Cracking weekend at Kielder, loved the course, better than Ae, wet on Saturday but what a cracker today! Great laugh on the course, loved it. Midges are buggers though…..

Roll on Inners

Agree on the great event although really liked the Ae course as well. Had an ace day and great chat round the course with with the guy who started in front of me.

Stage 4 was awesome

Stage 4 was the best for me too. 1st event of this type for me. It’s the only racing I’ll be doing from now on. Great stuff 😀

Yeah, agreed that stage 4 was the best, put the gravity in enduro.

Totally new kind of racing for me and i loved it!! Wrong bike, wrong tyres. Holed a tyre, smashed a pedal, fell off on stage 5, finished and didnt finish last and still smiling!! Great fun, great banter and will be out there again. Cheers!

much better that Ae, course was a good mix of Gravity & Enduro!!

Hope there is at least 1 round with sunshine both days – I was through most of my spare ride kit again

Another good weekend – made all the better by the decent weather on Sunday!

Cool to see the organisers responding to peoples feedback, and thought it was a good mix of stages and terrain (although i wasn’t a big fan of the pedally stage 2 – it’s good that fitness is rewarded equally to technical ability)

Loved the natural stuff on stage 1 (notsomuch after the diversion), stage 3 was the least interesting, stage 4 as gnarly as ever, and stage 5 made good use of the bottom section/finish.

The events might not have all of the theatre of the Avalanche crew, but it definitely has the feel of a series run ‘by riders, for riders’

Thanks for the comments, really pleased you enjoyed it.
We are listening to your feedback and constantly looking to improve things, next task sort sign on to be quicker, so you get more time on your bike 🙂
Really miffed the FC made us alter stage 1, it was my favourite, but chatting to them on Friday we let slip video footage was on “youtube”, they then went away and watched it.
Midges were a bloody night mare, if we go back it will be earlier in the year to avoid the little blighters
Bring on round 3 at Innerleithen

Another fantastic weekends riding and racing. Disappointed that I won’t be able to make Inners, but looking forward to the other two rounds.
Good weather on the Sunday helped, loved stage 1, even with the diversion. Only one I didn’t really enjoy was stage 2 and that was down to that surface as much as anything.
Great work Steve, see you at Eastridge.

Yep – another top weekend’s racing. Good range of stages but Stage 4 (and the original stage 1) seemed to be everyone’s favourites. I like the little twists of Natural stuff thrown in too. And even the weather was playing ball yesterday 🙂 .

Great race format. Really looking forward to Inners now

Results are up Here for anyone interested

I agree yeah, was a great weekend… Stages were all good, 1 and 4 were my favourites as well.

Can’t beleive we had to pay £24 for camping though – on top of the £60 for the entry fee we already had to pay, and that it was no where near the sign on and event area…?

It was only £6 per person per night, bikewash and showers, didn’t think that was too steep.

Mr E, I’m guessing it was you that I rode round with as there could not be that many people that smashed their pedal to bits!

mr plow, I can only assume it probably was me then, 671 black Anthem. Still gutted that happened to the pedal but it was one hell of a hard landing, and even more gutted I didnt notice it until after starting stage 5 and not being able to clip in. S**t happens as they say! 😀
Just hope it was a photographer that was by there too, could make for an interesting picture!

Mr E – it must be you that knows my other half Nicky too. You still got a pretty good stage 5 time all things considered :).

Nice to meet you yesterday. I’ll be in touch re Eastridge.

Mr Plow – I didn’t realise it was you I was talking to with Mr E. I met you at round one as we compared disasters 🙂

Better weekend all round this time then 🙂

Rob does it again!

The main problem was not knowing that camping was not provided, it says on the website free camping for everyone – then does not specify which ones are free or not.

As it turned out the showers, bike wash, and everything was great.. The people who ran the campsite were great, and it made it really enjoyable, but don’t forget we had to pay extra for this, which does not justify the cost of the entry.

The stages, and event were great though!! Anyone know where to find the seeding results or any photos yet..?

For me it was a great event, much better than round 1. Although its amazing how much a sunny day makes a difference.

The Good:
The weather
Pub
Showers and bike wash
The natural stage had a good level of tech level
Stage 4 was a good level of stretch without being silly
Good bunch of people
Accurate timing and results posted next day

The Bad:
Some minor organisation issues (female numbering, sign on delayed)
Extra cost for camping (£16), but did give a couple of good points!
Some stage gaps still too big

Overall well done to the team and everyone that went. Now trying to decide on whether to do Innerleithen!

