I think someone has got upset that it was wet and slippy.
the riders who excelled in these conditions are basically the better riders anyway so trying to make excuses that they were beaten by a bunch of xc racers is just quite frankly sad.
the top finishers are basically good in all conditions and if you want to do well in UK Gravity enduro then you need to polish up on your wet riding skills as it rains quite a lot in the UK

Anyway, I’m wondering if people are complaining at it not being technical enough and not wanting to pedal, why not enter a proper downhill race?

Because they wouldn’t do very well in that either.

🙂

Is it Dan Atherton that does pretty well in enduro’s? He’s pretty rapid uphill as well as down I believe?

results and a write up are on pinkbike, mandy is third picture down. (the one after the cows arse)

be interesting to analyse.

dan atherton complained rd 1 was too muddy on a post race interview

so his absence was cause for everyone commenting that he wouldnt have been able to handle this round!

and some facebook banter…
https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/395683_10151359530595563_1122496497_n.jpg

🙄

The point is that it’s a race, and it’s the same for everyone and if you don’t do well, you go away and train your weaknesses or stop eating cakes and lying about in front of the telly.

I’m sure there are some kind of ‘challenges’ or ‘sportives’ that one could enter…

https://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fbid=403037849794486&set=a.139606929470914.27354.137986776299596&type=1&theater

Yep, looks XC to me 😉

Too much trail centre style riding for me there ,shame too many restrictions to do these events to get that more natural feel to them with the trails a d downs

Northwind – Member
pussywillow – Member
I expect a gravity enduro to be like the first stage
Which has a huge amount of trail centre in it! Not to mention a load of easy “dh” trail on the tunnel and make or brake which is no different to the trailcentre stuff. S1 was the second most trailcentry stage of all.
POSTED 1 HOUR AGO # REPORT-POST

Eh!?? Either u don’t know what the **** your talking about or u weren’t there lad!
Stage one was nothing like trail centre stuff! It was through the woods with nice rooty off camber lines, that to me is quite natural! Im not saying it was hard by any means, Ok so maybe there was a few berms been cut in but trail centres are the hard packed groomed manicured shite. Seen some of your posts before and u talk utter garbage lad. You always appear on here, I think u should spend more time riding yer bike than spouting shite u know nothing about over yer keyboard!

😯

Let me be the first to say, you come across as a bit of a pillock ‘lad’. I don’t know northwind, but he comes across as one of the good guys and is a very knowledgeable poster that posts a great deal of helpful and informed stuff on here ime.

As far as I understand gravity enduro in Europe have large pedal sections as does the mega. Your never going to be able to please everyone. I still think the best place in the UK for an enduro would be snowdon but that will never happen.

Easy tiger… Sounds like confusion between calling seeding ‘stage 1’ or ‘seeding’.

Either way, I was there. The only thing I’m disappointed in is that I wasn’t fitter or more skilled. No doubt it was a tough day out but for what its worth I thought there was a good mix of trails and I had fun. Most folk I chatted to had a good time too.

pussywillow – Member

Northwind – Member
pussywillow – Member
I expect a gravity enduro to be like the first stage
Which has a huge amount of trail centre in it! Not to mention a load of easy “dh” trail on the tunnel and make or brake which is no different to the trailcentre stuff. S1 was the second most trailcentry stage of all.
POSTED 1 HOUR AGO # REPORT-POST

Eh!?? Either u don’t know what the **** your talking about or u weren’t there lad!
Stage one was nothing like trail centre stuff! It was through the woods with nice rooty off camber lines, that to me is quite natural! Im not saying it was hard by any means, Ok so maybe there was a few berms been cut in but trail centres are the hard packed groomed manicured shite. Seen some of your posts before and u talk utter garbage lad. You always appear on here, I think u should spend more time riding yer bike than spouting shite u know nothing about over yer keyboard!

Mate i was on your side until you wrote that. As with everything opinions differ but it doesn’t mean yours is more valid than anyone else s. But having chatted online a fair bit to Northwind about the Innerleithen Day/Night enduro i entered a few months back i can say he really does know what he is talking about when it comes to racing down there and he really helped me out with advice on the routes and other info.

Anyway, I’m wondering if people are complaining at it not being technical enough and not wanting to pedal, why not enter a proper downhill race?

Exactly. And then still come last because you need to pedal in DH races too, just sprint style!

gravity Enduro – the race that keeps nobody happy, all of the time?

To Tech, not tech enough, to pedaly, not pedaly enough, too expensive, too silly, too everything.

I’m sick of all this the course didn’t suit me crap.

Get better at being an all round rider.

And don’t make excuses if your a one trick pony,

mikewsmith – Member
gravity Enduro – the race that keeps nobody happy, all of the time?

To Tech, not tech enough, to pedaly, not pedaly enough, too expensive, too silly, too everything.

and yet all the rounds sell out months in advance……..

one or 2 whingers on the internet dont represent the hundreds that come back for more each year!

Woahla,

Northwind hating?

Burn the bitch.

Edit. No edit.

Pussywillow’s right enough though, I was getting stage 5 and stage 1 mixed up 😳 Thinking of it in the order of timed riding rather than the order on race day (we did stage 5 first as it was the seeding run). Though his response is ridiculous, since I described stage 5 enough that it was a) obvious what I’d done and b) obvious I was there, but hey.

