enduro, I would really like to know how you manage to race the top section of stage 1, I really can’t see how you can ride fast, when it is that tight, damage limitation surely, educate me please.

you just go as fast as you dare! this was my first race too and that section was a right eye opener! had to lie down at the end, was ****!!

Not pushing your bike down would have netted you a better time than about 50% of the competitors by the look of it, not falling off another 20%. After that it’s all about how good you are at making motorbike noises.

That’s the thing isn’t it, there was a quote from the EWS where a pro guy said on the really steep tight stuff, when you tried to go fast and race, you just ended up hugging a tree, it was better just to ride with a little in reserve, as if you were not racing, you ended up quicker.

Monkeyboy I guess you were one of the locals that had it totally wired!.

I just kind of bounced down stage 1 and just about managed to stay on the bike . It was the bottom of 3 i made a right mess of , it was really hard to get going again once you stalled . I must admit to being a bit of a regular on red trail center routes so these were a bit above my level but I loved the whole weekend and will be back next year .
I also have a total respect for those who did the EWS , with practice and 2 days of racing that must of been really tough

On things like the top of stage 1 it’s just thinking about where you need to brake and where it’s unnecessary and just comfort braking. So for lots of it, you could let off a bit on the straights, but then brake really hard for the switchbacks.

It was the bottom of stage 1 that I was having more problems with. I’m on 750mm bars and I clipped 3 different trees with my bar ends caps. I don’t posses Joe Barnes’ ninja skills.

Stage one it awesome. Loved it. Loved it last year too. It’s the second section of Stage 1 that I love the most. Mucho fun!

I didn’t race it that is why I asks, I rode yesterday, the top was a little bit of a shock to the system, by the time I got to that great bottom section, I was in the groove a little more.

Was this year’s Stage 1 last year’s stage 4?

Yep.

I really didn’t think stage 1 was very technical, but I’ve done a lot of that type of riding this year. Got down just outside 5 mins and thoroughly enjoyed it. Lost time at a few places but can’t worry about that. It was nice flowy fun riding. Every steep section had a grip point right after it so all you have to do is look as far ahead as you can, relax and brake less.

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I also have a total respect for those who did the EWS , with practice and 2 days of racing that must of been really tough

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I did 15 miles of practice and 20 miles of racing on the Sunday and I was way more burst than after 100 miles in 4 days of practice and racing at the EWS. The time limits on the Sunday were the tightest I’ve experienced. We had virtually no rests other than the queues at each stage and we were still at the time limit. 4,200ft of climbing in ~10 miles was horrific.

I did 15 miles of practice and 20 miles of racing on the Sunday and I was way more burst than after 100 miles in 4 days of practice and racing at the EWS. The time limits on the Sunday were the tightest I’ve experienced. We had virtually no rests other than the queues at each stage and we were still at the time limit. 4,200ft of climbing in ~10 miles was horrific.

Ive been feeling pretty burst since the weekend, only starting feel normal again 😕

Was I the only one that thought the EWS time limits were fairly relaxed then?

Really fancy doing the Scottish round of the EWS in 2015 but I’m worried it might be beyond my capabilities both in terms of technicality and fitness. To date the longest Enduro races I’ve done have been last year’s King of the Hill and this year’s ‘Ard Rock, I really enjoyed both those events. How do they compare with the EWS?

@Simon
I did the EWS and K/QOTM. I couldn’t get the time off work to do all the EWS practise days, so only rode Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The extra practise days would have really helped! In terms of fitness, I found the EWS (E2 category) was really relaxed on cut-off times. The days were long but I stopped both days for a leisurely lunch and was definitely treating it as a social event. I never struggled to make start/finish times. By contrast I felt a bit pushed for time in KOTM. In the end I finished with a good margin to spare but that was with just a few short breaks.
The big challenge of the EWS was the technicality of the stages. In my opinion there was nothing in KOTM that came close to the difficulty of the EWS stages at the golf course. I had no problems last weekend (apart from a great tumble over the stage 2 drop which I’d cleaned with ease the day before) but I don’t mind admitting I really struggled on the EWS. Having said that, I can’t wait to do both events again next year!

Cheers, that kind of confirms what other people have told me about the EWS 🙂
Think I could deal with the distance and riding 3 or 4 days in a row it’s the steepness and technicality of the stages that worry me!