Craig

fbk haha small world, now I remember where I knew you from after the guy lost his saddle etc! Did much better at this one but got beaten by a girl by 3 seconds overall. I blame Mr E – it would seem I never shouted pedal hard enough! 😆 Really good laugh on the course and Mr E is a half clipped enduro sensation.

Aye, a really top weekend. Never done one before and no idea what to expect but really enjoyed it. Stage two was a bit too pedally imho, and shame that Stage one had to be changed last minute as the new section didn’t flow as well. A few registration/numbering issues and the seeding seemed a bit chaotic, but otherwise well run and will be back for more!!

Any photos around yet – loads of photogs out on the course?

This Guy was Taking Pics but nothing up yet Nothing on 4Roots & Rain either.

Nice to do some longer stages, found 2 narrow enough to make it tricky to go flat out. The field was much closer this time so reckon everyone got a good run at it (baring a couple of big times in there!!).

Nice to have some showers and proper crappers but wasn’t expecting to have to pay extra.

I think the lack of free camping was mentioned somewhere but perhaps not that obvious. Don’t mind paying – it all goes into the community, and decent showers make all the difference!

Just been looking at the results and entries on Roots and Rain … Think if (hopefully) the series is a success and they run another one next year – perhaps they could look at how the categories are set up.

In the first 2 rounds, the Masters cat has been the size of seniors and vets put together, with 35-50+ riders each… And the top Veteran (CCA) put in over a minute on the next fastest in category, with Rob Cooksley putting in equally massive margins on the second place Master.

Hopefully with a seasons worth of history and results the cats could be a bit more even next year – funny how seniors is a lot closer; experience can clearly count for a lot in this game.

mr plow, it was a bugger trying to get to the end of 4 to get out of your way with you shouting “pedal” at me, but I was so glad to get to the end, just nowhere on track by there to have got out of your way so yeah maybe you could blame those 3 seconds on me – but didnt you have a little slide off on 5 too? more than 3 seconds there maybe 😆

fbk – Its a small world aint it, 6 degrees of separation and all that. re Eastridge, that will be great, I need all the help I can get!

Still no sign of any piccies??

I only blame myself for my results as I am too pussy to push myself. One of these days.

There’s a race report on Singletrack front page which has a few pics and a youtube clip (in which my arse makes a quick appearance while chasing a couple of others down stage 4 ;o) Official photo chap reckons his photos will be up tonight on http://www.peterstevensphotography.com but there were loads of cameras all over the place so there must be plenty of photos out there somewhere…?

edit: Singletrack report updated with rider photos – 90% of which are rather average. Sorry, but it’s true… Mmost are of the rocky drop-in off the fireroad on stage 4 but rather than have the rider taking the drop they are of the rider pre-drop.

661 Gravity Enduro Round 2 at Kielder: Video & Pics

I’m wondering if Ian Linton was there on the Saturday – he took all the photos on roots & rain for the Ae round.

That said – I’m sure Oliver Coats was at Ae too, but he hasn’t put any pics up…

I think Ian was at the Glentress Seven on the saturday, usually he puts up reports of events he’s been at on his website and nothing for the enduro.

Pretty certain Oliver Coats wasn’t there either unfortunately. Fingers crossed for some good ones on the “official” site

Pics up at: http://www.peterstevensphotography.com/#galleries

Not great photos… there’s a lot to be said for having experience of shooting bikes, and realising that shooting a steep hill front on just makes it look flat

Shame…. I was sure there was a photographer closer to that drop on stage 4, maybe it was just a wide lens

@Northwind – yeah, i meant to say Sunday – thought he might have come over from Glentress

my mate Dan was at the Drop on S4 he posted a link in the Facebook group to his pics

my mate Dan was at the Drop on S4 he posted a link in the Facebook group to his pics

Really? Call me a numpty but I can’t find it.

reposted to top of facebook group

Just a couple of questions – Anyone know where the results for seeding are? They went up last time but can’t find them now..

Also, will the series points and standings be going up soon?

Cheers…

I guess RootsAndRain photographers wernt there as no pics have appeared.
Dan the facebook photographer wasnt at the big dropoffs in the trees, shame as I was really hoping to see some pics from there.

only pro was advertising there, he didn’t see the point of roots & rain, also not bothered by finish line shots really. STW pics were ok but not that good.

would have been nice to have seen pics of the rougher, more technical stuff, but cant have everything I suppose