Specialized Enduro 6 - Rider Reaction

29 April 2006 | Catton Park | Pictures Joolze Dymond

After the event, Joolze spoke to some of the riders and this is what they had to say about the event:

Robin Seymour - Endura/Vodoo/Singletrack
It was a fine race, however I made a bit of a mistake I rode with the pairs and didn't actually realise they were the pairs. I thought some of them were but didn't think they all were, as a result I pushed a bit too hard. I felt tired anyway before and didn't think I was riding that well.  After about 3 1/2 hours I was really struggling and went to pieces. I've been pretty busy over the last few months. Won the first round of the Irish Cross-Country series handily enough and done a bit of racing abroad so I've been around a bit already this year. It was a good course for racing on, it stays together, keeps the people together, otherwise people would really struggle and take their time. However it flowed well enough and that I think helps people really go for it. It's great to see so many line up and the atmosphere is brilliant. Top race.

Ian Potter - AQR
Good course, wish I'd had a short travel full suss though, it was hard work in places. Loads of good singletrack and overall quite challenging, yeah it was ace. Nicely organised. The wife is storming round as per usual (Mrs. Potter, is Kate Potter of the Specialized Starlets), I nearly caught her on the last lap, but she got away. It's good to see so many faces from AQR skills days, and good to see them putting all their hard work into practise.

Roy Hunt - Trek/SIS (pictured)
Well we had a good start. Young Phil, made the old man, me, do the run, then I punctured about a mile down the track so we must have lost about 10mins, so we've just been chasing, chasing all through the race. We managed to claw our way up to 7th in the end. It was a good course, sort of big ring all the way, fast, but you were on the rivet all the time, there wasn't much to get a rest on really. It's a good start to the season though I'm not sure what I'm doing this year. I'm torn between Cross-Country and Enduro, and then Amy is doing some World Cups, so we'll be out doing some shouting for her, so we'll just have to see, but I'll certainly be doing something.

Hannah Reynolds - Evans
That was hard work. I really didn't intend on doing solo today, I've had the winter off so not much training, then my partner pulled out on Thursday, so it was either not race or race on my own, so I raced on my own. It was hard. 6 hours is too much for your first race of the year, this might be my first and last if I don't recover from it!

George Budd - Beyond Mountain Bikes
I think it was quite good, I had a bit of a problem in the middle, I had cramp in both my legs, but I crashed in front of a masseur so that was quite handy. She sorted me out which was quite nice. It's a much nicer course than they've used before, this way round is much better. Lots of fun and excellent way to spend a Sunday, especially when you end up with a free on course massage!

Jenn O'Connor - Specialized Starlets
I lost a bit of time on the first lap, had a puncture and had to stop in the pits, which I hadn't planned on doing. It worked out fine, though I swapped bikes and did the rest of the race on the full suss, which was good as the course was very rough and towards the end I was really glad I had swapped. Pretty pleased with my ride today, consistent laps times everything went smoothly. Very enjoyable course, plenty of variety. I don't think my forms quite there yet, but it's early season and everything is going to plan, looking forward to peaking in a few months time for the Trans Alps.

Geoff Beetham - Magura
Yeah enjoyed it today, we were pretty comfortable throughout. It's really good having Carl to back me up, as he's so strong. This sort of course suits me; it's not too technical, really fast. Glad we won, but I'm sure there must be much easier sports out there? beach volleyball or something?.

Ian Wilkinson - Trek/SIS
It was a tight race. But with 2 laps to go I blew and Nick got away. Awesome course and lucky with the weather. It flowed, the climbs were good and the singletrack was awesome. This is brilliant training for the Premier calendar, good for your stamina.

Nick Craig - Scott (pictured)
Robin Seymour went off at a pace that I didn't think was sustainable, he got a gap of about 2 mins at one point and I remember saying to Paul Oldham, if he keeps pulling away he's welcome to it, he was obviously going well and there's nothing you can do about it, you know what feels right and you just ride. In the end he did blow up and not finish. Paul Oldham had a bad patch and basically it came down to me and Wilko (Ian Wilkinson) we were just calculating between us how many laps we'd have to do and it just worked out right. So we just went for it on the last two laps and I managed to pull away from him. We really enjoy these big weekends, most of the elite riders have also got full time jobs to hold down and don't get out much in the week, so these Enduro weekends are great training.

Stuart Bowers - Scott
There wasn't really a plan, I went out on the run with the aim of taking it fairly steady, it's early season and I've been injured over the winter, so I didn't want to go mad. Dave was doing the lion share today; his lap times were quicker than mine. Because I've not been racing as much as the other guys my change of speed just isn't there. We'll see how next weekend goes.

Sue Thomas - Massi
I like riding pairs at enduro's it's much more fun. You can go flat out for your laps have a rest and go out and do it again. I was a bit sceptical about the course at first, I'm a climber and like my hills, and the course is pretty flat and bumpy, but it was really good to race, really fast, some interesting lines you could take. I thought it was a top course for all abilities; the top elite riders can ride it really fast, but it was something that all abilities could cope with and I think that's really important in an event like this to encourage more riders to have a go.