UK Gravity Enduro Series
After 4 weeks off the bike following my crash in France, I thought I should venture down to Eastridge forest for the 4th round of the Gravity Enduro series. The weather was beautiful and the trials were dusty. It was nice to be back on the bike. I took it cautious in places and finished the weekend with a respectable 7th place in the Elite category.
One month later, it was time for the final round of the series in Afan Forest…
I had already missed a round at Innerleithen when I was in Europe so I thought I best man up to the 11 hour drive and get a series result. When I arrived I was greeted with some pretty horrendous weather. The wind and rain continued to fall all weekend but the course stood up to it. Three stages (1, 3 and 4) were along fast, rocky, flat, gravelly tracks you would find at any classic trail centre. The last stage (also used for seeding) had a lot of pedally, muddy field sections that finished on the 4x track. All the aforementioned stages were not that inspiring but stage 2 was an absolute beauty. It started on a fast land rover descent which turned off onto a freshly cut trail through the woods. It was carnage. A big muddy rut spread across the track exposing thousands of shiny white death roots. I couldn’t wait to race that stage!
After practice on Saturday we all did our seeding runs. I was the 2nd fastest Elite rider just behind Gary Forrest.
Sunday was race day. It is always quite a sociable fair because there is plenty of time for the riders to get between stages. No one knows their stage time results until the end of the day so it is also good fun playing mind games with the opposition. Stages like 1, 3 and 4 don’t seem to suit me but I really enjoyed stage 2. Riders get set off at 20 second intervals and after about 1 minute of riding I had already caught up the man in front of me. Since the course was so narrow I lost time trying to overtake but I could soon see the next guy down the road. When I got to the finish I felt pretty chuffed with myself until I saw Gary Forrest appear not far behind. That man has some serious skills.
At the end of a long wet day it turned out that Gary Forest had took the win and I had finished in a satisfying 3rd place. After adding up all the points for the series then that result makes me (according to my calculations) the 5th fastest Elite Enduro rider in the UK. Considering I punctured at Ae forest and was injured for Eastridge then I feel quite content with my achievement 
Posted by James Shirley on September 30, 2011 at 5:33 pm | Race Reports