British Cycling National Enduro Series

 

Whyte Enduro Round 2

Drumlanrig, 11 May 2008

Link: Report Cross-Country NPS Round 2

Report & Images: Joolze Dymond

Bluebells and hot sun - not a common combination north of the Border!

 

Despite some ominous thundering in the night a few light tinkles, the hardy competitors who came from near and far to take place in the second round of the Whyte Enduro series, where treated to a repeat the previous days condition's with blue skies and little fluffy clouds completing the scene.

What a setting! The spectacular castle and perfect weather!

The course for this event centred on a 12.5 km loop that linked parts of the XC course with some new unexplored sections of the estate. Riders could look forward to lots of singletrack snaking its way through alternating copses of Beech and pine, which provided some much needed shelter from the unrelenting heat.

 

If the riders could have ridden at less than break neck speed I'm sure they would have admired the beautiful setting they found themselves competing in. However this was an all guns blazing day, with plenty to be proved around a grueling course. Those that had chosen to ride full suss at this event found they'd made the right decision as competitors on hard tails suffered at the hands of the hard pack trail.

So in the shadow of the impressive castle, the first of the day's races got underway, with the 100km riders heading off first.

Felt riders Duncan Jamieson and Will Bjergfelt are both targeting the marathon races this year, with the National and World Marathon Champs big aims for both riders. With this in mind it was these two riders that set the pace, sprinting off the line trying to upset the apple cart before settling down to the task ahead. 8 long laps. Tucked in-between and looking incredibly comfortable and defiantly in for the long haul was enduro god, Nick Craig. Just off the back on a long piece of elastic was Craig's team mate Stu Bowers, not quite able to get on the coat tails of the riders in front but not being dropped well out of sight either, Bowers fought gallantly on.

At one time it looked like Craig might just be the filling of a Felt sandwich, and if you didn't know any better it seemed he might be out numbered. But Craig, cool as a cucumber held his ground skimming the rough stuff on his Scale, biding his time behind Bjergfelt's wheel. Two laps in and Jamieson called it a day, leaving the other 2 riders to fight it out between themselves.

Bjergfelt held the lead, not wanting Craig to get in front and open up any gaps, Craig was happy to sit on and chat away, you could hear them approach well before you actually saw them!

With 7 laps done, Craig sensed that Bjergfelt was starting to tire and took no second asking as he attacked on the final climb on the start of the last lap and basically went for gold. Relishing the fact that he had an open trail in front he rode a stunning last lap his second fastest of the entire race to take the win. Bjergfelt held on to take second while Stu Bowers completed the line up in third.

Despite suffering from sciatica, Sally Bigham proved to be the strongest rider of the day again in the women's 100km. Mel Spath, keen to make a better ride of it in the enduro to make up for her disastrous ride in the XC, quickly took the lead. Bigham came cold to the race having not previously ridden the course she spent a tentative couple of laps picking her way through the technical course. By lap 3 she'd closed back down on Spath and made her leave and headed for the front where she seems most comfortably. 6hrs and 19 mins later and she took the win, with Spath the only other lady to complete the full distance before the cut off time taking second just over 7 mins down.

Emma Bradley continued a fantastic weekend for her, by picking up yet another podium spot, taking third. Obviously riding 12hr enduro races has had no ill effect on Michael Powell as he rode to victory in the 100km vets race, boosting his confidence for the National marathon champs in 3 weeks time. John Fettis took second while David Hayward had a great battle with Steve Heading coming in to take third with less than a minute separating them.

Scott Rose took a surprise win in the men's 75km, coming after a hard race the previous day he was doubly delighted to have done so well. Phil Morris keen to make a weekend of it took second with a fast finishing Paul Smith taking third, just over 5 minutes separating the top 3 riders.

There was surprises to in the women's 75km race as Maddie Horton, who had to be persuaded to ride took the win, after a full on flight and chase race where she was pursued the entire race by Mel Alexander and Ruth Mordunt, catching glimpses of them in hot pursuit. However they failed to catch her and then it was a battle for second with Alexander taking that honour.

Gavin MacLean took the men's 75km vets race after leaving his rival Kenny Kentley who'd started the race ahead, in his dust trail on lap 2. He extended his lead to nearly 10 minutes. Kentley held onto second with Mike Milne taking third. Youth rider Ruby Miller continued her winning form by romping to victory in the women's 50km, with Carla Haines in second and Morven Brown in third.

