661 Gravity Enduro RD1 Ae Forest

The inaugural 661 UK Gravity Enduro series kicked off on the first of its 5 rounds this weekend. While the format is not brand new to the UK, this is the first full series; the previous races have been part of the Europe wide Avalanche Cup series. The main faces behind it are ex NPS organiser Steve Parr and Uplift Scotland’s Tally, with the first round being hosted on his home stomping ground at Ae in Dumfries. The format is best described as similar to a car rally, with 5 timed special stages linked with joining stages which while not timed have time limits to get you to your next stage, the idea is that between the stages all bike skills are tested, with some being pedally and others, in the instance of Ae, being near full on DH runs. The bike of choice was a 5”-6” travel bike, we took our Trek Remedy long term test bike and it was spot on, though we saw folk there on everything from full on DH bikes to XC hardtails.

At Ae the course was based around the Ae Line XC route, it kicked off with a half hour or so climb up the DH uplift road to stage 1 which ran down The Shredder freeride track and onto the bottom half of Omega Man. From there it was a short hop to stage 2 which was the climb of Rab’s Slippy One run in reverse with one off piste excursion down a short mud chute. While probably the least challenging stage technically, it tested your legs, lungs and eyes for the numerous cheeky racers lines through the various switchbacks. Stage 3 ran down Granny Green Luv and involved a minute or so of hard pedalling along the first part of the trail before starting to gain a bit of gradient from about halfway through as it drops through a number of rocky berms to the bottom of the valley. From there a long link stage took riders to Stage 4 which ran part way along the Edge trail, thankfully this stage was cut much shorter than when the Avalanche Enduro was run here a and the stage went the whole length of the Edge trail, taking in several short sharp climbs and took 7-8 minutes. Although shorter this time, stage 4 still involved some slight uphills and plenty of flat to keep the legs ticking over. After a long (though not quite as long as the 1:45 allocated by the organisers) link to stage 5 the downhillers and more technical riders got their own back for the pedalling through the day with a run down the Ae downhill track. Even with the major features such as the coffin and the step down taken out, it was a major technical challenge for most in attendance, even more so with the torrential rain leading up to the event and over the weekend itself.

During Saturday practice it was stage 5 which was the biggest talking point. While the downhillers were having few issues it was pretty obvious that it was a much bigger challenge than many riders had been anticipating of the event. In the dry it would have been fantastic but in the wet it was pretty challenging on the mid travel bikes that most were running. There was even a couple of folk I heard of who headed home after Saturday practice as a result and some who during their race chose to skip the last stage altogether. Was it too much? I’m not sure, I think it’s hugely important that events are pushing the skill level of riders but I got the general feeling round the pits that the “average rider” was put off by it a little, yes most of them survived but for many it was a stage of attrition rather than setting competitive times which seemed to irk those who had come to race, many for the first time. On balance I’d say that given the weather conditions a few tweaks wouldn’t have gone amiss, though I know that most DWR readers that were there will probably disagree, but then you’re all at the upper end of the skill range!

 

 

The now infamous stage 5 was also the Saturday qualifying stage, while the time on the Saturday did not count towards your overall it acted as seeding for the Sunday. As you would expect it was the gravity riders that came out on tops with Neil Donoghue and Helen Gaskell taking the Elite top spots, Tim Pearson in Senior Mens, Nigel Page Masters, Crawford Carrick-Anderson the Vets and Carrie Pool down as the only senior woman sub 4 minutes. Interestingly there was only 1 entry in Junior and Youth, is this a race for oldies only?

Race day dawned absolutely torrential; in fact on the drive through Moffat en route I have never seen rain like it! Most of the stages being trail centre terrain this made little difference though it added to the Stage 5 challenge (not that yours truly would know having binned it halfway through and DNFing!). The Elite Mens field was pretty stacked full of high quality UK DH talent, it was great to see for a first year event. Neil Donoghue followed up his qualifying win with a dominant overall win and almost took a clean sweep of stage wins aside from Gary Forrest’s win on stage 3. It would have been interesting to see more than just elite downhillers giving it a bash though, surely there must be some technically gifted XC elites out there that could give it a good go, or better still get some of the Enduro specialists such as Remy Absalon, Ross Schnell etc. Helen Gaskell took the women’s from Sarah Newman and Bex Reilly. It was Rob Cooksley that took the standout performance of the day though, winning masters and overall in a time 5 seconds quicker than the Don! Other category winners were Alex Rafferty in Senior, Crawford Carrick-Anderson in Vets and Carrie Poole in Women’s. Not forgetting the sole young uns of Matthew Scott in Juniors and Adam Hughes in Youth.

All in all it was a fantastic start to the series, indeed the whole concept in the UK. There were a few tweaks that could be made such as making the transition stages a little more challenging, 3-4 and 4-5 were way too long but the organisers acknowledged it and hopefully will tweak for next time. They could also order the sun for that off camber section next time round, I think that’s the one that the majority in attendance would thank them for!

Words by Doug Cook
Photos by Ian Linton
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