At the end of the day, if you don’t think yesterday was a proper enduro, you’re not likely to find one in this country. It wasn’t the best I’ve done but that’s a whole different thing. Give the endurance dh at fort william a go maybe? All on one track but you’re not going to go home complaining you’ve not had enough downhill. It doesn’t have much climbing but it’s a brutal test of fitness, brilliant day out.

cfinnimore – Member

Edit. No edit.

kimbers – Member
mikewsmith – Member
gravity Enduro – the race that keeps nobody happy, all of the time?
To Tech, not tech enough, to pedaly, not pedaly enough, too expensive, too silly, too everything.

and yet all the rounds sell out months in advance……..

one or 2 whingers on the internet dont represent the hundreds that come back for more each year!

True, interested to see how it has matured as an event.
It does seem that everyone would have won it if it was steeper, flatter, easier and harder 🙂
The idea is gaining traction over here in Oz too will have to see how it develops. The main issue is getting enough sets of timing kit (and helpers we run state DH with bugger all resources)

Poor pussywilly. Was a bit too hard for him I think… You’ve gotta be too fit for XC, too fast for DH, and Enduro just isn’t quite right either. Maybe you’re just not good enough?

Well the course didn’t suit me either pussy but I gave it me best shot, enjoyed the buzz too. Maybe chill out a little too
Think I’ll try downhill next time. 😀

Where did pussywillo place?

Even in DH you have pedal sections I’m pretty sure this is a DH course……

I think pussywillow is another members’ more reasonable alter ego 😀
This gravity enduro stuff seems to divide opinion doesn’t it? The FB page is a real bitch fest!

Its all about the all rounder!

Sounds a great race wish i could of been there!

http://m.pinkbike.com/news/A-Short-History-of-Enduro-2012.html

There you go op have a little read up you’ll see that it’s not uncommon to have climbs in the times sections and peddaly sections

I was at the Afan round in the mud this year and at Eastridge & Dyfi in the sun last year. There were similar complaints about stages at Afan as the weather was grim.
I had great fun at Afan, my fitness wasn’t a patch on last year and I’m useless in muddy conditions, but enduro is supposed to be a combination of MTB skill sets 🙂

If you look at other European enduro’s they will pull you out of the race if you’re off pace.

“I felt my hard earned skill in the first and last bit was let down by the lengthy xc bit inbetween, now I’m far from unfit but I haven’t the strength to power those sections where I think someone who’s fitter would gain so much more time by being quicker on the flatter xc bits, horses for courses but when someone who’s more a xc rider beats someone who’s more a downhill or technical rider on something that’s supposed to be a gravity enduro then I think there’s something wrong? I think a gravity enduro should be about slow technical skill with some proper hard tech bits mixed with fast downhill like the one on stage one, that would create a true test of biking skill and agility!”

So basically you expected a Gravity Enduro to be all downhill and no pedalling! Sorry to dissapoint you but it’s not! You have to be an all round rider to compete and do well at these events, and any weakness in your skills set ( for you xc ) will show up, we always blame the things we’re not good at. I suggest you go and train your weaknesses for a while. Definition of Gravity Enduro: Gravity assisted/resisted riding with Enduro length endurance required.
Regards the stages at Inners, many of the local “secret” trails could’ve been used but I really don’t think the locals want 350 riders pummelling them to death over the weekend. The stages used were completely in the essence of the discipline.
On a final note: The Megavalanche “Longest dh race in the world” has 450m + of climbing in it at altitude…. c

As far as I know, XC courses and DH courses aren’t all exactly the same either?

Sounds to me like the course was bob on for a proper mix. 🙂

Hi All
I really love all you people that hide behind an ALIAS and are “Keyboard World Champs”, yes this is aimed fairly and squarely at you “pussy whatever” or is it Sam Sharp?
I applaud your original comment, because we don’t want to see you trackside either, spoiling all the fun that the other racers have!
If any of you want to approach us directly, Myself and Charlie are always willing to listen, join the FB group or email through website.
Thanks to all who took part, I take my hat off to you for finishing the event in the horrible conditions.

^^^ 😆
It was very tame, that is all im saying, and I would like to apologise to northwind for my outburst, that I shouldnt have said! I guess I just felt let down by what I thought was going to be some good riding, never the less I hold my hands up and admit that I got it totally wrong thinking a gravity enduro meant nice steep techy downs that were timed, then a long climb back to the next stage.. I was totally wrong, its more like xc with trail centre descents, may the fittest man win! Dont get me wrong, Im far from unfit and do plenty plenty xc riding and have done lots of xc races too in the past but I went into this with the totally wrong idea about what a gravity enduro is, and thanks parr but I certainly wont be doing one again! Tbh with you maybe you should look into what people want as there were a lot of riders complaining, seems they all kiss arse on here though aye! 😉 £60 I wish Id have kept hold of! 😕

Well said!

My teammate was up there, just read his report and saw the pictures.

Well done to anyone who braved it and survived while I was getting leathered at a school reunion….. 🙂

My perspective on Enduro is that you need to be fast, fit, technically strong and also able to use your brain. Look at someone like Mark Weir – not the fastest downhill, very strong physically, but when you combine everything, the perfect all rounder. The best all rounder will place best at the end of the series – some rounds suit better than others, the top dog will make the most of each scenario.

Cheers mate. 😀

Where do normally ride pussy? If some of the classics on the Inners hill don’t register as ‘good riding’ then you must have some amazing local trails… And to reiterate, not wishing to kissarse, I never spoke to anybody who weren’t enjoying it. Let alone find any who were actually complaining…