Peter Buggle made up for being denied the top step in the Xc vets race the previous day by taking the win in the men's 50km. Youth rider Luke Gray continued his collection of second places with his? well second of the weekend! While expert rider Christian Aucote, fully hydrated by copious amounts of beer the night before did enough to hold of Ben Roff to take third.

Claiming her second win of the weekend was Debbie Burton who took a comfortable win in the woes 50km with Jan Holmes taking second.

Sublime singletrack and no mud!

The long drive was worth it for Worcester Cycles Stephen McGrath as he took the win in the men's 50km, while Mike Murray took second and Duncan Stuart took third. Course designer Rik Allsop, could be seen whooping it up on his own course as he rode to fourth spot in the race, proving you can never get enough of great trails? any excuse eh?! Another young lady who carried on her winning ways was juvenile Beth Crumpton, tripling her usual 8km race distance to 25km. She found the final few km's a bit tiring but she kept plugging on and took the win. Debra Mallet picked up second and Ann Edmonson took third.

Kenta Gallagher felt loads better in the 25km race and opened up another confident lead taking the win, leaving his two Scottish compatriots to battle it out behind him. Both Grant Ferguson and Mark Sinclair took the decision to cross the line together, and despite both recording the same time Sinclair was given second and Ferguson third.

The best feeling in the world - it's all over!

With the Lake District holding court to the next round of this series, it's sure to be a stunner. Make sure you get you're entries in now and make a fantastic biking weekend, taking advantage of some great trails and all the facilities you'll find at the NPS, loads of trade stands to get your shopping fix and some great grub.

Hannah Reynolds, left, whilst right William Bjergfelt leads Nick Craig

Post-Event Rider Feedback

Christian Aucote - 50 km third
I had a good ride, the weather was a bit of an issue, I took plenty of water put a reckon a lot of that went on my head as well as my throat. I'm pleased to pick up third after a hard race yesterday and few beers last night! I enjoyed the circuit it suits my riding style, they took out a lot of the rock garden sections and popped in a lot of open fire road, so the heat was even more of an issue today. I've never ridden here before and it's been fantastic, this is def on par with my other favourite courses like Margam, well worth the 7-hour drive. It's been a great weekend.

Kenta Gallagher - 25km
I felt better out there today than I did yesterday. I think the travelling gets to you so yesterday I was recovering from that. I rode steady and caught the front markers and made all my time on the technical sections again.  Another good weekend and well worth the travelling.

Ruby Miller - 50km
I was surprised with my result today; I didn't think I'd do that well. I wasn't that prepared for how long I was going to be out there really and I thought the other girls would be so much better. I just went with the boys again in the end, got past them got a bit of a gap and just kept it going. With 2 laps to go I tried to pick it up and keep on pushing. The last 2 laps just seemed to go on forever. It was good fun though. It made the travelling worthwhile doing the two events, a great weekend.

Beth Compton - 25km
I was shattered today, I only normally do 8km and now I've done 25, so that's tripled what I normally do. The first lap and a half I felt really good, quite strong, but from then on I blew I had nothing left, I just kept plodding along. I wasn't really expecting to win, I was just using it for training, but it worked out really well.

Debbie Burton - 50km women
It was worth travelling up from Folkestone for most definitely. A great ride yesterday and an even better one today. A brilliant course but it was a real killer today with that heat, it's a hard course on a hard tail as well you get shaken to pieces, we're not really used to the rocks and the roots it was just brutal, but fun!

Stephen McGrath -Vets 50km
That was brilliant out there today. I was working hard to get the win for Worcester Cycle centre. It was quite gruelling and quite scary in places but it was good. Great competition, I had a bit of a tussle apparently. I hadn't realised I'd passed the guy in front until he caught up with me after the race, he said he tried to stay on my wheel when I went past but he couldn't. That was quite good, I didn't even realise I'd past him! I was struggling on the last lap; it was brutal on the back. Definitely worth the journey but if had rained it might have been a different story.

Peter Buggle -50km men
I came into this from motorbike enduros' I guess the novelty had worn off from doing that for nearly 20 years, so I need a challenge so I've been mountain biking now for 6 years. I rode in Drumlanrig 4 years ago and it was so fantastic I was delighted to hear they were using it again, it's such a natural course so much fun to ride and this is the only opportunity we've had to ride, that we had to come over. Today was even better than yesterday. I've never ridden the enduro before I usually just do the XC and then go home. But yesterday I'd planned to ride in the Elites, but because this is a C1 race I wasn't allowed to race as I'm trying to ride the World Masters in august and the UCI won't allow you to ride C1/2 or national Champs as an Elite.  But a race is a race and we had a great one yesterday, Ian Nimmo won that and it was really close with just 4 secs in it. I was leading that until the last lap and got overhauled. I normally ride a full suss but was riding a hard tail here and I reckon that was not a great decision, a learning curve I guess. Everyone has been telling me I have to ride a hard tail if I want to do well, but it was brutal out there, I've never finished a race with blisters before on my hands. Had a great ride today went out with the younger riders it's great to see their little legs spinning they don't seem to suffer from lactate. Eventually they came back after 2 laps. It was a good race and the weather was fantastic. It's all good. This course is excellent it really is we've come up from Dublin to do this one and it's well worth the 5hrs drive and 2 hr ferry crossing.

