Pictures are from
www.bikemagic.com |
Ross and I joined forces once again for the 2004
Enduro 6 mountain bike race held at Trentham Gardens in Staffordshire. We
had both been studying the weather forecasts for several days beforehand
with a mutual sense of foreboding but it was a relief to arrive at the venue
on Saturday afternoon to find warm sunshine and dry-ish trails. The format
for the weekend was to have a regular Cross-Country mountain bike race on
the Saturday followed by a one-lap individual off road time trial with a
difference…it was held at night. The main 6-hour endurance event was held on
the Sunday.
Ross had entered the Nocturne Time Trial and lined up
at 8.45pm with his helmet-mounted light blazing. He had a good lap, catching
his minute-man within a short space of time and finishing with a time of
35.55 for the 7.5-mile lap. For a while this put him in podium position but
by the time the other riders had all finished, he was narrowly edged out
into 4th spot. The 7.5mile loop in and around Trentham Gardens is tweaked
slightly for each different event but you tend to get the same elements each
time, just in a different order. The two monster climbs were there as was
loads of excellent swoopy singletrack and some technical rooty downhills
through the woods. It was a tough loop with few opportunities for recovery -
Trentham is a deceptive course and on the first two or three laps it’s easy
to blast round in a high-ish gear. After that, every lap becomes a trial of
stamina as riders use progressively lower gears to get up the slopes. Sunday
dawned grey and misty but by the time the race started at 10am it was a
lovely sunny day, almost too warm for racing. The Enduro6 is run under
‘parc-ferme’ rules meaning that each team of 2 riders is allocated a corral
area within a central ‘pit zone’. Once the race has started no one is
allowed out of the pit zone unless they’re on the course racing. Each team
must therefore have all spares, tools, food and drink within their corral
area.
The race began with a Le Mans style run of about 800m,
which Ross had already told me that he had no intention of doing. I got a
good start on the run, coming through into the pit area up in the top 30 or
so riders, collecting my bike from Ross and heading out onto the course.
From then on, we alternated laps, each of us averaging roughly 40mins per
7.5-mile lap. The course had almost completely dried out, with just the
occasional patch of sticky mud to slow things down.
The event is sponsored by Specialized who were
delighted to see a De Laune team, especially as we were both riding our new
team bikes, Ross on his hardtail, me on my new full suspension frame. By the
end of the 6 hours, we had done 9 laps, a total distance of 67.5 miles in a
time of 6.13.42. This put us into 24th place out of 113 teams. Not bad going
considering that the first 8 places were taken by teams of some of the top
elite riders in the country. The winning team had managed an astonishing 11
laps (82.5 miles) in 6.12.26.
A good result from De Laune and a great event, which
we both enjoyed immensely. Ross and I will be teaming up again for the 2004
Dusk til Dawn Race later in the year.
James Lyon |