Maddie Horton - 75km women
That was very hard; the heat was incredible and makes it even harder. Mel and Ruth were pushing me all the way, it wasn't until the last lap that I realised that I had dropped them. I kept seeing them as I came through the finish line to start my next lap, but it wasn't until the last lap that it seems we decided lets just ride round! It was a great weekend; yesterday was hard I wasn't quite right, it all felt wrong. But today made up for that. I wasn't going to ride today after yesterday's dismal performance, but I got up and got my bike out and did it! It's a long drive home now, but well worth it. I love it here, we've done this 3 times now and the course is always good and the suns out, bonus. It was quite challenging, but I quite like it like that it feels like you're doing a mountain bike race and not a road race.

Gavin MacLean -75km vet winner
That was a tough course, I rode here on one of the Scottish rounds and it's a great course I was happy to come over and race here again. It started to get really hard on the last lap, the roots and rocks just started to take its toil on my hands it shakes you about. I didn't go to hard at the start, Kenny (second) led for the first few laps, I went off steady and gradually got him back and pulled away a bit. I've not done the distance before and was starting to struggle but my times were consistent and that's what enduro riding is all about.

Scott Rose -75km men
That was fun but a bit of a shock to get the win. I really didn't expect it today; this is my first proper mountain bike race in 3 years, NPS yesterday and this today. It wasn't too bad but it was hot, the heat was the big factor today. It was cooking in places, I'm glad I didn't do the 100km. It was a bit quiet out there, I was holding second for a bit then the guy in front punctured so I put a bit of a kick in to get away from him and that must have broke him and I got the win.

Sally Bigham - 100km
I'm really pleased with that, it was really hard out there a lot more technical than what I've been used to which I was really intimidated about when I did a practise lap, I was terrified. I just amazed that I made it round, especially against Mel Spath; she's such a good rider technically. But I managed to pull away and got the gap.  Mel actually got a gap on my on the second or third lap as she is so technical adept, but I managed to get back to her by lap 3. I'd kind of relaxed by then, perhaps Mel was more relaxed in that aspect as she'd ridden the day before, but for me it took 2 laps for me to ride myself into the race. I really enjoyed the course in the end it was fabulous.

Michael Powell - 100km vet
I've ridden every enduro since they've started, I've been on the podium every time and today finally I got the top spot. So I'm really chuffed to finally get there. The only shame is that Pete Turnbull and some of the others couldn't make it. It was hard but I stuck at it and my lap times were pretty consistent. I pretty happy as normally I get lapped by the senior riders in the 8 lap race, but this time I held them off so I'm really chuffed with that too. This is an excellent course, I wouldn't say I'm one of the best technical riders out there but I really enjoyed and towards eth end I was thinking maybe I'm not so bad after all. With Margam in 3 weeks time this is a great confidence booster, so fingers crossed?I'm gonna have a good shot at that, the best man will win there it'll be down to pure fitness, so we'll see.

Nick Craig - 100km
It was a good course but a lot of hard work on the upper body, but its what it is, its bone dry, so we can't complain really can we. It's nice riding round with somebody, so me and Will had a ride round, he got ` little confused at one point, we passed somebody and they asked if it was 2 or 3 laps to go and Will said it was 2 so I was where has that other lap gone Will? I knew then he was starting to get a bit tired. Duncan and Will set off and a ripping pace so I just had to go with it and it did hurt, but I knew it would settle down. Duncan was fine for a lap or two and then he called it a day. I did try coming through to the front every so often but Will, I guess wanted the front spot as around here in the technical section you can see where you\re going. Riding on the Scott Spark made it so easy for me to ride on his wheel in the tech stuff no probs. Will is well up for it, but I had to show him a clean set of heels on the last lap and show him whose boss. I rode quite hard on the last lap and it was nice to see the trails and not Will's rear end. I reckon that ride was all down to the bike, I'm just the pilot, it's nowt to do with me? I'm not doing the whole series but when I do the competitiveness in me kicks in I can't help it, its fun.. I might even squeeze a xc race in somewhere?.

Will Bergfelt - 100km second
That was probably one of the toughest marathon races I ever attempted to do. Absolutely. The descents were super tricky, technical, every time I went down it was like I was doing a 100 press-ups, it was just so hard. Nick did a really great ride today; he's got fantastic form and the best man won on the day. I didn't want him to come past at any time I just didn't want him to open up a gap, I tried to hold him behind me as much as I could, but it didn't work. He kicked on the last climb on the last lap. But its all good training, I want to do well in the National Marathon champs and the Worlds later.

Mel Spath - 100km second
I had a better ride today than yesterday. Yesterday I just had a crap start I was on the start line with my bottle in my hand when the race started, so that was a stupid mistake. So today was much better, the weather was much drier not so humid, so you just felt better getting around the course. I liked the course it was very very nice but it was tough on a hard tail, it would have been better on a full suss. I can barely bend down now my back is in bits. This is a medium technical course to what we have in Ireland as it's a course you can ride all of, in Ireland you have more technical courses with you have to dab a number of times. I rode with sally for a lap then tried to get away in the singletrack as I had an advantage y riding the course yesterday, I got away but she got back to me and she had the power to go and once she knew the course she rode it a lot better.  That's the longest spin on a mountain bike I've ever done? It's so hard on your body, but I love it, especially when the courses are so interesting like this.

Emma Bradley- 100km third
A very good weekend for me third yesterday, which still hasn't sunk in, so it's been a cracking weekend. I was having so much fun in the race yesterday, sliding my back wheel round the corners and I was just having fun and doing my best which I did and got my first ever podium in a NPS, so it was ace. I was really tired today, my legs were fine but I was physically quite tired so the idea was to go out steady and try and maintain it. I have to thanks 2 men I guess Matt Hart my coach and of course Rob my other half, he picks me up after races and sorts my bike out and puts up with me.

Results

(Full lap-by-lap analysis in xls spreadsheet 100kb: Download)

100km - Women
1 Sally Bigham 06:19:13
2 Melanie Spath 06:26:49
3 Emma Bradley 06:16:10
4 Hilana Marais 06:36:57
5 Jac Strachan 05:45:20

100km - Men
1 Nick Craig 05:13:42
2 William Bjergfelt 05:17:54
3 Stuart Bowers 05:24:32
4 Ryan Sherlock 05:29:01
5 Daniel Lewis 05:45:38
6 Jay Horton 05:52:38
7 Darren Alexander 05:58:13
8 Adrian Scott 06:00:05
9 Mark Spratt 06:09:55
10 Simon Harrison 06:23:25
11 Martin Kitchin 06:36:55
12 Andrew Howett 06:54:07
13 Alex Kinvig 05:26:12
14 Neil Richardson 05:36:57
15 Daniel Goode 05:46:29
16 Karl Povey 06:13:30
17 Paul Kneen 04:14:27
18 Lloyd Bettles 04:30:00
19 James Hodge 06:04:13
20 Wayne Bennito 03:39:58
21 Chris Andrews 03:43:25
22 Alistair Crichton 04:27:24
23 William Milne 04:56:11
24 Drew Thomson 05:10:37
25 Jimmy Taylor 02:57:58
26 Peter Goode 03:04:54
27 Shaun Wells 03:05:22
28 Stuart Gilfillan 03:21:07
29 James Cooper 03:35:23
30 Adrian Clarke 03:36:22
31 Barry Daniels 03:48:05
32 Shane Lawton 03:59:28
33 Daniel Stephens 04:17:17
34 Duncan Jamieson 01:53:34
35 Norman Gillan 02:16:25

100km Veteran - Men
1 Michael Powell 05:50:58
2 John Fettis 06:11:47
3 David Hayward 06:21:40
4 Steve Heading 06:22:37
5 Tim Stowe 05:00:30
6 Alex Crawfurd 06:07:48
7 Pete Forsythe 06:55:43
8 Steven Lockhart 05:40:51

75km - Women
1 Maddie Horton 04:51:50
2 Melanie Alexander 04:55:00
3 Ruth Mordaunt 05:05:28
4 Hannah Reynolds 05:09:39
5 Fiona Walker 06:02:15
6 Sarah Collins 01:57:44

75km - Men
1 Scott Rose 04:11:45
2 Philip Morris 04:14:31
3 Paul C Smith 04:16:55
4 Philip Lenney 04:35:02
5 Chris Lever 04:44:12
6 Chris Hunt 04:45:22
7 Mike Jones 04:55:14
8 Christopher Mcconnell 05:12:35
9 Jeff Spetch 05:28:03
10 Martin Lenney 05:35:24
11 Michael Mallet 05:41:14
12 Robert Rowe 03:44:37
13 Steven Gray 04:26:22
14 Stephen James 02:14:11

75km Veteran - Men
1 Gavin Maclean 04:14:41
2 Kenny Kentley 04:24:37
3 Mike Milne 04:46:43
4 Peter Bromwich 04:52:24
5 Colin Murray 05:15:10
6 Peter Harris 05:26:14
7 John Gemmell 04:37:14
8 Paul Simmons 03:23:06
9 David Holmes 03:42:01
10 Paul Hesketh 01:51:04

50km - Women
1 Ruby Miller 03:16:16
2 Carla Haines 03:44:41
3 Morven Brown 04:06:50
4 Jane Edmondson 04:38:21
5 Louise Robins 00:54:20

50km - Men
1 Peter Buggle 02:37:21
2 Luke Gray 02:40:01
3 Christian Aucote 02:40:42
4 Ben Roff 02:41:33
5 Steven James 02:47:52
6 Paul Beales 02:50:51
7 Anthony Morris 02:52:40
8 Alex Paton 02:54:38
9 James Dalton 02:56:33
10 Scott Chappell 02:57:50
11 Michael Butler 03:00:43
12 Ewan Clark 03:03:37
13 Brian Harrison 03:11:46
14 Jon Marshall 03:11:52
15 Douglas Shearer 03:16:44
16 Nick Coley 03:18:26
17 Mark O'connell 03:18:50
18 Lee Eaton 03:23:23
19 Stuart Ormes 03:23:34
20 Mark Baines 03:25:37
21 Danny Coote 03:25:54
22 Lloyd Stevens 03:28:30
23 Andy Dolphin 03:38:13
24 Nat Jarvis 03:42:15
25 Andrew Shenton 03:51:10
26 Robert Bradley 04:05:01
27 Murray Hogarth 04:05:50
28 Tom Wright 04:21:41
29 James Gleave 02:53:00
30 Martin Reed 03:00:00
31 Brodie Gardias 03:23:33
32 Richard Hodgson 03:27:27
33 Stuart Filby 03:28:17
34 Chris Hobrough 03:53:00
35 Mark Allen 01:28:52
36 Stuart Summers 01:40:46
37 Ben Cornwell 01:44:48
38 Darren Carter 02:00:48
39 Darren Clarke 02:18:49
40 Gavin Perry 00:55:00
41 Darren Foy 00:59:19

50km Veteran - Women
1 Debbie Burton 03:36:50
2 Jan Holmes 04:48:47

50km Veteran - Men
1 Stephen Mcgrath 03:01:07
2 Mike Murray 03:05:59
3 Duncan Stuart 03:09:10
4 Rik Allsop 03:12:15
5 Martin Evans 03:12:58
6 Ben Capaldi 03:15:09
7 Lynn Lines 03:19:39
8 Craig Dolwin 03:19:51
9 Robert Allen 03:22:15
10 Dean Smith 03:33:26
11 Steve Whitehouse 03:44:28
12 Neil Taylor 03:48:58
13 Paul Beckett 03:49:28
14 Joseph Heywood 02:22:53
15 Rupert Turton 02:51:10
16 Tony Edmondson 02:16:50
17 Roger Baines 02:48:26
18 Sandy Wallace 00:46:03

25km Fun - Women
1 Bethany Crumpton 01:56:44
2 Debra Mallet 02:05:51
3 Ann Edmondson 02:14:05
4 Evie Burton 02:29:49
5 Alexandra Hawksworth 01:24:54

25km Fun - Men
1 Kenta Gallagher 01:13:51
2 Mark Sinclair 01:18:58
3 Grant Ferguson 01:18:58
4 Hugo Humphreys 01:20:19
5 Joseph Home 01:22:45
6 Billy Matthews 01:26:50
7 Jack Taylor 01:32:44
8 Alistair Rowland 01:33:11
9 Martin Turton 01:34:35
10 Damon Manning 01:39:10
11 Ross Green 01:39:39
12 Richard Scales 01:40:02
13 Mike Gregg 01:47:22
14 Howard Winder 01:48:56
15 Dan Whelan 01:49:01
16 Edward Mcparland 01:52:28
17 Ian Mcparland 01:52:29
18 Thomas Butler 02:08:15
19 Trevor Butler 02:10:51
20 Steve F Smith 01:15:50